Why do companies exert high effort to reduce the costs of products that are production? Because they can! Because unnecessary product costs were not removed during product development. C-O-S-T , short for Cost Optimization System and Technique, details how a company's product development teams, their supporting functions, and company leaders can optimize product costs before production starts and thereby maximize lifecycle profits. Since product development teams determine product costs imparted to new products, much of the book details how these teams optimize product costs. The book also includes ways company leaders can create and sustain company-wide engagement in optimizing product costs and keeping the resulting increased profit margins. The reader is entertained while observing a three-day workshop where executives of a fictitious company, Defender Products, Inc. are being taught the C-O-S-T system by its developers. The story flows like a business workshop with slides, dialog, and break-out sessions. The content will benefit all companies that design, develop and manufacture products.