CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
14 July 2009
Implementation Investments
SFI to Implement aPriori for Product Cost Management
aPriori announced that SFI of Tennessee LLC, the country’s leading supplier of medium and heavy gauge components to OEMs in the agricultural, construction, industrial, transportation and defense industries, has selected the aPriori Product Cost Management software platform to provide faster, more consistent cost estimation of customer requests for quotations (RFQs).
Rob Kabel, Director of Information Technology at SFI, offered the following comments about their investment in real-time product costing, “aPriori was able to demonstrate that they could read in all different types of CAD product models from customers, and rapidly tell us the cost to manufacture that part, and the most cost efficient routing within our plant. This is something that would normally take us days to determine. With this tool in the hands of our cost estimators, we believe that we will be able to respond faster, to a higher volume of opportunities, with more detailed information than we ever have before.”
“SFI represents an interesting new use case for our product,” said Stephanie A. Feraday, President and CEO of aPriori. “Up until now, our customers have been OEMs who are looking for ways to hit target costs for new product introductions, reduce cost of current products, and drive down the cost of outsourced parts. OEMs are looking to outsource business to suppliers like SFI, but demand accurate and detailed quotations. From the supplier’s perspective, it’s challenging to keep up with the number of business opportunities because generating accurate and detailed quotations is a manual, resource-intensive process. With aPriori, the time required to generate a detailed cost estimate can be reduced from days to minutes. Think how much more revenue a supplier could drive if they could respond to double the amount of opportunities they quote today.”
About SFI
SFI Fabrication was founded in 1956 and has grown to the leading OEM parts manufacturer in the nation. The company offers a full spectrum of manufacturing process operations, including press brake, roll forming, coil processing, laser cutting, stamping, welding, machining, powder coat painting and assembly. Today SFI employs over 800 skilled professionals that are constantly measured to insure world class performance. When you partner with SFI, you partner with the brightest most talented people in the fabrication industry. SFI operates 3 locations in Memphis, Tennessee, Conway, Arkansas and New Boston, Ohio.
To see an overview demonstration of aPriori, click here.
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