The Pressure Vessel Industry is quite unique in having a number of rigid Codes introduced and accepted in order to safeguard the integrity of the product rather than the efficient use of the fabrication facilities. Such Codes facilitate the task of designers and thus result in an economy of time and effort during the design stage. On the other hand their intrinsic lack of flexibility demands, for example, expensive inspection procedures which, sometimes, can not be substantiated by sound scientific reasoning. Also peculiar to this situation is the existence of licencing or insuring authorities, making radical departures from the Codes virtually impossible in many cases and unjustified by the possible saving in materials in most. This being so, it follows that any cost reduction must be made within the framework of the Design Codes. This thesis summarises an investigation whose purpose was to evaluate the time and cost involved in design, fabrication and inspection depending on the codes. It is concluded that the only significant savings can be achieved through careful planning of production and that the only advantage that a design code can offer is a reduction of weight by allowing a higher design stress.