CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
27 April 2011
Product News
New aPriori 2011 Product Release Continues Push to Provide Costing for All of Product Development
aPriori announced the general availability of aPriori 2011, the newest release of its Product Cost Management platform. aPriori 2011 expands support for generating real-time cost estimates upstream to the Research & Development (R&D) group, where critical decisions are often made on new product concepts that impact cost. This release also introduces new capabilities that allow for quick and flexible configuration of the software so that customers can model new cost scenarios and extend manufacturing process cost models. Finally, aPriori 2011 includes a new flexible report generation tool, and delivers a substantial number of enhancements to accelerate batch costing and expand support for complex sheetmetal stamping in the automotive industry.
“With each new release that we deliver to the market, aPriori’s value proposition becomes increasingly more compelling,” said Julie Driscoll, aPriori’s Vice President of Product Management. “aPriori can now provide software and best practices service solutions for concept costing - where no 3D CAD model is available, design-to-cost solutions, costing of engineering change orders, spend outlier analysis, make versus buy analysis, quote checking and capital asset justification to name just a few examples. aPriori 2011 opens up a whole host of potential new cost modeling use cases, and we are looking forward to observing the creative ways our customers will deploy this release.”
Creating Cost Estimates with No 3D CAD Model
One of aPriori’s unique differentiators has always been the product’s capability to generate a detailed cost estimate from a 3D CAD model in real-time. However, there are numerous use cases where a CAD model is not available, and the need to generate a cost estimate is still critical for a product manufacturer. In response to this need, aPriori 2011 is introducing a new User Guided Costing module. This product will compliment the company’s traditional Automated Geometric Cost Driver-based costing, and present customers with an integrated, end-to-end solution for product costing. Examples of the types of costing scenarios that could be created with User Guided Costing include:
Estimating costs during the R&D phase when concepts and ideas are evaluated prior to committing to a project.
Costing mechanical parts within assemblies where 3D CAD models do not exist (carry over parts that were not modeled in CAD).
Costing electrical components and wire harnesses not modeled in 3D CAD.
Parts with 3D CAD models, but made by manufacturing process groups for which aPriori doesn’t yet provide advanced geometry extraction (e.g. extrusion, powdered metals, thermoforming).
User Guided Costing is a standalone aPriori product, and is implemented in collaboration with aPriori’s professional services team. All cost models must be developed based on inputs from the customer. The engagement involves defining cost objectives, building cost models, and then deploying the solution within the customer’s own environment.
Customers Can Fully Configure Their Own Cost Models
Over the past several releases, aPriori has strived to provide customers with tools that allow them to configure nearly any type of manufacturing cost model they may want to explore. The aPriori VPE Creator Toolkit, released in 2010, enabled customers to make copies of baseline Virtual Production Environments (VPEs), and edit both material and machine data. With the release of aPriori 2011, aPriori is introducing the Cost Model Work Bench (CMWB) to edit the logic associated with cost models in a VPE. Prior to this release, this was a capability only available through aPriori’s professional services team.
Specific examples of operations customers will be able to accomplish with the CMWB include:
Modify existing VPE baseline process rules and calculations
Change Process Routings
Add new data fields, custom user inputs and outputs, and new manufacturing processes, process feasibility rules, and machines for new processes
With this comprehensive level of flexibility, customers will be able to create manufacturing cost models that mimic the practices for an internal fabrication or product assembly shop. They will be able to create virtual factories that generate costs estimates for a specific strategic supplier, or create a cost estimate that represents a blended average for suppliers in a particular geographic region. Customers will be able to create “factories of the future” to test efficiencies that may be expected from new machines they are considering purchasing. They will be able to calculate the impact of rising material or energy costs for a product that is expected to go to market one year in the future. With the aPriori CMWB, the power to leverage aPriori’s advanced cost models and configure new manufacturing cost scenarios will be limited only by the imagination of the user.
Flexible Reporting Platform
aPriori 2011 introduces a new flexible reporting platform that enables reports to be configured for customer business practices and management reviews. For product portfolio reviews, design milestone reviews, cost status reviews or any other type of management event, aPriori 2011 simplifies the process of extracting specific information from the database, and formatting it in a wide variety of presentation styles that suit the occasion. Two examples of reports that will ship with aPriori 2011 include a Cost Driver Report and a Project Tracking Report.
Enhanced Capabilities for Automotive Industry
For the past few months, aPriori has been working closely with one of the largest and most sophisticated automotive manufacturers in the world. Some of the results of this partnership are being made generally available in the aPriori 2011 baseline product. For example:
Customers will now be able to cost hundreds or thousands of parts in a batch, feeding cost inputs from a spreadsheet and generating output files that can be integrated into other customer systems
aPriori 2011 includes enhanced capability to detect and analyze geometry in complex stamped parts. The result is better blank detection and manufacturing analysis which translates to more accurate piece part and tooling cost estimates.
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