Concord, MA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/17/2006 -- 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. Realizing 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 scrutinize 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.

Based in Concord, MA, aPriori (http://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.”

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