  In the early phases of the product life cycle, the costs controls became a
major decision tool in the competitiveness of the companies due to the world
competition. After defining the problems related to this control difficulties,
we will present an approach using a concept of cost entity related to the
design and realization activities of the product. We will try to apply this
approach to the fields of the sand casting foundry. This work will highlight
the enterprise modelling difficulties (limits of a global cost modelling) and
some specifics limitations of the tool used for this development. Finally we
will discuss on the limits of a generic approach.
