aPriori Helps Manufacturers Accelerate Product Development with New Product Release

November 11, 2015 | By Business Wire News

CONCORD, Mass.

aPriori, a provider of enterprise product cost management (EPCM) software solutions today announced the immediate availability of aPriori 2015 R2. This second major software release of 2015 features the introduction of several important new cost models that will help manufacturers get quick answers to cost questions as they evaluate a variety of design alternatives that require Stamping, Machining, Casting and Finishing manufacturing processes to be created.

In a survey published by Techvalidate in August of 2015, more than 50% of manufacturers indicated that it takes 3 weeks or more to get a cost estimate for a new product design using traditional manual cost estimating techniques, or by requesting a quote from a supplier. Another 34% said it takes anywhere from 1 – 2 weeks to get a cost estimate. (Source: TechValidate. TVID: 490-81A-649) With more than 200 automated cost models in the core product, aPriori can provide answers to cost questions in seconds or minutes instead of days or weeks.

aPriori 2015R2 feature several significant advancements to our core automated cost model portfolio, including:

Stamping:
- Blank Flattening cost model – this new capability uses a finite-element-analysis (FEA) based approach to greatly enhance aPriori’s ability to generate accurate material costs and material utilization estimates for formed and drawn automotive components and similar complex stampings.
- Transfer Die cost model – focused on estimating “balanced” parts that do not require non-uniform addendum or double-attached layouts, this cost model was developed in collaboration with automotive industry customers and stamping experts.

Machining:
- Milling, Turning and Grinding – this new release delivers improvements to determining machining set ups, operation selection and bulk milling. The result is cost models that support precise estimating for low-to-medium volume, moderately complex machined components. New operations include: Perimeter Milling, In-process Inspection, Support for Flank Milling, Flat End Mill Contouring, Multi-operation Hole Making and Semi-finish Milling/Turning Operations.

Sand Casting & Finishing:
- aPriori 2015R2 was extended to support costing of large castings (~1,000 – 3,000kg) with manual pit mold making process and larger machines for all core making processes.
- Enhanced cost models for estimating cleaning time and handling-time in the casting process.
- New cost models for surface treatments, testing and inspection processes that are commonly applied to castings – Passivation, Hydrostatic Leak Test, Fluorescent Penetrant Test, Magnetic Penetrant Test, and X-Ray Inspection.

aPriori also continued to underscore its commitment to the implementation of global, enterprise costing solutions by introducing several important new capabilities that facilitate system setup and maintenance, including:

aPriori now supports Microsoft SQL Server for the aPriori operational database. aPriori also will continue to support My SQL and Oracle.
Improved user management with automated LDAP Sync – schedule the synchronization of users and groups from a customer’s Active Directory environment.

“All of the new capabilities we launched in this release were developed in close partnership with our expanding global customer base,” said Julie Driscoll, vice president of strategic marketing and product management. “Customers such as Whirlpool, ThyssenKrupp Elevator, Honeywell Aerospace and Nacco Material Handling Group (NMHG) are just some examples of the different types of companies that we work with to develop new capabilities that can accelerate the costing process and help companies cost optimize a higher percentage of parts than they are today using manual or home-grown costing solutions. aPriori 2015R2, along with the announcement of a major expansion to our Regional Data Libraries, represents another big step forward in our mission to provide real-time visibility to product cost that helps a manufacturer get from concept to customer faster, with a better product, while their competitors are still guessing.”

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. To see an overview demonstration of aPriori, click here.

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