aPriori Digital Factories: Revolutionizing Cost and Manufacturability

Takeaways:

• In today’s rapidly evolving manufacturing landscape, the need for advancements in precise, real-time cost and manufacturability insights is paramount.
• Digital Factories are emerging as critical tools for achieving this, enabling organizations to optimize product design, sourcing, and manufacturing processes.
• This paper highlights the unique advantages of aPriori’s Digital Factory platform and demonstrates why it represents the superior choice for manufacturers seeking to enhance their operational efficiency and profitability.

The Need for Advanced Digital Factories

Modern manufacturing is characterized by increasing complexity, digital transformation, constantly shifting supply chains, and relentless pressure to reduce costs and time-to-market. Digital Factories provide a virtual representation of manufacturing processes, enabling organizations to simulate and analyze the impact of design and sourcing decisions. The ability to predict manufacturing costs and identify potential manufacturability issues early in the product lifecycle is crucial for achieving a competitive advantage.

How aPriori Digital Factories Are Unique

aPriori provides a highly precise and detailed cost and manufacturability platform that is very unique from any other product on the market. Key differentiators include:

• Physics-Based Costing: aPriori’s engine simulates manufacturing processes at a granular level, considering factors such as material properties, machine capabilities, and labor rates. This results in more precise and reliable cost predictions.
• Automated Manufacturability Analysis: The software automatically identifies potential manufacturability issues from any 3D CAD model, enabling design engineers to optimize their designs for cost and manufacturability. Automation is one of the key benefits of aPriori, helping teams get their jobs done faster.
• Real-Time Simulation and Analysis: aPriori provides real-time feedback on the cost and manufacturability implications of design changes, facilitating rapid iteration and optimization.
• Comprehensive Manufacturing Process Support: The platform supports a wide range of manufacturing processes, including machining, stamping, casting, forging, injection molding, fabrication, and many more.
• Deep Supply Chain Intelligence: aPriori’s platform enables users to rapidly assess the cost impact of changing supply chain conditions. Whether it’s the Fukushima meltdown, a financial collapse, a pandemic, or tariffs, something will impact your supply chain, and aPriori can help quickly examine alternative connections.

The Benefits of aPriori’s Unique Approach

aPriori’s Digital Factories are like no other software product on the market today. The most fundamental benefits are Velocity and Precision. Velocity allows designers, sourcing specialists, or cost engineers to understand the manufacturability and/or cost of product designs in seconds. The benefit of Precision is that the platform produces consistent results every time, no matter who uses the software. For companies with product teams located around the world, this is a critical benefit. Beyond velocity and precision, three other benefits deliver an exceptional Return on Investment for our customers.

3D CAD Integration

Connecting aPriori Digital Factories with 3D CAD models offers significant digital transformation benefits to manufacturers. The software automatically analyzes 3D CAD models to identify potential manufacturability issues, enabling design engineers to optimize their designs for cost and manufacturability. Users only need to open the model in aPriori, answer a few basic questions about the manufacturing process (e.g., where will the product be manufactured, what is the annual volume?, what manufacturing process should be used?), and aPriori automatically runs a detailed manufacturing simulation.

This early-stage analysis provides real-time feedback on the cost and manufacturability implications of design changes, facilitating rapid iteration and data-driven decision-making. By connecting the Digital Factory to the design phase through CAD models, manufacturers can proactively address potential issues, reduce development time, and ultimately lower production costs. aPriori can quickly read 3D CAD models from all the leading companies in this space, including: PTC Creo, Siemens NX, Autodesk Inventor, and Dassault Systèmes’ Solidworks and CATIA.

Eliminating Cost Overruns to Improve Profitability

Cost overruns are a persistent challenge in manufacturing, often stemming from inaccurate initial estimates, unforeseen design complexities, inefficient manufacturing processes, and volatile material costs. aPriori’s Digital Factories directly address these issues through

• Precise Cost Prediction: Using a physics-based costing engine, aPriori provides detailed and precise cost estimates early in the design phase. This accuracy helps to avoid the common pitfall of underestimating costs, which leads to budget overruns as the project progresses.
• Design Optimization for Cost: The software’s manufacturability analysis tools (DtC and DfM) enable engineers to identify and eliminate cost-driving design features. This proactive approach ensures that products are designed for cost-effectiveness from the outset, minimizing the risk of expensive redesigns or manufacturing inefficiencies.  aPriori is the only software that provides DfX capabilities and detailed cost analysis in a single platform.
• Strategic Supply Chain Cost Management: aPriori allows manufacturers to quickly evaluate the cost implications of different sourcing options and changing supply chain conditions. This capability helps make data-driven decisions that can mitigate the impact of fluctuating material costs or supplier pricing, preventing unexpected cost increases.

Bringing New Products to Market “Right the First Time”

Delays in bringing products to market can result in lost revenue, decreased market share, and a weakened competitive position. aPriori’s Digital Factories help to accelerate time-to-market by:

• Accelerated Design Iteration: Real-time feedback on cost and manufacturability allows for rapid design iterations and quick resolution of potential issues. This speed and agility in the design process help to compress development cycles. It also helps identify and eliminate design ideas that are too costly early in the design process.
• Early Issue Identification: Automated manufacturability analysis enables early decision-making, preventing costly delays when these issues are discovered late in the development process.
• Streamlined Prototyping: Providing precise cost and manufacturability data during the prototyping phase, aPriori data analytics enables companies to make quick decisions and avoid delays associated with redesigns or manufacturing challenges.

Real-World Applications (Anonymized Examples)

• “A global automotive manufacturer utilized aPriori to analyze and optimize the design of a complex engine component. This resulted in a 15% reduction in manufacturing costs and a 20% reduction in lead time.”
• “An industrial equipment producer used aPriori to evaluate multiple sourcing options for a fabricated assembly, identifying a lower-cost supplier that maintained quality standards, saving millions of dollars.”
• “A high-tech company utilized aPriori to quickly analyze the cost implications of design changes during a rapid prototyping phase, allowing them to bring a new product to market three months ahead of schedule.”
• “A manufacturer of consumer electronics was able to reduce the cost of a plastic injection molded component by 12% by using aPriori to optimize wall thickness and gate location.”

Conclusion

aPriori’s cloud-based Digital Factories represent the most comprehensive and effective solution for manufacturers seeking to optimize their product design, sourcing, and manufacturing ecosystem. Providing precise, real-time cost and manufacturability insights, aPriori empowers organizations to make data-driven decisions that drive significant cost savings, improve time-to-market, and enhance profitability. For manufacturers seeking to achieve a competitive edge in today’s dynamic market, aPriori’s Digital Factories are the clear choice.