Skip to content
MarketScale
‹ Back to IndustriesEngineering & Construction

Cost Model within a Digital Planning Twin

The article discusses how a Digital Planning Twin, specifically within River Logic’s framework, can predict financial outcomes through detailed cost modeling. This approach identifies the essential business cost drivers and optimizes production-related costs, including electricity, packaging, and labor. The tool aims to enhance cost forecasting and decision-making by providing insights into shifts, overtime, and inventory.

This story was produced through MarketScale. See how Engineering & Construction teams put it to work with Partner & Channel Enablement.

Promoted content from River Logic on MarketScale.

By Building Management · Aaron BergCost ModelDigital Planning TwinManufacturing Solutions
Share

Key takeaways

01

Digital Planning Twin distinguishes its cost modeling by breaking down cost drivers.

02

Incorporates costs tied to raw materials, labor, and production throughput.

03

Provides a tool for optimizing shifts, overtime, and inventory for better planning.

Get featured

Want to get featured in MarketScale Engineering & Construction?

Create a free MarketScale workspace and get your company's expertise featured across our Engineering & Construction coverage. No credit card, no demo required.

Start free

According to Aaron Berg, VP of River Logic Strategy, the Digital Planning Twin, specifically within River Logic's system, is distinguished by its meticulous cost modeling approach. In crafting a comprehensive plan for production volume, a key concern is predicting the resultant financial outcomes.

In crafting a comprehensive plan for production volume, a key concern is predicting the resultant financial outcomes.

This necessitates a detailed breakdown of costs into their essential drivers within the business structure. Rather than providing a fixed cost, this approach involves specifying raw materials, considering procurement options, and accounting for various cost implications tied to different vendors.

Additionally, it encompasses production-related costs like electricity, packaging, and labor, with a nuanced understanding of labor costs tied to specific work centers and production throughput. The result is a tool that not only forecasts costs accurately but also offers insights into optimizing shifts, overtime, and inventory, ensuring economic fidelity in planning and decision-making.

The result is a tool that not only forecasts costs accurately but also offers insights into optimizing shifts, overtime, and inventory, ensuring economic fidelity in planning and decision-making.

Video TranscriptExpand ↓

I wanted to talk a little bit about the cost model within a digital planning twin, the Rubologics digital planning twin. When you're making a decision, when you're trying to build a plan that says, how much production should I do? One of the things that would come up is will, when I execute that plan, will the financial results be what I think they're going to be? And one of the things that we've, that we found over the years is that in order to build a planning that gives high fidelity pro form a financial results and can predict what the actual cost is of a particular plan that you need to do deconstruct your costs into their drivers within the digital, within your business, within the digital planning And what I mean by that is rather than telling the twin that it costs a dollar fifty to make a product, you're going to tell the twin that It needs these raw materials, and then we'll have options on how to buy them and what the costs are to buy them so that I could have different vendors with different costs. So that way if the model chooses one vendor or another, the cost will be different. And then within production, you will be telling it you know, are there production added costs? You know, is it another ten cents per unit of electricity that it's going through, or is there packaging cost as it's going through production? As well as what is the incurred labor. And labor is a very interesting one because normally when you're planning, you'd assume a certain amount of labor per unit to the products that you're manufacturing. Within the digital twin, the best practice is to say is to tell the digital twin what labor cost to produce on a particular work center production line, and then to tell the digital twin what the throughput is of that line for that particular product. That gives you two things. One, is it allows the model to calculate how much of that labor lands on each product as it flows through. But more importantly, it understands what a shift is and what overtime is. So let's say you're doing production, And the plan says, well, you do need to go into overtime a little bit, and it suggests that you do it because it's still profitable. That's one thing that the planning tool will help you with. When that happens, the production as soon as you go into overtime, the costs go up by that overtime labor cost. That changes the dynamic of what's a good product and what's a bad product. So it may no longer be a good product and the digital twin might say, well, maybe you shouldn't support that customer because you have to go into overtime, or maybe you maybe you should stick below. Even fancier, the digital twin can say, Well, instead of running overtime a little bit, why don't we turn on an entire new shift and build some inventory that we can use in a future time period? So this is an example of why more economic fidelity. More of these drivers of cost need to be an additional planning to and to give you those hot fidelity results that you seek with a digital planning trip.

River Logic

Part of this channel

River Logic

Supply chain leaders on sustainability, resilience, and the future of value chains.

Visit the channel

Your experts belong here

Every story in MarketScale Engineering & Construction starts with a company putting its project engineers, superintendents, and estimators on the record. Buyers are already reading this topic. The only question is whose experts they find.

Owners shortlist firms they already trust, and your field leaders become the reason your name is on that list.

Get your team featuredSee how it works15 minutes, straight to a calendar.

About the author

BM
Building Management

Follow Engineering & Construction Insights

Get new expert content in your inbox.

Engineering & Construction: are you visible to AI?

Before they reach out, Engineering & Construction buyers ask AI engines which vendors to trust. Explore how your experts, customers, and partners can become useful content for buyers and AI search.

Free plan

You just read one Engineering & Construction expert. Your company is full of them.

This article was produced through MarketScale. The same platform turns your project engineers, superintendents, and estimators into the articles, video, and social content Engineering & Construction buyers are searching for. Create a free workspace and see it with your own people. No credit card, no demo required.

NPS +73 · 1,000+ creators · 38+ countries

What you get, free

Your own MarketScale workspace, up to 10 people
One professional video edit a month for qualifying companies
Media requests to your crowd, remote recording, AI writing tools
$0, no credit card, nothing that expires

More Engineering & Construction Insights

Caterpillar and FieldAI partner on physical AI for jobsites

Caterpillar and FieldAI partner on physical AI for jobsites

Caterpillar announced a collaboration with robotics company FieldAI on Sept. 5, 2026, aimed at bringing physical AI and autonomous systems to construction sites and industrial environments, according to Automation News. The companies plan to combine Caterpillar's operational data and engineering with FieldAI's robot foundation models, along with NVIDIA computing and digital twin tools.

  • 01Caterpillar and FieldAI are combining industrial expertise with AI-enabled robot foundation models for construction and industrial site automation.
  • 02Planned applications include autonomous inspections for safety, digital twins for operational insight, and AI-driven simulation for industrial operations.
  • 03The partnership will use NVIDIA accelerated computing and NVIDIA Omniverse for robot-agnostic autonomy technology across multiple robotic platforms.

Sep 11, 2026

Distressed sales are 2% of the housing market, and that should change how contractors plan 2027

Distressed sales are 2% of the housing market, and that should change how contractors plan 2027

Existing home sales fell to 3.98 million in August, but distressed sales remain at just 2% of transactions with prices still rising, signaling an affordability freeze rather than a credit crisis. Residential builders and contractors should plan 2027 capacity around intact homeowner equity, higher inventory creating pre-sale work demand, and regional variations in turnover rather than cutting headcount for a financial downturn.

  • 01Distressed sales at 2% of market (versus roughly one-third during 2008) mean no forced-seller wave or equity destruction, leaving HELOC and cash-out renovation funding intact for contractors
  • 02Supply at 4.9 months and 5.9% year-over-year growth forces sellers to fund pre-sale work on roofs, HVAC, kitchens, and inspections to compete, generating small-ticket trade demand despite lower transaction volume
  • 03Year-to-date sales up 1.6% with 27% all-cash buyers and 15% investor purchases plus strong August wage growth (3.1%) and employment (643,000 jobs since January) support demand in rate-insensitive buyer segments

Sep 10, 2026

JE Dunn Adds Power Generation Unit as Data Centers Grow

JE Dunn Adds Power Generation Unit as Data Centers Grow

JE Dunn Construction announced on Aug. 26, 2026 that it created a power generation unit within its advanced technology group and appointed Ryan Wilson to lead it, according to Construction Dive. The move follows a broader rise in power-related construction work tied to data centers, manufacturing and aging infrastructure.

  • 01JE Dunn named Ryan Wilson, a senior project manager with power and industrial experience, as VP and market lead for its new power generation unit.
  • 02Planned U.S. data center projects increased 203% in five months (March to August 2026), from 666 to 2,019, with Virginia leading at 458 planned projects.
  • 03Power work generates roughly 35% to 40% of Canadian firm WSP Global's U.S. revenue, Clayco launched a power and energy unit in March 2026, and Kiewit and Bechtel were selected for a $33 billion Ohio power project.

Sep 9, 2026

Explore More Engineering & Construction Insights

Read more expert perspectives from across Engineering & Construction.

Browse Engineering & Construction Hub

About the Expert

BM
Building Management

VP of Strategy at River Logic

Aaron Berg is the Vice President of Strategy at River Logic, specializing in digital planning and cost modeling. He is focused on leveraging advanced planning solutions to enhance financial outcomes in manufacturing. Aaron has extensive experience in crafting comprehensive plans for production volume with a focus on cost management.

For B2B teams

Your experts could be publishing here

Stories like this one run on content MarketScale captures from real practitioners. See how your team's expertise becomes coverage in Engineering & Construction and beyond.

Book a 15-minute demo

Or call us. No forms required. We pick up. 214-945-2512