Top 5 Automaker Chooses aPriori to Accelerate Cost Reduction Goals

Why a New Solution Was Needed

Headquartered in the U.S., this global leader in automotive manufacturing faced challenges in meeting aggressive cost-down targets. Engineering teams relied on cumbersome cost estimation spreadsheets and tools that could not scale across various design and product engineering teams. Effective collaboration was constrained, making it difficult to optimize component design costs quickly and confidently. They found that cost misalignment between engineering and sourcing teams, along with a lack of confidence in the cost estimates, significantly contributed to delays in product and component releases.

To address these collaboration issues, the company aimed to implement an advanced, centralized product cost management solution that all engineering teams could easily use. “We need to have all different teams working with the same tool. We don’t want to have the chassis team doing their own thing and the body team doing something else,” said one of the company’s senior engineers. “This tool has to be an integrator of how we architect our products so we can reduce the cost at the vehicle level, not just piece by piece.”

Key Decision Criteria for Choosing aPriori

The automaker selected aPriori’s AI-powered design & sourcing insights platform based on three main criteria:

1. The ability to obtain faster results and accelerate design decisions, cost reviews, and approval workflows
2. Greater transparency into manufacturing cost estimation and critical product data, helping designers understand how the automation-driven solution generates accurate results
3. A user-friendly interface that empowers designers to leverage the solution seamlessly for weekly tasks

With aPriori’s fast 3D computer-aided design (CAD) to cost analysis functionality, users can automatically extract geometry from 3D CAD models to produce quick and precise estimates. This analysis provides detailed cost breakdowns, allowing teams to assess the total cost of products early in the design process. Users can also compare costs for various design alternatives, including materials, manufacturing methods, and the impact of geometry and tolerance changes. As a result, the design team can capture significant cost savings, reduce time-consuming rework/redesign, and take proactive steps toward effective product optimization.

The senior engineer expands on the benefits of using aPriori’s real-time insights, stating, “aPriori is a tool that teaches engineers to be better engineers because they are going to know why they are designing the part the way it is and know how to optimize it from a cost-conscious perspective. It’s a tool that allows them to be more well-rounded engineers.”