#ROI modeling

[asestimationsconsultants]

Valuing Intellectual Property | A New Challenge for Industrial Estimating Services

Introduction As industrial sectors evolve through digitalization, automation, and innovation, intellectual property (IP) has become one of the most valuable assets within a project. From proprietary software and patented designs to custom manufacturing processes and smart technologies, IP is reshaping how value is created and assessed. However, traditional industrial estimating services—built around physical materials, labor, and equipment—are now faced with a complex challenge: how to accurately estimate the cost and value of intellectual property within industrial projects.

This emerging frontier calls for a redefinition of scope in industrial estimating services, expanding their role to account for intangible assets that drive both performance and competitive advantage.

Why IP Matters in Industrial Cost Estimation In many modern industrial developments, especially in high-tech manufacturing, advanced energy systems, and Industry 4.0-enabled factories, intellectual property comprises a significant portion of overall value. For instance:

A custom automation algorithm embedded in a robotics line

Proprietary energy-efficiency systems in a chemical plant

Secure software platforms for controlling distributed manufacturing

These IP-driven elements often represent a large portion of R&D investment and are critical to long-term operational efficiency. An accurate estimate must include not just the cost to implement or license such assets but also the potential risk, return, and lifecycle value they bring.

Key Categories of Intellectual Property in Industrial Settings Understanding how IP appears in industrial projects is essential for accurate estimation. Common categories include:

Patents: Inventions or processes owned or licensed by the project owner

Trade Secrets: Confidential formulas or methods applied during production

Software and Algorithms: Custom-coded tools used in automation and process control

Design Rights: Proprietary architectural or engineering designs

Licenses and Royalties: Payments made to third parties for the use of protected IP

Each of these categories demands unique valuation methods and estimation strategies that differ from traditional capital expenditures.

Challenges in Estimating IP Costs Valuing IP in industrial settings is inherently complex due to:

Intangibility: Unlike steel or labor hours, IP has no physical form and often lacks clear benchmarks.

Variable Cost Structures: Licensing fees, development costs, and long-term support vary widely by industry and supplier.

Lifecycle Uncertainty: IP might evolve or become obsolete quickly, adding estimation risk.

Confidentiality: Many IP assets are guarded by NDAs or corporate secrecy, limiting estimator access.

As a result, industrial estimating services must blend financial modeling, legal review, and technical expertise to deliver accurate assessments.

Approaches to Integrating IP into Estimates To manage these complexities, forward-thinking estimating services apply several strategies:

Cost-Based Estimation: Involves calculating the original R&D or development costs and applying a markup based on projected use.

Market-Based Valuation: Uses comparative licensing or sales data for similar IP assets, when available.

Income-Based Modeling: Projects future cash flows generated by the IP (e.g., operational savings, productivity gains) and discounts them to present value.

Expert Collaboration: Engaging IP lawyers, technology consultants, and accountants to accurately categorize and value protected assets.

Case Example: Estimating an Advanced Robotics System A manufacturing client planned to install a robotics line powered by proprietary AI software developed in-house. While the hardware had clear market prices, the software’s value was harder to define. The industrial estimating service worked with internal developers and finance experts to model the cost of development, anticipated efficiency savings over ten years, and licensing potential if the software was reused across other sites.

By incorporating both direct and indirect value contributions, the estimate provided a holistic picture that helped justify a higher upfront investment.

Benefits of IP-Savvy Estimating Industrial clients gain several advantages when IP is accurately included in estimates:

More Realistic Budgets: Avoids underbudgeting by recognizing the full cost of IP integration or licensing.

Stronger Business Cases: Supports ROI projections for innovation-driven projects.

Better Risk Assessment: Helps identify where IP exposure (e.g., licensing dependencies) may affect project costs.

Investor Appeal: Demonstrates comprehensive valuation, which is critical for attracting investment in innovation-heavy projects.

New Tools and Trends As the demand grows, some industrial estimating platforms are adapting to include IP modeling features:

Digital Asset Registries: Help track owned or licensed IP within the project scope.

AI-Powered Valuation Engines: Use historical and market data to suggest value ranges.

Blockchain for IP Tracking: Ensures provenance and licensing status of digital IP in complex supply chains.

These innovations indicate that IP valuation is becoming a mainstream requirement in industrial estimating practices.

Limitations and Ongoing Development Despite advances, valuing IP remains a partly subjective exercise. The uniqueness of each asset and the lack of standard benchmarks can introduce variability. Moreover, legal changes—such as patent law shifts or tax implications—can alter value significantly.

Estimating services must remain adaptive, continuously updating models and methodologies to reflect both technical and legal developments.

Conclusion The rise of intellectual property as a strategic asset in industrial projects is reshaping the landscape for estimating services. No longer confined to bricks, pipes, and wires, estimators must now navigate code, algorithms, and trade secrets. By embracing this challenge, industrial estimating services not only improve budget accuracy but also elevate their strategic role in capital planning and innovation management. The result is a more holistic view of project value—one that aligns with the digital age.

[boggsart]

Here’s what I’ve been cooking up in the past month🙂‍↔️

Credits go to @highgroundanimations for creating 3 of my most favorite characters ever ( and thanks for letting me bring my vision to life 🫶🏻)

[flovoid]

okokok i think im having wayyy too much fun re-making my old celebrity sims

[fievell]

I have no idea how to dress him up so...

[evilbiomes]

they done made otto 3d!!!! what!!!!!!!

had a TON of fun working on this (mostly)… would love to practice more stuff like this in the future!!!

extra mini render… mostly wanted to do something w his face rigs

[wisteria-lodge]

How would you sort Barty Crouch Jr? Also, I've seen a lot of different sortings for Voldemort, what do you sort him as?

There is a two-part sorting system I like to use when I do this: I sort both their Motive [Primary] and their Method ['Secondary.'] More detail on the system I'm using. Lets get into it:

SECONDARY (METHOD)

Voldemort and Barty both feel like loud Bird secondaries (probably why they work so well together.) I don't know who came up with the Triwizard Cup plan, or if they came up with it together - either way, it's a patient plan, with a lot of steps, that takes a whole year to carry out. Voldemort seems to like that sort of thing. He likes planning, he likes contingency plans, he likes setting up dominos for a while before knocking them over.

Although... Barty is such a loud Snake primary (I'll get to it) - that it's possible he's modeling a Bird secondary to please Voldemort, and underneath he's something more Improvisational (Snake or Lion). He's very comfortable making things up on the fly - everything at the Cup was spur-of-the-moment, the dustbin thing was something he came up with on the spot in order to throw off Arthur Weasley, and at the end of Book 4 he still nearly manages to kill Harry after the plan goes sideways. I also think it's interesting how comfortable Barty is being Moody, and Moody is a loud Lion secondary - honest, direct, comfortable with trusting his own power and quick thinking to solve problems. Also, nothing that Barty says as Moody is a lie. He uses very specific phrasing, but it's all stuff he authentically believes. (ie - "If there's one thing I hate, it's a Death Eater who walked free.") I think that the Imperius curse would be an especially horrible punishment for someone whose power comes from their own authenticity. Yeah, I like that. Lion secondary Barty Junior.

(He can still model one hell of an Actor Bird though - both as Moody, during his court performance, and escaping Azkaban disguised as his mother. But I don't think he likes to. The happiest and most joyful we ever see him is when he's just laying out the truth.)

But Voldemort... when things things don't go according to plan he does have trouble pivoting quickly, and will definitely make a "No! This cannot be!" kind of speech. That's very Bird Secondary. He also loves collecting shinies, tools, knowledge, and skills. You're never quite sure what the extent of his power is - he might just start flying unsupported, or somehow know that you were talking about him behind his back. That must be very stressful for his Death Eaters. And while he exists at the center of a group, Voldemort's power doesn't come from the group. It comes from his knowledge, skills, and - when he was younger - the ability to play a part extremely well. Deserving, subservient, charming good boy "Tom Riddle" is definitely one of Voldemort's Actor Bird personas. (Birds often like to give their personas distinct names.) The angst of getting "stuck" in a persona is also a very Bird thing - and this definitely seems to be the case for Voldemort. There is a kind of resentment that he still has to *be* this person during the scene with Hepzibah Smith - and a relief during the conversation with Dumbledore when he doesn't have to be "Tom" anymore.

PRIMARY (MOTIVE)

Like I said up top, Barty is a LOUD Snake primary. His "Master" is everything - some combination of a soulmate, savior, and father. And it really is about Voldemort the person. I don't think Barty cares about the politics at all. If Voldemort wanted to switch it up and start killing people with glasses instead of muggleborns, I'm not sure Barty would notice. When he talks about his motivations, it's always about - serving Voldemort, finding Voldemort, seeing Voldemort, all the people who don't deserve Voldemort. Before he met Voldemort his Person was probably his mother. Snake, all the way down.

Voldemort... is harder, because I do think the glimpses we get of his interiority can be interpreted a couple different ways. I do think he is primarily motivated by fear - he's afraid of ever being powerless or weak again, the way I'm sure he was as a small orphan child. This is where he gets his fear of death (the most extreme form of weakness and powerlessness) and also where his interesting relationship with his body comes from. I think he conceptualizes the "muggle" half of himself as the "weak" half (see his slightly odd childhood hypothesis that "My mother can’t have been magic, or she wouldn’t have died.") I don't think it's a coincidence that all his experiments to make himself immortal also make him look like a being that could only be magical (and nothing like his muggle father.)

Being motivated by fear is generally a sign that your Primary is Burnt, so what is going on underneath? I don't think Voldemort is an Idealist - his hatred of muggles is authentic, but it's got nothing to do with his official position that muggleborns "steal magic" or whatever. He knows that's ridiculous, but it's a talking point that will go over well with the purebloods. If anything, his main projects (taking over the Ministry, killing Harry) are just very extreme coping mechanisms. He never has to feel powerless again if he RULES THE WORLD.

So okay. What does he seem to enjoy. Voldemort IS interested in family history, family legacy, and heirlooms... which could possibly be a sign of a Badger primary. Only, he keeps those things to himself. If he were a Badger I would expect the fact that he's the Heir of Slytherin and the last of the Gaunts to be his platform. Snake is much more likely - a lot of Burnt Snakes will also focus intensely on their body when it doesn't feel safe enough to let an Important Person into their life (Hedonist Snakes.) Voldemort's doing an unusual version of that sure, but it absolutely counts. He's also only interested in his Death Eaters as individuals, not as a community. They are spokes of a wheel with him in the middle, and he likes it that way.

Sometimes it almost feels like Voldemort is running tryouts - looking for an Important Person he can actually trust. Ideally, this is someone he can see as his equal... but who is also so insanely loyal and subservient they might as well be an extension of his own body. I call this the Logan Roy paradox, because these two traits are... contradictory. It's kind of a weird sentence, but I think that Logan Roy of Succession and Lord Voldemort have extremely similar Primaries (and extremely similar backstories...) They are Burnt and Exploded Snakes who want people, but are terrified to actually trust them. So instead, they come up with ways to own them.

Both Logan and Voldemort pick (and cycle through...) favorites. It's not totally clear what makes Voldemort go from Barty, to Lucius, to Bellatrix, to Snape, to Draco. Part of it has to do with their performance sure, but Bellatrix is definitely defensive during the Unbreakable Vow scene. She doesn't like that she's not the only one in the loop, and she doesn't like that Snape is insinuating that he is more useful to Voldemort. I get the impression that somehow - the shine's worn off a little, and Bellatrix is extremely motivated to get that emotional closeness she had with Voldemort back.

(In Succession, Logan cycles to a new person whenever his current favorite starts seeing him as too human, or too weak.)

I think this quote about Logan equally applies to Voldemort: "He never saw anything he loved that he didn't want to kick it just to see if it would still come back." Voldemort enjoys makes making his Death Eaters grovel for forgiveness at his feet, he likes torturing them, making Bellatrix cry and scramble for ground by talking about her sister, or her werewolf nephew-in-law. Voldemort talks Barty up in a way that seems designed to make the other Death Eaters resent him, and of course takes Lucius' wand, and sets up an elaborate suicide mission for Draco.

And then there's the way he brands his people with the Dark Mark, symbolically 'owning' them while also making it literally impossible for them to leave. This is actually a really nice way of using a fantasy metaphor to get across how unhealthy Snakes work.

There's also something weird going on with the horcruxes. If I'm right, and the core of Voldemort is he wants someone who who he can respect, but who will also never leave him... then grafting part of his soul onto them kind of solves that problem. They're carrying around part of his power, so he can respect them. But there's also no way they can get rid of their new psychic connection to him, other than dying. So he is able to trust (love) Nagini. And... I did not expect to be writing a Tomarry thing when I started this, but like. I see it. At his moment of triumph, Voldemort creates the one thing he (subconsciously) wants: an equal who he is able to control. It's honestly very Palpatine. When you think about it, Vader is also the solution of paradox: an apprentice powerful enough for Palpatine to respect, but who will also never betray him.

tl;dr

Barty Crouch Jr ~ Snake Primary / Lion secondary (Bird model that he built for Voldemort)

Tom "Lord Voldemort" Riddle ~ Burnt and Exploded Snake Primary / Bird secondary

[thelaughingmagician]

JLA/Titans (1999) #3

[kitsunetsuki]

Roy A. Giles - Swimsuit by Jap at Joseph (Honey 1973)

[kitsunetsuki]

Roy A. Giles - Swimsuit by Wiki at Bellino (Honey 1973)

[boggsart]

So, I fixed the phone at the start cuz I admit the old one wasn't the most intuitive choice 😬. Also, this is my first time doing a walk animation, and of course, I'm not totally happy with how it turned out. But honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever be completely satisfied with anything I do but at least that mindset keeps pushing me to get better. Once again, all credits go to @highgroundanimations for letting me include all his bois in this project 🫶🏻 Good news: I only have Fox and Cody left to animate for the menu, and then I can finally start working on the game trailer. I’ve also completely remodeled my clone models, fixing all the mistakes (and the major inaccuracies lol), so now I can finally use them in Unreal. I’m a bit bummed I couldn’t animate this one with the new models, but I’ll make up for it in the trailer (or at least I’ll try, lol). Fox and Cody’s menu animations will use the new models, so yay for that (and they look so good i can't wait to show them) 😁

Here's one for Tech

Here's one for Hunter

Here's one for Rex

Here's one for Echo Here's one for Wolffe

——————————————————————

taglist: @callsign-denmark @techwrecker @dahscribbler @lightspringrain @dreamsandrosies @brainless-tin-box @thecoffeelorian @luzfeather @burningfieldof-clover @99tech99 @theglitterdark @fangirl-goes-nova @foundenterprisefamily @fanfictasia @jedi-hawkins @megmegalodondon @lifblogs @photowizard17 @isthereanechoinhere96 @inthemiddle0feverywhere @namechange-mykidfoundmyblog

[nerdytextileartist]

Random DC Comics Head Canons- Roy Harper #3

Roy started playing the drums after his therapist recommended music therapy as a supplement to his rehabilitation after quitting heroin. His first kit was a refurbished set that Dinah bought for him as a 19th birthday present.

He considers playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" live the high point of his music career.

He got back into playing drums after working as a roustabout for the band Black Canary, where he displayed his (albeit rusty) aptitude to the rest of the band backstage.

For his recent birthday, he received an electronic drum set as a group present from Dinah, Connor, Lian, Emiko, Mia, and (secretly) Ollie.

Aaaaand bonus pic! If you recognize the shirt, pat yourself on the back.

[imnotlikeyall]

reading roy harper stuff because i think he’s the cutest ever and i’m superficial like that

[customboytoyz]

roman roy of all characters got reposted to a "testosterone aesthetics" chud account and I think you guys would all find that incredibly funny 

[all-action-all-picture]

1974 ad for the Matchbox model kit of the Hawker Tempest. Very similar visually to the Hawker Typhoon. It was a bit longer and the tail fin design is different. The most common type was the Tempest Mk V (or Tempest V) although the kit only gave options for the Mk II and post-war Mk VI. The painted box art (shown in black and white as the main image above) was by Roy Huxley. It's listed in the ad with the Matchbox serial number PK-26 but it was released as the PK-023 in their Purple Range. I'm assuming the PK stood for Plastic Kit.

[sarcasticratsims]

Trying to decide if I want to bring sims into seasick w Sam and Roy or if I want to wait until later. . .