Newest Version of aPriori to be Showcased in Webinar on September 23rd
Concord, Mass. – September 2, 2009 – aPriori today announced the availability of aPriori 7, the newest version of its market-leading Product Cost Management software platform. aPriori provides manufacturers real-time visibility to product cost that supports:
- Launching New Products at or Below Target Cost
- Maximizing Cost Savings on Re-Work Projects
- Never Overpaying for Outsourced Parts
- Increasing the Accuracy and Speed of RFQ Responses
With aPriori 7 discrete manufacturers can cost a wider range of manufacturing processes than ever before, implement extensive customizations to their Virtual Production Environments (VPEs), and simplify the process of maintaining their VPEs. A summary of new functionality introduced with this release is provided below:
- Expanded Capabilities to Create Additional Manufacturing Processes and Configure VPEs – examples of the capabilities now possible with aPriori 7 include:
- Adding progressive die stamping at a Sheet Metal VPE
- Implementing an alternative casting process such as permanent mold or investment casting at a Casting VPE
- Configuring machining operations such as tapping, thread milling, and deep drilling at a Machining VPE
- Configuring special surface treatment steps such as chrome plating or heat treatment at a VPE
- Configuring a VPE to support direct user specification of raw material cost
- Configuring a VPE to support user specification of manufacturing details, such as special handling times
- Configuring a VPE to display additional output information, such as the total number of hits estimated for a turret press step
- Enhanced Sheet Metal Cost Model – A new version of the aPriori Sheet Metal process group is now available with several substantial enhancements over prior versions, including:
- Routings – Users now have access to a more flexible set of routings and easier control over the inclusion or exclusion of optional routing steps, such as painting or plating.
- Manufacturing Rules – aPriori will now automatically alter a routing based on available tolerance and roughness information on part features or specific Geometric Cost Drivers.
- Geometry Analysis – Sheet Metal geometry analysis has been improved to include handling parts with rounds on the part edge, better handling of blind holes, and substantial improvements in analyzing candidate setup axes for secondary machining
- Enhanced VPE Maintenance – The VPE management tool has been improved to enable customers to define, edit, and maintain all data at their VPEs, including: maintaining material, machine, workcenter, lookup table (e.g., cut rate), toolshop and tool material data.
- Complete 3D CAD Independence – In version 6.0, aPriori started the process of expanding beyond coverage for only Pro/ENGINEER CAD models by introducing support for CATIA v5. Since then, CAD support has expanded to include all other major CAD platforms on the market, including: Siemens NX, Solidworks and Autodesk Inventor. With aPriori 7, complete 3D CAD independence has been achieved by providing the capability to cost STEP and Parasolid parts & assemblies. Support for the STEP neutral file format will allow customers to cost models from any other niche 3D CAD application that may still be in use at their facility.
“The aPriori product management and development teams have spent a significant amount of time working with customers over the past year to understand what are the most important development projects from their perspective,” said Jeremy Rishel, Chief Technology Officer at aPriori. “By far, completeness of cost ranked the highest across our entire customer base. With aPriori 7, our Product Cost Management software platform has taken a giant step forward toward achieving this objective by enabling the addition of numerous specialized manufacturing processes to existing process groups. In most manufacturing process groups, the quantity of operations now available has more than doubled. Furthermore, the ability to implement a wide variety of customizations to aPriori VPEs will allow customers to finely tune their virtual factories and yield an accurate cost assessment in a way that was never possible before.”
About aPriori
aPriori software and services generate hard-dollar product cost savings for discrete manufacturing organizations. Using aPriori’s real-time product cost assessments, employees in sourcing, manufacturing and design engineering 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 never overpay for sourced parts.
To learn more about aPriori and its product cost management solutions and services, or to see an online demonstration, visit www.apriori.com or call 1.978.371.2006.
aPriori and aPriori Technologies are registered trademarks of aPriori Technologies Inc. All other trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks belong to their respective holders.