A software implementation and consulting service, Quick Start, to help customers to quickly implement their cost management/estimating systems and maximize their efficiency.

MTI Systems introduces Quick Start, a new cost effective product service and consulting option that helps customers to quickly implement their cost management/estimating systems and to maximize their efficiency and profitability. Quick Start not only teaches company personnel to use Costimator and FabriCost, it also helps companies to tailor their Costimator and FabriCost databases to their specific manufacturing and/or fabrication capabilities. 'In addition to providing cutting-edge cost management and estimating solutions, MTI Systems has always emphasized quality service and careful attention to our individual customer's needs,' said MTI Systems' Chief Technology Officer, Tom Charkiewicz.

'Quick Start, the latest service innovation for our customers, will provide a new level of personal customer support and software implementation.' MTI Systems consultants working through Quick Start, visit the customer's facilities and aid them in the designing of feature-based estimating 'configurators' for the Costimator or FabriCost cost management/estimating software.

'Configurators' are programs that use pre-calculated costs of manufacturing and installing various features, parts and parametric estimating methods, such as regression analysis and linear analysis.

Through Quick Start, customers are quickly using our Costimator or FabriCost software along with their tailored databases to perform their daily cost estimating, target costing, 'make or buy' analysis, and 'should cost' modeling duties.

A powerful program designed specifically for OEMs makes significant savings by revealing true part costs for all types of manufacturing applications, including machining, fabricating, and assembly.

MTI Systems has released its new Costimator OEM Software, a powerful program designed specifically for OEM's. The system, used by many Fortune 500 Companies worldwide, allows OEM's to realize significant savings by revealing true part costs for all types of manufacturing applications, including machining, fabricating, and assembly. Purchased-part cost savings - the program enables OEM's to justify to suppliers what they expect to pay for parts and why.

At the heart of Costimator OEM Software is an innovative program called Shop Rate CalculatorTM (SRC), the first of its kind to be offered to industry.

SRC takes actual labor rates, along with several default factors, to produce accurate supplier shop rates.

The SRC database comes loaded with labor rates for the entire U.S.

as well most countries worldwide.

By combining shop rates with accurate, detailed manufacturing times, OEM's can obtain the information they need to negotiate lower purchased-part costs.

David LaJoie, MTI Vice President, reports; ' Today, 80% of our inquiries are from OEM's looking to use our software to justify the pricing they are receiving from their suppliers.

They have reported very impressive cost reductions on purchased parts, sometimes as high as 50%.' In addition to purchased-part savings, Costimator OEM has many other cost /efficiency benefits such as the ability to compare designs to determine the most functional way to manufacture a new part, or to analyze how various manufacturing processes effect productivity and profitability.

The system also allows 'make vs buy' decisions to be made, enabling manufacturers to analyze in-house capabilities as compared to their suppliers.

These features promote increased efficiency, lean manufacturing techniques and even improved supplier relations.

For more detailed feature information, refer to the end of this release.

Fast R.O.I.

and minimal ramp-up time - Costimator OEM is easy to use and comes pre-loaded with thousands of industry standard time / cost elements as well as three estimating levels: detailed (by operation), feature-based (part features) or configurator (part families).

A powerful decision-support software tool reliably estimates cost, staffing, schedule, reliability, and risk associated with all types of software development and/or maintenance projects.

Galorath International, leading provider of advanced modeling tools for project estimation, planning and project control, has released SEER-SEM Version 7.2. a powerful decision-support tool that reliably estimates cost, staffing, schedule, reliability, and risk associated with all types of software development and/or maintenance projects. Version 7.2 incorporates enhancements that make the software easier to customise.

Flexible Activities and Labor Allocations (FALA) allows users to rename software phases and labour categories and apply user-created custom naming schemes.

'The addition of FALA to the SEER-SEM software model is a huge milestone for us,' said managing director Carl Dalton.

'By giving users the ability to use their own naming schemes, it allows SEER-SEM to lay out the estimates according to a software development shop's terminology and culture.

It can also be configured to align with any software development lifecycle methodology.' Also included in Version 7.2 are new and updated Knowledge Bases.

These allow users to apply the experience of past projects in an industry database in order to build more objective, reliable, repeatable and traceable estimates.

Three new Acquisition Method Knowledge Bases that describe the scope and type of project being developed or maintained, have been added: Reverse Engineering, Data Conversion and Average Modification.

The Platform Knowledge Bases that calibrate the basic framework of the software project, have been updated to include 2006 labour rates.

Version 7.2 includes updates to SEER Parametric Project Monitoring and Control (SEER-PPMC), available in the SEER-SEM Project Manager and Studio Editions.

The enhanced SEER-PPMC includes the following features.

* New and enhanced forecasting methods to improve the Estimate at Complete - the projected final outcome of the project based on the initial estimate assumptions and the progress to date.

Its calculations now incorporate size growth, a critical factor for many organisations that struggle with increases in project scope.

There is also an option to base Estimate At Complete on either Recent Performance or on Cumulative Performance.

* The new Time Now enhancement shows the progress or Estimate At Complete - based on a previous snapshot, giving users the ability to review past progress as compared to current results.

* Users can now send PPMC reports and snapshots views to the clipboard, to a disk file or to a SEER-SEM Customer Presort.

* About Galorath - for more than 25 years, engineers, project managers and cost estimators throughout the world have turned to Galorath for the industry's most comprehensive set of decision-support and process management tools.

Combined with extensive consulting and support services, Galorath's SEER estimation and analysis tools derive cost, schedule and staffing estimates by assessing the interaction and impact of product, organisational and even operational variables.

This parametric methodology, coupled with the industry's most comprehensive knowledge bases, creates a rapid and powerful view of the critical factors driving program decisions and success from early concepts through upgrade and maintenance phases.

The international headquarters, Galorath International, is located in Farnham, Surrey, UK.

Cost estimating software is designed to meet the cost estimating needs all job shops, regardless of the type of processes they perform and at a price point that any company can afford.

MTI Systems has released its new Costimato JS (Job Shop) Software, combining two of their existing software programs, Costimator and FabriCost, into one comprehensive cost estimating system. By combining the two programs the company has created one estimating package for all manufacturing processes, including all forms of machining, fabricating and assembly. That's not all the good news: the system, while combining the best features of Costimator and FabriCost, also sells for less than half the price of its predecessors.

Tom Charkiewicz, President and CTO of MTI Systems explains the company's pricing strategy, saying, 'We wanted to create a product that could meet the cost estimating needs all Job Shops, regardless of the type of processes they perform, at a price point that any company can afford.

We think we've done that with Costimator JS.' The assure quick start-up, the system comes complete with over 3,200 labor and machine handling standards, 2,400 built-in materials, over 1,600 work centers and 700 assembly standards.

The system provides numerous benefits (as reported by users), including: * A 20-100% increase in quote 'win' percentage.

* 50-200% reduction in estimating time.

* Eliminates 'loser' jobs.

* Increases shop floor productivity by up to 25%.

* Increases profit margin on existing jobs by 10-25%.

The company reports that the typical ROI for users of Costimator and FabriCost to be 3-6 months and expects even quicker returns from the new Costimator JS product.

GKN's Aerospace Services European estimation team has a new tool and process to replace their legacy system, giving them the competitive edge in winning projects.

GKN's Aerospace Services European estimation team has a new tool and process to replace their legacy system, giving them the competitive edge in winning projects Dave Morgan is the estimating manager for GKN Aerospace Services (GKNAS) in Cowes, Isle of Wight, Hampshire, in the United Kingdom. Morgan and his team of three estimators, plus four others from other European sites in Munich, Germany, and Yeovil, UK, are tasked with creating highly detailed estimates for cost, effort, time and schedule that are required on the numerous projects for which GKNAS submits bids. These estimates must be as accurate as possible - anything too high and GKNAS may not win the work, anything too low and it could actually end up costing GKNAS to do the project.

'Our most important goal is winning profitable work,' Morgan states.

'Bids need to have a maximum amount of detailed effort and be produced in a minimum amount of time.

There is great pressure to do this.' Up until recently, Morgan's team has been using a computer aided planning system to help them arrive at their estimates.

'Our current system's time has expired.

It's old and doesn't work very well.

We need something with more features and more support,' said Morgan.

He spoke to John Henson, the estimating manager at another GKN enterprise, Westland Helicopters who recommended the estimating tools they use at Westland, SEER-H (Hardware Model) and SEER-DFM (Design for Manufacturability Model).

Morgan had Galorath's International Managing Director, Carl Dalton, come in and show the team both models.

They first tried to use SEER-H without any instruction on one of their known products, an A-380 component, and got an estimate of GBP120,000 using only a limited number of inputs and Knowledge Bases (pre-set parameters for well-known elements of projects).

After Dalton took them through the model, explaining the array of parameters and their settings and asking them questions about their practices along the way to ensure the parameters were correctly adjusted, the tool produced an estimate of GBP 46,000 - 2% from the actual cost! 'That really impressed us.

Carl didn't know what the actual cost was so we realized right then that SEER was a very powerful tool,' said Morgan.

The next step was to demonstrate SEER-H and SEER-DFM to Paul Cocker, Group Commercial Director for GKNAS, and his European Commercial Team.

The demonstration gave an overview of the SEER Suite of tools, along with the above SEER-H A-380 detailed example, and six other SEER-H samples that had been carried out.

Cocker then requested a further demonstration the following week at the Farnborough Air Show, for his US Commercial Team.

The feedback from these meetings led Cocker to conclude that the SEER products would offer a common estimating basis across the whole group, the ability to create top's down parametric estimates in SEER-H, and bottom's up estimates with SEER-DFM.

Furthermore, the fact that the SEER products are being used by GKNAS' leading customers (and in some cases, these customers are in the process of developing enhancements for the SEER products) convinced Cocker of the benefits of the SEER products and led to him sanctioning the purchase of SEER-H and SEER-DFM for use in GKNAS sites in the United States and in Europe.

Morgan was assigned the task of overseeing the SEER implementation for GKNAS, Europe.

The team needed to learn to use SEER, calibrate it to their specific projects, and gain faith in it.

Morgan decided on a tandem approach and set up several check points and processes to help ease in SEER and sunset their existing tool.

The first step was training.

Galorath's Senior Consultant, Joe Falque, trained the entire European team over the course of five days on how to use SEER-H and SEER-DFM.

He used specific GKNAS projects during the training so the team was familiar with the parameters and how to accurately estimate them.

He immediately followed training with three days of SEER-QuickStart consulting, a hands-on, highly intensive consulting package that gets users up and running so they can calibrate their projects and learn the finer details, efficiency tips and customizations of the tool, quickly and effectively.

'Joe was magnificent,' stated Morgan.

'He took every unique GKNAS component, looked at it, analyzed it, and showed us how to estimate it.

That process really helped us hit the ground running.' Morgan's next challenge was deriving a way to enable his team to use similar files, even though they are located in three different locations across Europe.

The team was split into SEER-H and SEER-DFM user groups, a provisional GKNAS operating procedure was drawn up for both SEER systems, that classified when and how to use the SEER models, to ensure that estimators at each site could use each others cost models.

The decision was taken to fast track SEER-H ahead of DFM as it was felt more beneficial to improve the three sites estimating bidding process, with SEER-DFM being developed at a slower pace.

A follow up SEER-H users meeting is set for June 2003, with SEER-DFM users meeting set for end of 2003.

The plan is to launch the SEER systems as GKNAS Europe standard estimating processes at the users meetings.

Knowing the team would be getting together in June for a two-day check point meeting, estimators at all three locations, Cowes, Yeovil and Munich, started building cost models in SEER-H for each bid they had estimated.

They then undertook calibration using actuals or estimates.

By doing this, they were able to build up families of product types and they plan to have completed 60-80 calibrated GKNAS components (known in SEER as Knowledge Bases) for the users meeting.

At the users meeting, the team will go through the work, analyze where they have made changes in SEER-H and how the changes impacted the estimate.

The team needs to agree on the changes, standardize their practice, formalize their operation procedure, and then link to each other via GKNAS internal network.

Already this approach has proven to be successful.

In January, Morgan's colleagues in Munich performed SEER-H estimates on cross beams.

They worked together to chose which knowledge bases fitted the best and found they could do the estimate in 1-2 hours whereas in the past it took them 1-2 weeks! By using the Knowledge Bases in SEER-H, they were able to come within 4% of their actuals.

'We now need to prove we can do this consistently and progressively,' said Morgan.

Additionally, Morgan's team is using SEER-H to apply a fresh approach to new bids.

By choosing SEER-H files that are similar to past projects, they are able to copy it, change the parameters to fit the new project, replicate the file and then generate the estimate.

'Right now we also have to add detailed estimates on top of the SEER-H estimates to support them, which usually takes two weeks.

But once we have full confidence in our ability to use SEER-H accurately, that will stop,' stated Morgan.

After the June check-point, Morgan's goal is to use the SEER-H software almost exclusively, having confidence in it so they don't have to do a 'ton of detail' because all the detail will already be in the model.

The cost of goods sold in manufacturing can be as much as 70-90% of revenue, and users of a cost management software platform have documented up to a 34% in cost of goods sold reduction.
While credited with bringing much-needed productivity improvements to the discrete manufacturing industry, existing MCAD, PLM and ERP products are primarily focused on the promise of soft savings such as time to market, productivity and process improvements, and other operational efficiencies. Unfortunately, the direct benefits from these technologies have been difficult to measure and quantify and are considered by many to be the next in a long history of undelivered promises. In today's business climate, companies can no longer settle for the promise of soft savings and must demand quantifiable, verifiable and predictable ROI.

Realising hard savings is only possible if discrete manufacturing companies can satisfy today's demand for a direct and measurable reduction of COGS.

According to Frank Azzolino, President and CEO of aPriori, 'Our customers have documented up to a 34% COGS reduction.' As discrete manufacturing companies experience increasing price pressure from customers, rising supplier costs, overseas competition, and income growth pressure from investors, they are forced to scrutinise product margins and cost of goods sold (COGS) with renewed vigor.

Across a variety of market sectors, COGS are typically as high as 70-90% of revenue.

The ability to directly reduce COGS presents the opportunity to significantly impact a company's bottom line.

According to a recent industry analyst report in which 150 of the top US manufacturing companies were surveyed, cost estimation and control were identified as management's number one concern.

* About aPriori - based in Concord, Massachusetts, USA, aPriori 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.

Realising hard savings is only possible if discrete manufacturing companies can satisfy today's demand for a direct and measurable reduction of cost-of-goods sold using effective software.

Realising hard savings is only possible if discrete manufacturing companies can satisfy today's demand for a direct and measurable reduction of cost-of-goods sold (COGS). A clear and undisputed characteristic of product delivery is that as much as 70% to 80% of the total product cost is a direct result of the design decisions made in the first 10% to 15% of the product development process. According to Frank Azzolino, president and CEO of aPriori, 'Our strategy is simple: enable discrete manufacturing companies to identify and assess costs from the conceptual design through production, and provide the means to leverage the existing infrastructure and systems of record'.

'As companies grasp the flexibility and scalability of aPriori's solution, they will significantly reduce COGS by accurately assessing and managing costs early enough in the product development process to affect the critical decisions that impact and control costs.' * About aPriori - based in Concord, Massachusetts, USA, aPriori 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-prot! ected 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'.

A cost management platform brings much needed innovation to the discrete manufacturing industry by providing real-time, predictive cost assessments throughout the product delivery cycle.
Companies are in the continuous pursuit of lowering cost-of-goods sold. According to Frank Azzolino, president and CEO of aPriori, 'Costs related to materials, labor, and logistics are more predictable and available more quickly and accurately than ever before with aPriori.' The aPriori Cost Management Platform is the first solution to bring much needed innovation to the discrete manufacturing industry by providing real-time, predictive cost assessments throughout the entire product delivery cycle.' As manufacturing companies realise increased price pressure from customers, rising supplier costs, and overseas competition, the opportunity to impact the bottom-line is significant. Azzolino notes that, 'aPriori enables designers, manufacturing engineers and planners, purchasing and sourcing professionals, cost managers, program and project management, and senior management to make better decisions to reduce, avoid, and recover product costs.' Companies can reduce COGS by whole percentages by identifying quantifiable savings in material, tooling, labor, and overhead while evaluating alternative designs, processes, and sources.

Based in Concord, Massachusetts, USA, aPriori 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-prot! ected 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'.

In today's business climate, companies can no longer settle for the promise of soft savings and must demand quantifiable, verifiable and predictable return on investment.

In today's business climate, companies can no longer settle for the promise of soft savings and must demand quantifiable, verifiable and predictable return on investment (ROI). Realising hard savings is only possible if discrete manufacturing companies can satisfy today's demand for a direct and measurable reduction of COGS. Until now, the direct benefits from these technologies have been difficult to measure and quantify and are considered by many to be the next in a long history of undelivered promises.

According to Frank Azzolino, president and CEO of aPriori, 'Recent production use has demonstrated an 8 to 39% cost of goods (COGS) reduction for both new and mature products and a first year return-on-investment which is greater than 20:1.

As companies grasp the flexibility and scalability of aPriori's solution, they will significantly reduce COGS by accurately assessing and managing costs early enough in the product development process to affect the critical decisions that impact and control costs.' * About aPriori - based in Concord, Massachusetts, USA, aPriori 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.

'What if' cost trade-off analysis from component to assembly to product to production facility level is available with cost management software patform for discrete manufacturing industry.

Predictive real-time cost assessments provide all involved in the cost process. 'What if' cost trade-off analysis from component to assembly to product to production facility level is available with the aPriori Cost Management Platform, the first solution to bring much needed innovation to the discrete manufacturing industry. According to Frank Azzolino, president and CEO of aPriori, 'For today's companies to remain agile, they require real-time visibility to cost-critical information for the many important decisions that impact costs prior to product delivery.

This visibility must be immediate, available in a commonly understood language and accessible to all who impact costs in the process across the enterprise.' Advanced 'should-cost' analysis incorporates cost estimates for customer's in-house facilities, generic industry and global supplier production plants to enable more efficient supplier selection and fact-based negotiations.

True-Cost Convergence, developed by aPriori, provides early cost-assessments for the designer from the beginning of the product development cycle that naturally converge to production level costs estimates as manufacturing and procurement finalize decisions.

* About aPriori - based in Concord, Massachusetts, USA, 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-prot! ected cost management platform allows companies to assess, control, and reduce cost of goods sold by whole percentages.

The fact that critical pieces of cost information are spread across different functions like engineering, planning, manufacturing, sourcing, finance results in inadequate, inaccurate estimates.
There are a number of reasons why discrete manufacturers have been forced to take a 'rear view' look at product costs, such as evaluating and allocating product costs well after production was underway. Cost information in most organisations is fragmented throughout the enterprise. Critical pieces of cost information are spread across independent 'silos' within an organisation in different functions like engineering, planning, manufacturing, sourcing, finance.

This situation typically results in estimates that do not include all relevant information required to make accurate and predictive product cost assessments.

According to Frank Azzolino, president and CEO of aPriori, the Massachusetts, USA based cost management platform company, 'In most organisations product cost estimates are developed by specialised organisations in cost engineering or VA/VE departments.

In most cases, these cost estimates are created separately and independently of the people making the design, manufacturing, and sourcing decisions.

This separation results in many decisions being made in a cost knowledge vacuum.

The impact of these decisions is typically not known for at least a full financial period after production is well underway.' Product cost estimates (especially early ones) are often based on historical information or very general heuristics (e g, weight) and are too inaccurate and lack statistical confidence for effective decision making.

Most cost estimating activity falls on a relatively small group of specialised people spending hours manually producing each estimate.

Since the demand for costing feedback cannot always be met, the opportunity to experiment with the cost impact of design, manufacturing, planning, sourcing, etc, alternatives is limited and can not be readily cost optimised.

Most cost estimates are static and are not continually updated when new design, manufacturing, planning, or sourcing information becomes available as the product progresses through its design-to-production-to-delivery lifecycle.

Out-of-date cost information can not be relied upon for downstream decision making.

Costing practices are not always standardised across the enterprise.

As more information is available, different costing practices and methods are used to re-cost items.

Unfortunately this makes it difficult to leverage previous estimating work and build traceability in product cost accrual.

Typically cost estimates are not managed through a product's development through production lifecycle.

Multiple cost estimates from different sources are created as different times during the process.

It becomes unclear which product cost estimate is current or valid.

Today's cost accounting methodologies begin with the financial statement for the prior closed financial period.

The costs in that period are then allocated across various product lines and processes which are then further allocated for each individual product.

These are by definition 'rear view' mirror product costs.

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.

Discrete manufacturers have been forced to take a 'rear view' look at product costs, such as evaluating and allocating product costs well after production was underway.
Cost information in most organizations is fragmented throughout the enterprise. Critical pieces of cost information are spread across independent silos within an organization in different functions like engineering, planning, manufacturing, sourcing, finance, etc This situation typically results in estimates that do not include all relevant information required to make accurate and predictive product cost assessments. In most organizations product cost estimates are developed by specialized organizations in cost engineering or VA/VE departments.

In most cases, these cost estimates are created separately and independently of the people making the design, manufacturing, and sourcing decisions.

This separation results in many decisions being made in a cost knowledge vacuum.

The impact of these decisions is typically not known for at lea! st a fu ll financial period after production is well underway.

According to Frank Azzolino, president and CEO of aPriori, the Massachusetts, USA-based cost management platform company, 'Product cost estimates (especially early ones) are often based on historical information or very general heuristics (e g, weight) and are too inaccurate and lack statistical confidence for effective decision making'.

'Most cost estimating activity falls on a relatively small group of specialized people spending hours manually producing each estimate'.

'Since the demand for costing feedback cannot always be met, the opportunity to experiment with the cost impact of design, manufacturing, planning, sourcing, etc alternatives is limited and can not be readily cost optimized.' Most cost estimates are static and are not continually updated when new design, manufacturing, planning, or sourcing information becomes available as the product progresses through its design-to-production-to-delivery lifecycle.

Out-of-date cost information can not be relied upon for downstream decision making.

Costing practices are not always standardized across the enterprise.

As more information is available, different costing practices and methods are used to re-cost items.

Unfortunately this makes it difficult to leverage previous estimating work and build traceability in product cost accrual.

Typically cost estimates are not managed through a product's development through production lifecycle.

Multiple cost estimates from different sources are created as different times during the process.

It becomes unclear which product cost estimate is current or valid.

Today's cost accounting methodologies begin with the financial statement for the prior closed financial period.

The costs in that period are then allocated across various product lines and processes which are then further allocated for each individual product.

These are by definition 'rear view' mirror product costs.

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.