The Hidden Billion-Dollar Leak in Product Development—and How Automated Manufacturing Simulation Stops It

Key Takeaways:

• Automation ensures coverage and consistency. aPriori enables analysis of every part, every design, every time.
• Cross-functional alignment drives results. Shared manufacturing intelligence connects engineering and procurement.
• Early insight equals competitive edge. aPriori empowers teams to prevent cost issues before they occur.
• Data fuels continuous improvement. Quality simulation data powers AI and design guidance across the product lifecycle.

With aPriori’s Manufacturing Intelligence Platform, automation becomes more than a productivity tool—it becomes the engine of enterprise transformation, turning data into profit and speed into strategy.

Full Article

In today’s manufacturing landscape, executives face an impossible equation: deliver more innovation, at lower cost, in less time—and do it with fewer resources. Product teams are under immense pressure to design, source, and launch faster than ever. Yet many still operate within manual, disconnected workflows that delay insight and drive up costs.

The organizations breaking this cycle are those who’ve turned to aPriori’s Manufacturing Intelligence Platform, using automated manufacturing simulation to connect engineering decisions with business outcomes. This approach eliminates guesswork, accelerates time-to-market, and empowers teams to make confident, cost-conscious design and sourcing choices at scale.

Why Products Still Miss Cost and Schedule Targets

Even the world’s largest manufacturers struggle with the same fundamental challenge: a lack of actionable insight early in the product lifecycle.

Engineering teams rarely have visibility into manufacturability and cost trade-offs until late in the design process—when change is expensive and time-consuming. Procurement receives incomplete cost data, limiting their leverage in supplier negotiations and their ability to meet target costs set by the business. Manufacturing teams encounter unexpected design issues only after release which delays production ramp-up, and ultimately fails to meet customer expectations.

These gaps exist not because of poor effort, but because of manual and siloed processes. When cost and DFM (Design for Manufacturability) reviews require hands-on analysis of each part by resources dedicated to cost engineering, only a small fraction of the bill of materials (BOM) gets reviewed. As a result, costly issues often go unnoticed.

Where aPriori Changes the Game

aPriori’s Manufacturing Intelligence Platform removes the manual barrier. By automating DFM and cost estimations across every part in the BOM, it gives product teams complete visibility—early and automatically. Integrated directly with PLM systems such as Windchill® from PTC, aPriori continuously monitors designs, runs manufacturability and cost analyses, and alerts engineers when exceptions occur.

With aPriori automated manufacturing simulation, companies can now review 100% of designs instead of just a few samples—catching issues before they cascade into missed targets and lost margins.

Automation: Turning Insight Into a Continuous Engine of Improvement

Traditional product development depends on milestone-based reviews. aPriori replaces that reactive rhythm with continuous, automated feedback loops.

Once a CAD model is checked into PLM, aPriori’s integrated platform automatically retrieves geometry and metadata, runs simulations, and provides instant results—without user intervention. Designers get direct feedback via email or dashboard alerts only when an exception needs attention.

Instead of relying on sporadic design reviews, teams receive constant, proactive manufacturability and cost feedback, ensuring no design moves forward with hidden risks.

This automation allows organizations to focus on what matters most—the 20% of parts that make up 80% of total cost—while improving throughput, quality, and profitability.

Watch Our Webinar: Dramatically Reduce Costs with Automated Should Cost Analysis

Quantifying the Business Impact

Across industries, aPriori customers consistently report 20–25% BOM cost reductions on first-generation models and multi-million-dollar annual cost avoidance through automated early insights. But the deeper value lies in agility and scalability.

By connecting engineering, sourcing, and manufacturing data through one digital thread, aPriori enables companies to:

• Launch on time and under target cost through early detection of cost and manufacturability issues.
• Accelerate supplier negotiations with data-backed should-cost estimates.
• Continuously improve through analytics and design guidance across projects.

For global manufacturers, this means turning engineering into a predictable profit generator rather than a reactive cost center.

Watch this Amazing Case Study Video: How Dana Corporation Saved Millions in Their First Year with aPriori DTC/DFM

How aPriori’s Manufacturing Intelligence Platform Works

At its core, aPriori bridges the gap between digital design and physical production. Here’s how it works:

1. Automated Data Capture
   When a designer checks a model into PLM, aPriori automatically pulls CAD and metadata—no manual upload needed.
2. Automated Analysis
   aPriori’s simulation engine evaluates each design for manufacturability, cost, and sustainability (including carbon impact).
3. Automated Reporting & Alerts
   Designers receive direct alerts for exceptions—out-of-tolerance costs, manufacturability concerns, or sustainability targets.
4. Data-Driven Insights
   All simulation data flows into a centralized analytics environment, powering dashboards, reports, and design guidance.

This process ensures that every in-scope design is analyzed, documented, and actionable, providing a foundation for intelligent automation across the enterprise.

The Four Pillars of Automation Maturity

Achieving true digital transformation in manufacturing isn’t a single leap — it’s a structured progression. Organizations evolve as they build stronger data foundations, embed automation into daily workflows, and measure the impact of every design decision. aPriori defines this evolution through four pillars of automation maturity—a framework that helps manufacturers move from isolated insights to enterprise-wide intelligence, ensuring every product decision drives measurable business outcomes.

1. Data & Insights
   aPriori’s platform creates a complete digital thread linking design, cost, and manufacturability data. This enables teams to analyze their entire product portfolio, not just individual parts, ensuring visibility and consistency across programs.
2. Learning & Application
   With aPriori, lessons learned in one project are automatically carried forward. Built-in design guidance steer engineers in real time—identifying recurring DFM issues, comparing design alternatives, and surfacing the best-practice path forward.
3. Process
   aPriori embeds manufacturability and cost simulation directly into existing workflows. Engineers don’t need to leave their native tools for third-party design review software—feedback is automatically delivered where they already work, reducing friction and accelerating adoption.
4. Measurement
   Executives gain real-time visibility into performance with aPriori’s Design Value and Spend Analysis Dashboards. These quantify the financial impact of engineering, linking design activity directly to cost avoidance, margin improvement, and sustainability gains.

From Engineering to Procurement: Closing the Loop

When engineering and procurement operate on different data sets, collaboration becomes negotiation. aPriori eliminates that disconnect.

For example, if engineering determines the should cost for a part is $10 but the supplier quotes $18, procurement can use aPriori’s detailed cost breakdown—materials, processes, tolerances, labor—to drive a fact-based conversation. The team can ask:

This shared intelligence turns supplier discussions into value-based collaborations rather than price disputes.

By connecting aPriori’s simulation data with sourcing workflows, procurement gains a strategic advantage—shorter negotiation cycles, more accurate pricing, and enhanced supplier trust.

Standardizing Decision-Making Through Dashboards

Executives need clear visibility into where value is created—and where it’s lost. aPriori delivers that through its suite of executive dashboards, which make cost and risk performance measurable, traceable, and actionable.

• The Design Value Dashboard provides real-time insight into project-level cost and manufacturability risk. Leaders can compare performance across programs, identify systemic challenges, and drill into root causes.
• The Spend Analysis Dashboard quantifies realized savings and links design and sourcing decisions to financial outcomes.

This unified view allows executives to manage product profitability with the same rigor applied to sales or operations.

Data as the Currency of Competitive Advantage

Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, and a technology thought leader, once said, “Data has to be a part of the process of making the business smarter. It’s not just about collecting it; it’s about connecting it to action.”

aPriori operationalizes this principle. By embedding manufacturability and cost intelligence directly into the product lifecycle, it ensures data isn’t trapped in reports—it’s used to drive decisions, reduce risk, and improve profitability.

The results speak for themselves:

• Faster time to market through early issue detection.
• Reduced engineering workload by focusing on the highest-impact parts.
• Improved supplier collaboration grounded in data transparency.
• Sustainable cost leadership across programs and product lines.

The Executive Imperative

For executives steering complex global organizations, one truth is becoming undeniable: automation is now the defining competitive advantage.

aPriori’s Manufacturing Intelligence Platform connects engineering, sourcing, and manufacturing in a unified digital ecosystem. It transforms fragmented processes into a continuous loop of insight and improvement—where every design decision is informed by real-world manufacturing intelligence.

The companies that invest in this capability today will not just keep up—they’ll lead. They’ll launch faster, operate leaner, and outpace competitors that are still relying on manual review and late-stage firefighting.

Automation is not replacing human expertise. It’s amplifying it—and with aPriori, it’s doing so at enterprise scale.