Should-Cost Intelligence
Evaluate cost reasonableness and negotiate with stronger decision support.
Illustrative scenario · modeled targets, not deployed resultsA composite Tier-1 eVTOL airframer moving from flight-test prototypes into FAA type certification and early rate production, with a defense-adjacent variant under DCMA oversight.
~140 active suppliers · machined parts, castings, composites, harnesses, and electronics · a high share sole-source or limited-competition · pricing decided quote-by-quote, on judgment.
In prototype mode, price was noise: a handful of units, relationships over leverage, speed over cost. Rate production rewrites that. Every part price now multiplies by the build rate, and the margin that makes the program viable lives in the gap between what you are quoted and what a part should actually cost. Procurement has no independent basis to close that gap — they negotiate on relationship and instinct, accept sole-source quotes because challenging one requires a number they do not have, and re-accept new prices every time an engineering change resets the part.
Is this price defensible — and if not, what is the number we can defend?
What this engagement is designed to move — modeled targets for an operator of this profile, not measured results.
From first look to running loop.
Your spend, scored for reasonableness in 2–3 weeks. No integration required.
Send a slice of spend — a category, a BOM with prices, or a set of open quotes. Nothing is connected. Deep-SKAI scores each price against proprietary aerospace & defense award- and quote-pricing benchmarks built since 2017, alongside should-cost modeling, and returns every targeted part scored for reasonableness, the parts and suppliers where you are most likely overpaying with the defensible number for each, and the modeled recoverable margin across the slice.
One decision, running live in your environment. 4–6 weeks.
Connect the systems behind the decision — ERP spend and PO history, the BOM, open quote data. Deep-SKAI encodes your policy and pricing constraints and runs the governed should-cost loop live on an active negotiation set: a defensible target price per part, the modeled consequence of each position, a human-in-the-loop approval, and a basis of record defensible to finance and, on the defense-adjacent variant, to DCMA.
The decision becomes a governed operating habit. Ongoing.
The pilot category becomes standing practice — the loop runs continuously above your existing systems. Every quote and award arrives with a defensible should-cost position attached, each negotiated price is a decision of record, and engineering-change repricing is flagged against its basis before acceptance, not after. The loop expands to adjacent decisions as it earns trust.
Illustrative scenario. The composite operator is fictional, created to show how an engagement is structured; it does not depict a specific NexStratus customer, and the KPIs shown are modeled targets, not measured results from a deployment. Deep-SKAI is patent-pending.