Cost Curve Generator
Strategic cost modeling system that generates industry cost curves with scenario controls, enabling leadership to evaluate competitive positioning and market risk.
Type: Strategic Cost Modeling & Visualization System (Excel-Based)
Industry: Petrochemical – Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA)
Overview
The Cost Curve Generator is a custom-built Excel system designed to model and visualize industry-wide production cost curves for the global PTA market.
In a cost curve, each vertical bar represents an operating unit. The width of the bar reflects relative production capacity, and the height represents a selected cost metric (e.g., production cost per ton, catalyst cost per ton, or a composite total cost).
Units are sorted from lowest cost (left) to highest cost (right), providing strategic insight into competitiveness and market positioning.
The Challenge
Cost curves require:
- Large datasets across multiple production regions
- Complex cost calculations and aggregations
- Scenario-based filtering (region, year, pricing assumptions)
- Consistent and trusted data inputs
The prior workflow relied on multiple disconnected spreadsheets, manual copy-paste, and competing versions of “good data.” Results were difficult to validate and trust.
The Solution
I developed a centralized Excel-based system that:
- Utilized structured Excel Tables for consistent data management
- Implemented a regional production architecture
- Enabled filtering by year, pricing structure (regional or global), and production scope
- Allowed selective inclusion of cost components using configurable “Include” controls
- Generated automated, dynamically sorted cost curve visualizations
Users could also customize color schemes for individual cost elements to enhance clarity in presentations.
Key Contributions
- Designed a single source of truth for industry cost data
- Eliminated manual copy-paste workflows
- Built configurable scenario modeling capabilities
- Standardized cost aggregation logic
- Enforced data ownership and governance
Impact
- Improved confidence in strategic market analysis
- Reduced errors caused by spreadsheet version fragmentation
- Enabled rapid generation of alternative market scenarios
- Provided leadership with consistent, presentation-ready cost curves
This project demonstrates my ability to combine financial modeling, structured data architecture, and visualization to support strategic decision-making at an industry level.