Overhead Costs Research Articles

Realization of quantum signal processing on a noisy quantum computer

Quantum signal processing (QSP) is a powerful toolbox for the design of quantum algorithms and can lead to asymptotically optimal computational costs. Its realization on noisy quantum computers without fault tolerance, however, is challenging because it requires a deep quantum circuit in general. We propose a strategy to run an entire QSP protocol on noisy quantum hardware by carefully reducing overhead costs at each step. To illustrate the approach, we consider the application of Hamiltonian simulation for which QSP implements a polynomial approximation of the time evolution operator. We test the protocol by running the algorithm on the Quantinuum H1-1 trapped-ion quantum computer powered by Honeywell. In particular, we compute the time dependence of bipartite entanglement entropies for Ising spin chains and find good agreements with exact numerical simulations. To make the best use of the device, we determine optimal experimental parameters by using a simplified error model for the hardware and numerically studying the trade-off between Hamiltonian simulation time, polynomial degree, and total accuracy. Our results are the first step in the experimental realization of QSP-based quantum algorithms.

Financial Development Analysis of Economic Growth in ASEAN

This study aims to analyze the effect of domestic credit to private sector, bank overhead cost to total assets, stock prices volatility and loand net bank to GDP on economic growth in ASEAN, research countries include Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam during the period 2001-2020 by applying the panel equation analysis method. An important finding in this study is that domestic credit to the private sector has a negative and significant impact on economic growth in ASEAN, while bank overhead costs to total assets affect economic growth positively and significantly in ASEAN. Furthermore, stock price volatility affects economic growth negatively and is significantly influenced in ASEAN and net bank loans to GDP affects economic growth positively and significantly in ASEAN. This study recommends that policy makers need to seek appropriate economic strategies to increase economic growth from the aspect of financial development.

Location Aware Beamforming in Millimeter-Wave Band Ultra-Dense Radio Access Networks. Part 1. Model of Two Links

The evolution of 1G to 4G radio access networks (RANs) over the past 40 years has shown that beamforming (BF) capabilities add an additional spatial dimension to traditional device multiplexing methods. When base stations (gNodeB - gNB) and user equipment (UE) form narrow antenna radiation patterns (APPs), in addition to frequency, time and code division of channels, an additional spatial dimension appears that implements spatial multiplexing. This concept has been known for quite a long time, but the full implementation of its capabilities in practice is expected with the widespread adoption of millimeter wave (mmWave) ultra-dense networks (UDN) of the fifth (5G) and subsequent (B5G) generations. To control APP, the approach of preliminary analysis of training sequences about the current situation in the radio channel - CSI (Channel State Information) - can be used, but its overhead costs become unacceptably high in conditions of ultra-dense distribution of devices. An alternative approach is positioning-based BF. The validity, relevance and prospects of this approach are determined by the fact that for 5G networks, unlike previous generations, for the first time the requirements for UE positioning accuracy up to one meter are formalized. Initial research in the field of location-aware BF has already been carried out over the past years, however, mainly for particular scenarios of one or more radio links between gNBs and fixed UEs. In this work, for the first time, a scientifically based methodology for controlling the beam pattern of a stationary gNB based on the positioning of a mobile UE for a two-radio link scenario is formalized and implemented in software. The problem of practical implementation of BF is the difficulties to predict level of interference due to the mutual influence of radio links with mobile UEs. When estimating the instantaneous signal-to-interference ratio in a two-radio link scenario between two fixed gNBs that perform BF based on the current location of mobile UEs as they move, it is necessary to take into account the mutual influence of each other's radio links on each other. In such a scenario, a transmitter on one radio link acts both as a source of a wanted signal for one UE and as a source of an interfering signal for another UE. The task of assessing interference for such a scenario is complicated by the nonlinearity of the transmitter and/or receiver ARPs. The model developed and implemented in software in this work uses the functions of the Phased Array System Toolbox Matlab extension package. The simulation results show a significant scatter (tens of dB) of the instantaneous signal-to-interference ratio depending on the territorial separation of devices and can be used to justify scenarios for the construction and operation of 5G/B5G UDN.

PENERAPAN TARGET COSTING SEBAGAI ALAT BANTU PERENCANAAN BIAYA PADA UMKM KEBAB BATUBARA SANGATTA KUTAI TIMUR

The purpose of this study is to analyze the application of target costing to reduce production costs so that the profit of MSME businesses can be increased. This research was conducted at UKM Kebab Coal, Sangatta, East Kutai. The type of research used is descriptive quantitative. Data collection methods are interviews and documentation. The results of the study show that applying target costing can reduce production costs incurred and increase profits. Where before implementing target costing the production costs incurred amounted to Rp. 6,771,500 but after the target costing concept was applied production costs could be reduced to Rp. 7,883,583.33, while the expenditure was greater due to business actors / MSMEs previously not calculating overhead costs in calculations production cost

Efektivitas Penetapan Harga Jual Produk dalam Meningkatkan Volume Penjualan Pada UMKM Pabrik Tahu Barokah

This study discusses the effectiveness of product selling price determination in increasing sales volume in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (UMKM) Barokah Tofu Factory in Bube Baru Village. The main objective of this study was to determine the level of effectiveness of setting the selling price on sales volume at the UMKM Barokah Tofu Factory in Bube Baru Village. The research method used is descriptive quantitative. Data is collected through observation and documentation. The results of this research show that setting effective selling prices can increase sales volume at the Barokah Tofu Factory UMKM. The analysis results show that raw material costs, labor costs and factory overhead costs play an important role in determining selling prices. In addition, the determination of gross profit must be effective so that it does not have an impact on setting selling prices that can be reached by consumers. In the context of the Barokah Tofu Factory UMKM, this research concludes that effective pricing can increase sales volume. The implications of this research provide guidance for similar UMKM in optimizing their selling price setting to achieve an increase in sales volume in achieving the organization's vision.

Perhitungan Harga Pokok Produksi Dengan Metode Full Costing Pada Umkm Budidaya Ikan Mas Koki “Nanda” Desa Pagersari, Kecamatan Kalidawir, Kabupaten Tulungagung

The use of the full costing method in calculating the cost of production is more precise and accurate. This is because the full costing method includes all detailed cost components for the production process. This study aims to analyze the comparison of the cost of production according to the UMKM Nanda Goldfish and the calculation of the cost of production according to the full costing method. The data used in this research is primary data. The method of data analysis technique used is a qualitative descriptive analysis method. The contribution in this research is to help the UMKM Nanda Goldfish to get the right calculation of the cost of production. The results showed that the calculation of the cost of production using the full costing method was higher than the calculation of the cost of production using the UMKM Nanda Goldfish method. The results show that the calculation of the cost of production using the full costing method is Rp. 1,066 and the calculation of the cost of production is using the UMKM Nanda Goldfish method which is Rp. 543. This is because the UMKM Nanda Goldfish/1only includes direct material costs for seeds, labor costs, and electricity overhead costs. Without including feed raw material costs, vitamin overhead costs, pharmaceutical overhead costs, plastic overhead costs, and oxygen overhead costs.
 Keywords: Cost of production, Full Costing Method

Corporate Overheads and Operational Performance of Brewing Firms in Nigeria

The study examined the effect of corporate overheard on the operational performance of firms in the Brewing Industry in Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study were to ascertain the effect of sales and marketing expenses, administrative expenses, and company income tax expenses on earnings per share of breweries in Nigeria. The study adopted an ex-post-facto research design, covering the period between 2015 and 2022. Secondary data were extracted from the annual reports and accounts of sampled breweries in Nigeria. Multiple regression techniques were used for test of hypotheses. The findings of the study indicate that sales and marketing expenses, administrative expenses, and company income tax expenses do not have a statistically significant effect on the earnings per share of breweries in Nigeria. These non-significant relationships suggest that variations in these expenses do not significantly impact the profitability and financial performance of breweries in terms of their earnings per share. These findings highlight the need for further exploration of other factors that may influence profitability in the brewing industry in Nigeria. The study therefore conclude that corporate overheads does not significantly affect operational performance of breweries in Nigeria. The implication of the finding is that there is a need for breweries in Nigeria to consider a broader range of factors beyond the studied expenses to enhance their profitability and operational performance. The study, therefore, recommends that breweries should consider incorporating additional financial performance indicators, such as return on assets, return on equity, and gross profit margin, to gain a comprehensive understanding of their financial performance and identify areas for improvement. In addition to financial indicators, breweries should focus on non-financial factors like product quality, customer satisfaction, brand reputation, and market share, as these can significantly impact profitability and overall competitiveness. Breweries should analyze all aspects of the value chain, including production, distribution, procurement, and overhead costs, to identify opportunities for cost optimization. Managing cost drivers effectively can improve cost efficiency and enhance financial performance.

A Secure and Efficient Two-Party Protocol Enabling Ownership Transfer of RFID Objects

Modern business models improve the efficiency of supply chain management by attaching tags to products. These tagged products typically change owners multiple times during their life cycles. The ownership transfer protocol authorizes the new owner by replacing the old owner’s authentication information stored in the tag with the new owner’s. Until now, a considerable amount of literature has proposed solutions to the problem of RFID ownership transfer. Unfortunately, these existing protocols are either flawed in some security properties especially in protecting new and old owners’ privacy, or are associated with huge computational overheads. In this paper, we propose an ultra-lightweight RFID ownership transfer protocol based on permutation function. The tag and reader only use efficient bit operations, which greatly reduce the computational overhead. An important feature of the proposed protocol is that the new owner can impose calculations on data that has been encrypted by the old owner. The new owner is authorized by the old owner and does not have access to the tag’s key, which protects the old owner’s privacy stored in the tag side. We compare our protocol with existing work, and show the advantages in terms of security, computational overhead, and time cost.

Effect of Cost Control on Corporate Performance: Evidence from Selected Listed Brewery Firms in Nigeria

The main objective of this study is to determine the effect of cost control on corporate performance of listed brewery firms in Nigeria for the period of 2011 to 2021. To achieve this objective, material cost (MATC), labour cost (LABC) and overhead cost (OHDC) were used as proxy for cost control while the return on assets (ROA) was used as the proxy for the dependent variable, corporate performance. The study adopted ex post facto design and the data was obtained from the sampled firms’ annual reports and World Bank annual data official publications. The study was anchored on the Kaizen Costing Theory. The ordinary least square (OLS) regression technique was employed to analyze the data and test the hypotheses formulated at 5% level of significance. The findings revealed that cost control proxies such as material cost and overheads have positive and significant impact on corporate performance of brewery firms in Nigeria while labour cost has positive and insignificant impact on corporate performance of brewery firms in Nigeria. The study concluded that the elements of cost control used in the study such as material cost and overheads have positive and significant impact on corporate performance while labour cost has positive and insignificant impact on corporate performance of brewery firms in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends among other things that the management of brewery firms in Nigeria should embark on cost control strategies that emphasized on material cost, labour cost and overheads reduction in order to improve on their corporate performance indices.

Development of Observation System Using Internet of Things for Growth Improvement in Indoor Farming of Apium Graveolens Var. Secalinum Alef

This research was performed to develop an Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring system for growth condition of Apium Graveolens var. Secalinum Alef, then to determine the optimised lighting environment to optimise growth of Apium Graveolens var. Secalinum Alef. The experiment was conducted for 42 days, and the plants were grown hydroponically. Various data required to monitor the plants closely was collected daily using the developed IoT system and the data was relayed to the researcher using IoT. Based on the data collected from the experiment it is determined that the plants grown using the LED lighting system yielded more harvest compared to the plants grown using normal sunlight. The significant of this research is an IoT system to continuously monitor plant growth condition using an internet connected mobile device was developed, allowing farmers to obtain real time data of the growth conditions on their mobile devices, and it was determined that Apium Graveolens var. Secalinum Alef cultivation under LED artificial lighting performed better as compared to normal sunlight. The application of this IoT system can help farmers to lower their overhead costs and increase yields.

A process model for systematically setting up the data basis for data-driven projects in manufacturing

In the rapidly advancing fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data, creating a robust and high-quality data foundation is a critical requirement for data-driven projects. However, the lack of a standard procedure for ensuring the existence of a sufficient and high-quality data basis often leads to misunderstandings, inefficiencies, and resource waste, resulting in a high risk of project failure. Existing methodologies often presuppose the availability of a data basis, which is a significant challenge, particularly in the manufacturing sector with its diverse and complex data sources. This challenge is further compounded by the interdisciplinary nature of these projects, where domain experts and data scientists with different expertise and vocabularies must collaborate. Addressing this gap, this paper introduces ML-SIPOC, a novel methodology for creating a standardized and high-quality data basis for data-driven projects. ML-SIPOC builds upon the traditional SIPOC analysis from the Six Sigma management system for operational excellence, adapted to meet the unique challenges of data-intensive projects. It provides a structured framework for systematically building a data foundation, facilitating effective communication between domain experts and data scientists. When applied in electronics manufacturing, ML-SIPOC proved efficient in creating a robust data basis, reducing time and cost overheads. This approach minimizes reliance on prior knowledge for data collection, opening up possibilities for broader AI and Big Data applications across various manufacturing sectors. The key innovation of this paper is the introduction of a first-of-its-kind methodology that provides a structured approach to building a data foundation for data-driven decision making in manufacturing.

Joint CFO and Channel Estimation for RIS-Aided Multi-User Massive MIMO Systems

Accurate channel estimation is essential to achieve the performance gains promised by the use of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) in wireless communications. In the uplink of multi-user orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, synchronization errors such as carrier frequency offsets (CFOs) can significantly degrade the channel estimation performance. This becomes more critical in RIS-aided communications, as the RIS phases are adjusted based on the channel estimates and even a small channel estimation error leads to a significant performance loss. Motivated by this, we propose a joint CFO and channel estimation method for RIS-aided multi-user massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Our proposed pilot structure makes it possible to accurately estimate the CFOs without multi-user interference (MUI), using the same pilot resources for both CFO estimation and channel estimation. For optimization of the RIS phase shifts at the data transmission stage, we propose a projected gradient method (PGM) which achieves the same performance as a more computationally demanding grid search technique while having a significantly lower computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method provides an improvement in the normalized mean-square error (NMSE) of channel es-timation as well as in the bit error rate (BER) performance. Moreover, analyzing the computational complexity and the pilot resource efficiency of the proposed method, we demonstrate that the proposed estimation approach requires low computational load and no extra cost in pilot overhead.

Costs of purchase, maintenance, microbiological control, and reprocessing of a reusable duodenoscope.

Background and study aims The costs of reusable endoscope reprocessing have been evaluated, yet external validity of the findings remains challenging. The aim of this study was to assess the costs of purchase, maintenance, microbiological control, and reprocessing of a reusable duodenoscope per endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) in France. Study findings exclude the costs of infection, downtime due to breakdown, reprocessing single-use material disposal, and device disposal, all of which should also be considered. Materials and methods The study encompassed both observational and theoretical approaches. Observational data were collected in four hospitals, from December 2019 to December 2020, with an ad hoc survey, based on 2016 and 2018 national guidelines for duodenoscope reprocessing. Costs were modeled, using the same guidelines, assuming a mean workload of 223 ERCP/duodenoscope/year. Results The mean observed cost of purchase, maintenance, microbiological control, reprocessing (human resources and consumables), and overhead (additional 35%) with a reusable duodenoscope was €80.23 (standard deviation €3.77) per ERCP. The corresponding mean theoretical cost was €182.71 for manual reprocessing without endoscope drying cabinet (EDC), €191.36 for manual reprocessing with EDC, €235.25 for automated endoscope reprocessing (AER) without EDC, and €253.62 for AER with EDC. Conclusions Because procedures, equipment, volume activity, number of duodenoscopes, human resources, and internal work organizations are hospital-dependent, observed costs varied between hospitals. Theoretical costs were higher than observed costs, showing that the theoretical approach is not sufficient. Hypotheses to explain the difference between the two approaches include failing to measure some costs in the survey and challenges in guideline implementation.

An Efficient and Physically Secure Privacy-Preserving Key-Agreement Protocol for Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network

The popularity of vehicles promotes the evolution of smart cities. This development makes vehicular ad-hoc network (VANET) a widely used inter-vehicular communication to obtain information about road conditions, speed, vehicle location and traffic congestion. Such a public network is vulnerable to different security threats. Overall, the security of private data in VANET is a critical task. It has been observed that various authentication protocols have been devised for VANETs. However, most of the proposed protocols are not secure and reliable because of different security threats, including denial of service, replay, forgery and impersonation attacks, etc. Furthermore, the existing protocols used extra communication overhead and computational cost, so they become infeasible for resource-constrained environments. In this article, we design a lightweight and secure privacy-preserving key agreement protocol for VANETs using the hashing technique, which provides an efficient and secure data transmission mechanism over a public communication channel. Detailed security analysis shows that the proposed protocol is secure against various attacks. To evaluate the performance of the protocol, we simulate key cryptographic operations of vehicles, a roadside unit, and a trusted party agent on Arduino, low-end and high-end devices, respectively. The experimental results show that compared with the other related protocols, the computational cost and communication overhead of our protocol are reduced on average by <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8.797\%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$22.06 \%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> , respectively. Additionally, simulation results on NS3 show that our protocol consistently achieves a packet delivery ratio higher than <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$99.91 \%$</tex-math> </inline-formula> . Therefore, our protocol is secure and reliable for VANET environment.

What We Learned About the Economic and Workforce Issues in Pediatric Ophthalmology: Access to Eye Care and Possible Solutions.

To provide a blueprint reviewing the major economic and workforce issues in pediatric ophthalmology and its effect on access to pediatric eye care, as well as potential solutions. This was a systematic review of the landmark studies examining the economic and workforce issues in pediatric ophthalmology was performed. The number of residents pursuing pediatric ophthalmology fellowship has steadily declined since the early 2000s. Increasing overhead costs, low Medicaid reimbursements, practice pattern changes, and workforce shortages have all contributed to a significant crisis in access to pediatric eye care. Solutions to improve access to pediatric eye care involve pursuing more economical strategies within the confines of the pediatric ophthalmology practice, early exposure to the field during medical education, and enhancing residents' interest through faculty mentorship. Low reimbursements are a major driver contributing to extended appointment wait times for pediatric ophthalmology visits at major academic eye centers. Legislative changes at both the federal and state levels are needed to make appropriate increases in reimbursements, starting with states in the lowest quartile of Medicaid reimbursements. [J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2023;60(5):323-329.].

A Methodical Approach to Optimization and Application of a Standard Factor of Overhead Costs

A Methodical Approach to Optimization and Application of a Standard Factor of Overhead Costs

A Novel Hybrid Model for Docker Container Workload Prediction

The emergence of containers dramatically simplifies and facilitates the development and deployment of applications. More and more enterprises deploy their applications on the container cloud platform. For cloud service providers, an effective container workload prediction method is a must to achieve efficient utilization of cloud resources. However, the existing methods are either rarely based on container load characteristics or cannot make accurate real-time predictions. In this paper, we propose a Docker container workload proactive prediction method using a hybrid model combining triple exponential smoothing and long short-term memory (LSTM), which not only can capture both short-term and long-term dependencies in container resource time series but also smooth the container resource utilization data. In order to improve the prediction accuracy of the hybrid model, those two single models are combined using the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) method. Besides, we design a real-time Docker workload prediction system for the hybrid model. Our experiments show that the mean absolute percentage error of the hybrid model is decreased by an average of 3.24%, 12.18%, 13.42%, 43.45%, and 50.69% compared with the LSTM, the triple exponential smoothing, ES-ARIMA, Bayesian Ridge Regression and BiLSTM with an acceptable time and computational cost overhead.

Exploring Handwritten Signature Image Features for Hardware Security

This paper presents a novel hardware security technique that leverages handwritten signature image features for securing intellectual property (IP) cores, such as digital signal processing (DSP) cores, against IP piracy and false claim of IP ownership threats. In our approach, an IP vendor's handwritten signature image features are first converted into a corresponding digital template, followed by mapping into hardware security constraints and implanting them into the design during high level synthesis (HLS) process. This paper presents methodologies of extracting feature set of a handwritten signature through sampling and of encoding of the samples into binary values using a tree based encoding, for generating the digital template. The results of the proposed approach are assessed in terms of strength of IP ownership proof, security against a forged signature and impact of embedding signature constraints on design cost. The results revealed that the proposed approach provides robust security at negligible design cost overhead and also outperforms state of the art hardware security approaches for DSP cores.

Peranan Perhitungan Harga Pokok Produksi Pendekatan Full Costing Dalam Menentukan Harga Jual Dengan Metode Cost Plus Pricing : Studi Kasus pada Industri Olahan Tahu Nono Purnomo

The purpose of this study was to determine the role of calculating the cost of production and determining the selling price of shoes in Processed Tofu Industry Mr. Nono Purnomo. To find out how big the difference is in determining the cost of production using the company method and the full costing approach and to compare selling prices according to the company's method using the Cost Plus Pricing method. The type of research used is qualitative research. The analytical method used in this research is descriptive qualitative analysis. The data used in this research is secondary data. The data were obtained from previous research that had been carried out by Efendi Yanto et al. directly with Processed Tofu Industry Mr. Nono Purnomo and data in the form of production cost information such as raw material costs, labor costs, and tofu factory overhead costs during 2020. In addition, additional secondary data is obtained from intermediary media such as books or literature, journals related to research titles, and also via the internet. The results of the study can be concluded that the calculation of the cost of production according to Processed Tofu Industry Mr. Nono Purnomo lower than the calculation of the cost of production using the full costing method. Total cost of production according to Processed Tofu Industry Mr. Nono Purnomo is Rp. 267.577.000 or Rp. 24.773/board. While the selling price using the full costing method Rp. 313.634.560 or Rp. 29.038/board. This is due to factory overhead costs that are not taken into account by Processed Tofu Industry Mr. Nono Purnomo like depreciation costs, indirect labor costs, electricity costs, and maintenance costs for factory machinery and vehicles. Setting the selling price must be appropriate because setting a selling price that is too high will result in difficulty competing with similar products while setting a selling price that is too low will result in reduced revenue generated by Processed Tofu Industry Mr. Nono Purnomo. The difference in determining the cost of production will affect Processed Tofu Industry Mr. Nono Purnomoo in determining the selling price, because the cost of production is the main element in determining the selling price. Calculation of the total selling price according to Processed Tofu Industry Mr. Nono Purnomois Rp. 383813.000 or Rp. 35,532/ board. Meanwhile, the selling price uses the Cost Plus Pricing method, which is Rp. 449.878.000 or Rp. 41.652/board.

(Invited) Techno-Economic Analysis on Near-Term and Future Projections of Levelized Cost of Hydrogen for Low-Temperature Water Electrolysis Technologies

Hydrogen is seen as a potential energy intermediary between renewable energy sources and end-use applications including transportation, power, and industrial feedstocks. Core to this approach is low-cost hydrogen generation via water electrolysis. Significant research has been undertaken to improve the electrolysis stack technology, including enhancements in electrical efficiency, materials degradation, and total stack cost. However, relative to the total cost of installing an electrolysis plant, the stack contributes <50% of the initial capital investment. Therefore, from an electrolysis project perspective, the mechanical balance of plant and electrical systems required to operate the plant are equally important to understand.To explore the near-term and future cost projection for hydrogen production via electrolysis, Strategic Analysis, Inc. (SA) has developed a bottom-up project cost model for Alkaline, Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM), and Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) electrolysis technologies. This project cost model incorporates: 1) Stack cost, derived from a Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) process-based cost model developed by SA, 2) mechanical balance of plant, including process equipment, piping, valves, and instrumentation, derived from equipment quotes, scaling, database values, and Aspen estimates; 3) electrical balance of plant, including wiring, rectification, and electrical infrastructure upgrades, derived from time and material cost correlations; 4) Site Preparation, focused on green field installation; and 5) Construction Overhead, including engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) costs and project contingency. The SA project cost model is fed into a Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) model that accounts for electricity and water consumption, in addition to other operating costs, including labor, maintenance, and stack replacements.The SA project cost model and the LCOH model were used to conceptualize electrolysis system sizes from 100 MW to 1 GW for Alkaline, PEM, and AEM electrolysis systems. From a project perspective, electricity costs contribute 50-80% to the LCOH while capital and maintenance costs contribute the remaining 20-50% to the LCOH. Improvements in stack performance and cost offer incremental improvements in LCOH; however, larger reductions in hydrogen cost will only be possible through optimization of the stack cell voltage and operating current density in conjunction with reductions in net electricity price through integration with low-cost, probably renewable, electricity.Results from SA’s polarization performance optimization model show that lower cost Alkaline stacks, having somewhat lower performance (than PEM), tend to optimize at lower current densities leading to a larger stack active area, and benefit from low operational voltage to obtain higher conversion efficiencies. Higher cost PEM stacks with higher performance (than Alkaline stacks) tend to optimize at higher current densities to reduce the size/capital cost of the stacks and can afford a lower stack efficiency. Multivariable sensitivity analyses show the statistical variation in capital cost leading to the most likely range in LCOH for each technology. The results of this study provide guidance on where the largest incremental reductions in LCOH can be achieved on a project basis.