Applied Dynamics Group

Procurement intelligence
for automotive
manufacturers

SaaS forecasting software and specialist advisory to help procurement and supply chain teams navigate commodity cost volatility — before it impacts your P&L.

CostSense — Live dashboard LIVE
Total exposure
£2.4M
Commodities
14
Risk delta
+8.3%
Aluminium (LME) $2,418/t ▲ 3.2%
HRC Steel $524/t ▲ 1.8%
Copper (LME) $9,870/t ▼ 0.6%
Sector expertise
Hypercar & low-volume OEM Luxury & prestige OEM Commodity risk management FP&A integration Procurement transformation

What we do

Two capabilities.
One focused practice.

Applied Dynamics Group combines a purpose-built SaaS platform with hands-on advisory from practitioners who have spent careers inside automotive procurement functions.

Whether you need software to automate cost risk monitoring, or specialist expertise to redesign your procurement operations, we are built around the challenges that matter most in manufacturing.

CostSense — Material cost risk platform

Ingest your bill of materials, connect to live commodity indices, and surface financial exposure before it reaches the P&L.

Consulting — Automotive procurement advisory

Tactical support or strategic transformation — from commercial negotiation to full operating model redesign.

Analytics — Spend & supplier intelligence

Turn fragmented procurement data into structured, decision-ready intelligence across categories and suppliers.

CostSense

Know your material cost risk. Before it costs you.

CostSense maps your BOM against live commodity markets, quantifies financial exposure at the line level, and alerts you when thresholds are breached — automatically.

  • BOM ingestion via Excel or CSV — no manual re-keying
  • Live index feeds: steel, aluminium, copper, nickel, resins
  • Scenario modelling: base, stress, and custom cases
  • FX rate tracking overlaid against open purchase order data
  • FP&A-ready exports for budget and forecast integration
costsense.io/dashboard
Cost Risk Dashboard May 2026 · Q2 Forecast
Total exposure
£2.4M
▲ 8.3% vs budget
Commodities tracked
14
3 at risk
BOM lines
847
Mapped 100%
Weekly exposure trend
CommodityExposurevs BudgetRisk
Aluminium£840K+12.4%High
HRC Steel£620K+6.1%Med
Copper£310K-1.2%Low

Advisory services

Automotive procurement,
end to end

Hands-on support from practitioners with deep experience inside automotive OEM procurement — from hypercar and low-volume specialists to luxury and prestige manufacturers.

Supplier management

Commercial negotiation, supplier development, and relationship governance across direct and indirect categories in complex manufacturing supply chains.

Risk & cost management

Supply chain risk identification, commodity cost exposure quantification, and mitigation strategy development — from single-source dependency to macro price volatility.

Process design & governance

End-to-end procurement process mapping, improvement, and governance framework design — benchmarked against best-in-class manufacturing organisations.

Procurement transformation

Large-scale transformation programmes — operating model redesign, capability building, data strategy, and technology enablement for procurement functions.

Ready to get started?

Book a CostSense demo or speak to us about a consulting engagement.

CostSense
CostSense
by Applied Dynamics Group

Material cost risk forecasting for procurement and FP&A teams
in automotive manufacturing.

Multi-tenant SaaS No implementation project Live in days, not months UK-based & GDPR compliant

The challenge

Commodity volatility is a known risk. Most teams are still flying blind.

Procurement and FP&A teams know that raw material prices move. What they often lack is a systematic way to quantify what those movements mean for their specific programmes and budgets — in real time.

Spreadsheets break down at scale. Generic market data tools don't understand your bill of materials. CostSense was built to close this gap.

01

Exposure is invisible until it's a variance

By the time cost overruns appear in monthly reporting, the opportunity to hedge or renegotiate has often passed.

02

BOM complexity makes manual analysis impractical

Automotive programmes with hundreds or thousands of part numbers can't be tracked in spreadsheets without significant manual effort and error risk.

03

Market data isn't connected to your numbers

Commodity index subscriptions tell you prices have moved — not what that movement means for your programme cost in pounds and pence.

04

Finance and procurement speak different languages

FP&A needs forecast-ready numbers. Procurement thinks in volumes and indices. CostSense bridges the two.

How it works

From BOM to risk insight in four steps

CostSense is designed for fast onboarding — no implementation project, no data transformation consultancy required.

Step 01

Upload your BOM

Import your bill of materials using our standard Excel or CSV template. Commodity category mapping is guided and takes minutes.

Step 02

Connect commodity & FX feeds

CostSense integrates with live market indices for steel, aluminium, copper, nickel, plastics, and more — plus real-time FX rates for cross-currency PO exposure. Data refreshes daily.

Step 03

Monitor exposure

Your dashboard shows financial exposure by commodity, programme, and line item — updated automatically as markets move.

Step 04

Model & report

Run scenarios, set threshold alerts, and export FP&A-ready reports. Keep finance and procurement aligned on a single number.

What CostSense delivers

Five steps from data to decision

Analyse
Ingest BOM & market data into a single view
Insight
Identify cost risk before it reaches the P&L
Optimise
Model scenarios to find the best cost outcome
Decision
Act on intelligence with confidence and speed
Performance
Track margins and cost outcomes over time
End-to-end cost visibility
From raw material index to programme P&L in one platform.
Identify risk. Quantify impact.
Surface exposure by commodity, programme, and currency.
Scenario modelling that drives decisions.
Stress-test your budget against real market movements.
Better decisions. Stronger margins.
Turn procurement intelligence into measurable financial outcomes.

BOM intelligence

Every part. Every commodity. Mapped and monitored.

Upload your bill of materials in your existing format. CostSense maps each line to the relevant commodity index and calculates financial exposure based on your current volumes and pricing basis.

  • Standard Excel/CSV template — no data transformation required
  • Guided commodity category mapping with LME and benchmark index linkage
  • Multi-programme support — manage all vehicle lines in one view
  • Part-level drill-down from programme summary to individual components

BOM exposure summary

ProgrammeCommodityVolumeExposureRisk
EV Platform AAluminium12,400t£840KHigh
EV Platform ACopper640t£310KMed
ICE Platform BHRC Steel8,200t£620KMed
ICE Platform BNylon PA66180t£84KLow
Commercial CVAluminium5,100t£340KMed

Scenario modelling

Stress-test your budget before the market does.

Build base, stress, and custom scenarios around commodity price movements. Understand the P&L impact of different market outcomes and share financial sensitivity analysis with stakeholders in minutes.

  • Pre-built base / downside / upside scenario templates
  • Custom price assumptions per commodity with forward curve overlay
  • Side-by-side scenario comparison at programme and portfolio level
  • Export to Excel for budget pack or board presentation

Scenario comparison — Q3 2026

Base case +£2.4M vs budget
Stress scenario (−15% Al, +10% Cu) +£3.8M vs budget
Upside scenario (+8% Al recovery) +£1.1M vs budget
Custom: hedged portfolio view +£1.7M vs budget

Alerts & reporting

Stay informed without watching a screen.

Set threshold alerts by commodity, programme, or total portfolio. CostSense notifies the right people when exposure moves beyond defined parameters — so action can be taken early.

  • Configurable price and exposure threshold alerts via email
  • Automated weekly and monthly risk summary reports
  • FP&A export pack: Excel and PDF, ready for budget or board
  • Audit trail — full history of market movements and exposure changes

Recent alerts

Aluminium LME breached threshold EV Platform A exposure exceeded £800K trigger — now £840K
2h ago
Copper 7-day trend: +4.8% LME Copper approaching upper warning band for Commercial CV
Yesterday
Monthly risk report generated May 2026 summary ready — sent to 4 recipients
2 days ago
HRC Steel index update ICE Platform B exposure revised to £620K following weekly index refresh
3 days ago

FX & purchase order tracking

Currency moves don't stop at the commodity market.

For automotive manufacturers sourcing across borders, exchange rate shifts compound commodity exposure. CostSense overlays live FX rates against your open purchase order data, so you can see the true landed cost impact of a currency movement — not just the index change.

Where PO data is available, CostSense reconciles committed spend against current market rates to surface variance between contracted price and actual cost at point of settlement.

  • Live FX rate feeds: EUR/GBP, USD/GBP, JPY/GBP, and other key pairs
  • PO-level currency exposure mapping — see which open orders are at risk
  • Combined commodity + FX scenario modelling for true total cost impact
  • Settlement variance tracking — contract rate vs. rate at payment date
  • Forward rate overlay to model hedging scenarios against your open PO book

FX exposure — open PO book

Currency pairPO valueBudget rateLive rateVariance
EUR/GBP€4.2M0.85200.8741+£92K
USD/GBP$2.8M0.78900.7734−£44K
JPY/GBP¥180M0.005200.00498+£38K
Net FX exposure vs. budget
+£86K across 3 currencies · 47 open POs
EUR/GBP forward 3M: 0.8698 · hedging scenario available

Platform preview

What CostSense looks like in practice

A concept of the CostSense dashboard — showing how commodity exposure, FX risk, and purchase order data come together in a single procurement intelligence view.

CostSense / Cost Risk Dashboard
Q2 2026 · Live
AG
Overview
Dashboard
Exposure
Data
BOM Manager
Commodities
FX & POs
Analysis
Scenarios
Reports
Alerts 3
Total exposure
£2.4M
▲ 8.3% vs budget
FX exposure
£86K
▲ EUR/GBP drift
BOM lines mapped
847
100% coverage
Active alerts
3
▲ 2 new today
Weekly exposure trend
All commodities · £000s
Full view →
Mar Apr May Jun
Exposure by commodity
Q2 2026 · % of total
£2.4M total
Aluminium35%
HRC Steel26%
Copper13%
FX exposure4%
Other22%
Commodity exposure detail
Export →
All programmes
EV Platform A
ICE Platform B
CommodityExposurevs BudgetRisk
Aluminium LME £840K +12.4% High
HRC Steel £620K +6.1% Med
Copper LME £310K −1.2% Low
Nickel LME £195K +4.8% Med
Nylon PA66 £84K −0.4% Low
FX snapshot — open PO book
Full view →
EUR/GBP
0.8741
▲ +0.0221 vs budget
USD/GBP
0.7734
▼ −0.0156 vs budget
JPY/GBP
0.00498
▲ +0.00022 vs budget
Recent alerts
All alerts →
Aluminium LME — threshold breached EV Platform A: £840K vs £800K trigger
2h ago
EUR/GBP — 7-day move +2.6% Open PO exposure now £92K above budget rate
Yesterday
Monthly report generated May 2026 summary sent to 4 recipients
2d ago
CostSense

See CostSense in action

Book a 30-minute demo and we'll walk through your specific commodity exposure using your own data.

No commitment required. We'll sign an NDA before you share any data.

Get in touch

Let's talk about
CostSense

Whether you want a live platform walkthrough or want to discuss how CostSense fits your procurement setup — we'd love to hear from you.

We typically respond within one business day. For enterprise enquiries we're happy to sign an NDA before any data is shared.

1
We'll reach out within one business day A member of the Applied Dynamics team will be in touch to arrange a call.
2
30-minute introductory call We'll learn about your procurement setup and confirm CostSense is the right fit.
3
Tailored demo using your context Where possible we'll frame the demo around your commodity categories and programmes.

Request a demo

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