Released on = June 28, 2006, 8:42 am

Press Release Author = John Busa

Industry = Software

Press Release Summary = aPriori Technologies Reduces Product Costs for Discrete
Manufacturers

Press Release Body = According to Frank Azzolino, President of aPriori Technologies,
"Real-time, predictive cost assessments are required to allow discrete manufacturers
to reduce product costs, drive profits and support."

MCAD and PLM markets are maturing and a PLM market that continues to miss the
hopeful expectations of the industry pundits. There have not been significant
advances in MCAD since the late 1980's. The game changing technology of 'feature
based solid modeling' has become a commodity as all of the players have caught up
over the past decade. For a variety of reasons the PLM market has underperformed.
Although the theory of product lifecycle management is sound, realizing the vision
has eluded many companies, taken far longer, cost much more than expected, and
failed to deliver as promised.

According to Azzolino, "One of the reasons for this is the inherent disconnect
between the goals and objectives of the product-centric engineering constituents and
a company's financially based business objectives. There is no better example of
this disconnect than the stark difference between the language of engineering and
the language of business. MCAD and PLM have historically focused on the engineering
and design aspects of product delivery. The language of engineering as spoken by
MCAD and PLM is based on physical attributes of the product and technological
capabilities of the software solutions used."

The language of the business is time and money. It is no secret that the profit
motive is what drives critical company decisions. It is also no secret that much of
a product's ability to achieve the expected financial goals is driven by design and
manufacturing decisions that occur very early in and continually throughout the
product delivery process. The holy grail of 'collaboration' is meaningless if the
parties are not speaking a common language. The 'lingua franca' that translates the
language of engineering into the language of business is 'cost', specifically,
product cost.


Extending beyond the design engineering value, accurate product cost estimates
offload the estimating burden from manufacturing engineers and planners already
challenged with demanding production schedules, decreasing capital investment, and a
dwindling experience base. In addition, predictive cost assessments offer
procurement and sourcing professionals a much needed "should cost" from which to
make better, more efficient sourcing decisions while negotiating from a fact-based
position. Finally, program and project management benefit from real time visibility
to product cost information continually throughout the product development and
delivery process thus avoiding the sudden shock of bad news late in the process.

The result, product cost knowledge, is the common language spoken across the
enterprise and is clearly focused on the business goals (as opposed to parochial
product or feature oriented goals) that reduce costs, increase margins and
contribution, drive profits and support growth.

Based in Concord, MA, aPriori (www.apriori.com) is the technology leader providing
innovative cost management solutions to the discrete manufacturing industry.
aPriori's Cost Management Software Platform enables manufacturers to better
understand product cost decisions early and throughout the product lifecycle.
aPriori's Cost Management Platform empowers manufacturers to lower cost-of-goods
sold (COGS), provides real-time visibility to "cost-critical" decision information,
and builds critical cost knowledge to go on the business "offensive." aPriori's
patent-protected cost management platform allows companies to assess, control, and
reduce cost of goods sold by whole percentages. The aPriori Platform truly enables
"Cost Knowledge Before it Matters."




Web Site = http://www.aPriori.com

Contact Details = Contact:
John Busa
aPriori
978-371-2006
jbusa@apriori.com