Family cars' life cycle cost estimation method based-on CBR and data warehouse

Abstract

Design for cost (DFC) is a method that reduces life cycle cost (LCC) at design stage. From the angle of DFC, family cars' LCC data warehouse was established. It includes 300 thousand plus records about 3500 car models in last 26 months. Car's body structure, exhaust quantity, engine type, size(length, height, width), weight, transmission type, maximum speed, maximum power, maximum twisting moment/ torque, actuating feature, fuel grade, wheelbase, listing year were included in the data warehouse. Gasoline price and car's price were also included. At conceptual design stage, cars' LCC were estimated using case-based reasoning (CBR) method. Using decision tree classification algorithm based on information entropy sort cars' attributes value. Then using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), weights of cars' attributes are obtained. Finally, an example was given. Canberra distance and weights algorithm were used to measure the similarity among those cases. It is meaningful for raising estimation accuracy.