Expanding Global Deployments of Product Cost Management Drive New Capabilities in Latest Release

CONCORD, Mass., Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- aPriori, the leading provider of automated product cost management (PCM) software and service solutions for global manufacturers, today announced the newest release of the company’s flagship product, aPriori Professional 2018 R1.

This new release concentrates on helping manufacturers combat some of the most critical challenges they are facing in their businesses today, including:

• Aerospace manufacturers are struggling with how to accommodate fixed price contracts and maintain profitability in an environment where new materials and manufacturing processes are being introduced continuously.
• Automotive manufacturers are struggling with major platform redesigns that are required to meet the demand for new electrified and autonomous vehicles.
• Industrial Machinery manufacturers are faced with new competition from more nimble start-up competitors in low cost countries that continue to put pressure on bringing new innovations to market faster.
• Electronic & High Tech product manufacturers are facing extreme challenges to bring innovative products to market faster requiring near perfect collaboration with their Contract Manufacturing partners who face their own challenges generating accurate quotes for new product designs in a timely manner.

Highlights of aPriori Professional 2018 R1

With aPriori 2018 R1, the company continues its commitment to helping customers overcome these challenges using time-proven product cost management business strategies and the world’s most advanced PCM technology platform.  The primary highlights of this release include:

• aPriori 2018 R1 has been extended to more easily integrate into engineering automation tools that support a Design of Experiments to simultaneously optimize product designs for performance and cost.
• Continued advances have been made in the area of Design to Cost / Design for Manufacturability features so that engineering can quickly and easily get cost and manufacturability feedback early in the design process to eliminate late stage rework and product launch delays.
• aPriori 2018 R1 also features significant upgrades to the Additive Manufacturing cost model, enabling end users to compare traditional subtractive manufacturing processes and additive manufacturing approaches.  Specifically, aPriori now supports Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) which is often used to make metal parts in aerospace, industrial and medical industries. 
• With aPriori 2018 R1, a new Stretch Forming cost model is being introduced.  This manufacturing technique is commonly used in aerospace manufacturers to make large multi-curvature parts with low production rates, such as empennage, wing, fuselage and nacelle components on an airplane.
• aPriori is one of the pioneers responsible for providing quick, automated costing from 3D solid CAD models. In aPriori 2018 R1, aPriori continues its pioneering work in automated design model costing by introducing support for costing of surface models.  Surface models are still used extensively for complex sheet metal parts particularly in the automotive industry.

The items above represent a fraction of the new capabilities delivered in aPriori 2018 R1.  Hundreds of additional enhancements have been implemented in the product’s core Sheet Metal, Sand Casting, Plastic Molding and Bar & Tube cost models, many of which were driven through our collaboration with our expanding customer base.  For a complete list of new features available with aPriori 2018 R1, customers can refer to our Release Notes in the HelpCenter.  An aPriori Support system password is required to access this documentation.

Watch a 2 Minute Video of aPriori 2018 R1 DTC/DFM Capabilities

Enhanced Costing Capabilities for Printed Circuit Board Assembly

With this new release, aPriori continues to upgrade its capabilities around costing the assembly of Wire Harnesses and Printed Circuit Boards.  Through a collaborative process with strategic industry partners, aPriori has implemented the following improvements to our electrical/electronics cost models:

• Performance – costing times are reduced by approximately 50-70% for PCBA and Wire Harness
• Improved Manufacturing Analysis – aPriori 2018 R1 includes numerous updates throughout both modules to better align with real world manufacturing practices
• Workflow – this new release provides better control over which components are used from the component library; users now specify which supplier or manufacturer they want to use for each component as well as having direct control over the purchase quantity assumptions

Watch an Overview of Our Enhanced PCBA Solution

“Our growing customer base in aerospace, automotive, industrial machinery, and electronics markets are facing some extreme challenges in bringing their products to market faster and at target cost.  This latest release of aPriori represents another big step forward in our efforts to provide cost and manufacturability guidance for our customers,” reported Julie Driscoll, Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Product Management.  “Our PCM technology platform is highly unique in that it supports the entire design to delivery process.  Our company was founded on the principle that each day designers, buyers, cost engineers, manufacturing engineers and department leaders are making tradeoff decisions that have a significant impact on product profitability.  aPriori 2018 R1 continues our commitment to providing cost solutions that allow individuals across the entire product lifecycle to understand the cost impact of these decisions – at the exact moment they are making those decisions.”

About aPriori
aPriori software and services generate hard-dollar product cost savings for discrete manufacturing and product innovation companies. Using aPriori’s real-time product cost assessments, employees in engineering, sourcing and manufacturing make more-informed decisions that drive costs out of products pre- and post-production. With aPriori, manufacturers launch products at cost targets, maximize savings in re-work projects and avoid overpaying for sourced parts.  To learn more about aPriori and its product cost management solutions and services, visit www.apriori.com or call 1.978.371.2006.

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