Manufacturing products produces waste that ranges from overproduction, waiting time, and transportation costs to overprocessing, excess inventory, unnecessary motion and scrap. By eliminating these wastes, production time and cost of goods sold (COGS) are reduced, and quality is improved.

The leading manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler, recently profiled aPriori Technologies’ Lean Cost Management Platform in the recent issue of Quality Digest. Cutler details the benefits of cost management platforms in the feature.

According to Cutler, COGS reduction is one of the fundamental drivers of a lean manufacturing initiative. Used to measure the ongoing success of lean manufacturing, it fundamentally captures material, labor, overhead and tooling costs. However, COGS reduction should not be thought of as a phase in a lean manufacturing process initiative.

If lean manufacturing initiatives are reducing COGS, manufacturers must be able to accurately measure and manage costs in real time. Only real-time, predictive cost estimates can reliably be used to validate lean initiative decisions and guide corrective actions throughout all the processes of engineering, planning and production, sourcing, quality control, program management and production delivery.

According to Frank Azzolino, President and CEO of aPriori, a producer of cost management software, “It is essential to improve the economics of discrete manufacturing companies throughout the entire product development, production and delivery process by quantifiably and measurably reducing COGS.” Innovative cost management software platforms provide accurate, predictive, real-time cost estimates for all individuals in the process who directly influence or manage product costs such as engineering, planning, manufacturing, procurement and program management.

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 enables “Cost Knowledge Before it Matters.”