Multi-year total cost of ownership scenario for the CWP-700 Composite Wing Panel Production Program if Meridian Aircraft Co. exercises its steady-state production option in Years 2 and 3. Year 1 reflects this program's signed, reconciled budget; Years 2-3 are planning-level estimates, not signed contract value.
3-Year Program Cost Scenario
| Year | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|
| Year 1 — Qualification + Production Ramp (this program) | $9,284,000 |
| Year 2 — Steady-State Production (option scenario) | $7,806,000 |
| Year 3 — Steady-State Production (option scenario) | $7,806,000 |
| Total 3-Year TCO | $24,896,000 |
Year 1 = $9,284,000 (this program's Program Budget, fully reconciled — corrected from an original $3,500,000 estimate that was staffed for a single-shift layup cell (RAIDD D-05), then grown again once Meridian's Purchase Order Amendment PA-002 added a third production shift (RAIDD D-06)). Years 2-3 assume steady-state production only (no repeat NRE/tooling spend, no repeat FAI lab costs) at the corrected three-shift run-rate — the Phase 2 portion of the current budget ($7,216,000 labor + $590,000 recurring non-labor = $7,806,000/year), which is the ongoing cost of running the program at Meridian's current order rate.
5-Year Extended Scenario
| Year | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|
| Year 1 — Qualification + Production Ramp | $9,284,000 |
| Year 2 — Steady-State Production | $7,806,000 |
| Year 3 — Steady-State Production | $7,806,000 |
| Year 4 — Steady-State Production | $7,806,000 |
| Year 5 — Steady-State Production | $7,806,000 |
| Total 5-Year TCO | $40,508,000 |
Unit Cost Economics (Steady-State)
At the current three-shift steady-state production rate — roughly 450 panels annually across the 9-technician, three-shift layup rotation (up from 300 panels at the two-shift rate, and the original 3-technician single-shift estimate before that) — the $7,806,000 annual steady-state cost works out to approximately $17,347 per panel, slightly higher than the two-shift rate's $16,413/panel. Unlike the earlier single-shift-to-two-shift correction (which fixed a genuine understaffing problem and lowered unit cost), this increase is a straightforward capacity expansion — adding a third shift grows total volume and total cost roughly in proportion, with a small unit-cost increase rather than a dramatic efficiency gain. That figure is a planning reference for Meridian's own sourcing comparisons, not a unit price Acme bills against (this is a fixed-price production contract, not a per-unit invoicing arrangement) — but it's the number a Tier 1 supplier's own program manager needs to know to judge whether steady-state production is still economically healthy for Acme as volume or material costs shift.
Single-Source vs. Dual-Source Consideration
This TCO assumes Meridian continues sourcing the CWP-700 panel exclusively from Acme Aerostructures across the 5-year window. A dual-source strategy (qualifying a second Tier 1 supplier) would add a second FAI/qualification cost somewhere in the $600,000-$800,000 range (based on this program's own Phase 1 cost) but would reduce Meridian's single-supplier schedule risk — the kind of tradeoff reflected in RAIDD Log risk R-04 (customer source-inspection scheduling) rather than modeled here as a cost, since it's Meridian's sourcing decision to make, not Acme's.
Cross-Reference
See the Program Cost-Benefit Analysis for the quality-investment case (a narrower question than this page's total-cost view) and the Program Budget for the reconciled Year 1 baseline this TCO builds from.