Materials
The Regional Data Libraries support commonly used material compositions appropriate to each manufacturing process group. Prices, physical properties, and material stock sizes are maintained on a global level and are based on common data sources. Metal compositions are maintained using their US standard names and various international standards — DIN (German Institute for Standardization), EN (European Standard), JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) and GB (Guobiao standards – China). Polymers are listed by US names and common European names. Material prices are updated semi-annually.
The primary material price data source is the Kerkhoff Consulting Group and the aPriori cost modeling team maintains market adjustment factors to align the prices with competitive material rates offered by mills and large regional distributors. Other data sources used to validatethe material rates are:
• Current and historical material pricing data from OEMs, Mills
• Public material commodity tracking sites, e.g. American Metal Market LLC, PlasticsNews Global Group
• Relevant financial market sites, e.g. London Metals Exchange
• Relevant financial indicators, e.g. Dow Jones U.S. Iron and Steel Index (DJUSST), U.S. Aluminum Index (DJUSAL), Bloomberg European Steel Index (BESTEEL:IND)
• Various supplemental industry sites and publications,
e.g. Plastics Technology, Steel Business Briefing
These sources provide tracking of contracts traded on specific commodity exchanges, aggregates of “self- reported” material price data based on actual transactions from a broad group of data providers (materials buyers), and trend analysis and forecasting for materials market conditions. Spot calibrations and adjustments are made to specific commodity items on an as-needed basis. Customer feedback and learning from customer engagements also enhance the material data.