aPriori Profiled in Manufacturing.net by Manufacturing Journalist TR Cutler

Thomas R. Cutler | April 11, 2006

In the April 2006 issue of Manufacturing.net, part of Reed Business Information, (http://www.manufacturing.net/article/CA6322329.html) Manufacturing Journalist Thomas R. Cutler profiles aPriori’s cost management platform. According to Cutler, “Discrete-part manufacturing companies are experiencing a demanding and difficult combination of price pressure from customers, rising costs (both internally and from vendors), international competition, and income growth pressure from investors.”

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) has become an increasingly important metric as the largest expense item on the income statement; typically 70% to 90% of revenue. Manufacturers are forced to focus on product cost and profit margins with renewed vigor.

Cost targets, an important component of design-to-cost strategies, are now being defined early and with greater granularity, even down to the individual component level. Meeting these detailed cost targets at product launch (avoiding expensive, lengthy post-production cost reduction phases) is a new challenge and manufacturers are struggling to find effective systems or tools to assist in this effort. A Cost Management (CM) platform, such as that developed by aPriori, can help manufacturers address the challenges in New Product Introduction (NPI) programs.

New Product Introduction refers to the complete business process within an organization for introducing new products or product models to market. Today’s NPI process is a cross-functional business process, including both internal functions and external suppliers or partners. Most manufacturers are still struggling to break the historical functional divisions or silos, notably between Marketing, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Procurement. This struggle continues to exist because important product, process, and customer information is still trapped in these functions emerging only at serial release stages or gates.

Based in Concord, MA, aPriori is the technology leader providing innovative cost management solutions to the discrete manufacturing industry. aPriori’s Cost Management Software Platform enables manufacturers to better understand product cost decisions early and throughout the product lifecycle. aPriori’s Cost Management Platform empowers manufacturers to lower cost-of-goods sold (COGS), provides real-time visibility to “cost-critical” decision information, and builds critical cost knowledge to go on the business “offensive.” aPriori’s patent-protected cost management platform allows companies to assess, control, and reduce cost of goods sold by whole percentages. The aPriori Platform enables “Cost Knowledge Before it Matters.”