aP Design is a specialized software solution built for product developers and design engineers, enabling them to simultaneously optimize their designs for cost, manufacturability, and sustainability. It automates the analysis of 3D CAD designs for both parts and assemblies, providing critical insights early in the product development lifecycle. With aP Design, engineers can rapidly simulate the impact of changes in a product’s design, manufacturing process, and factory selection, comparing and assessing multiple design variants, alternative materials, and sourcing options in seconds. By gaining early visibility into potential cost drivers, carbon emissions, and manufacturability issues during the design phase, aP Design significantly reduces the need for costly late-stage changes and design iterations. This allows design engineers more time to focus on innovation. The platform delivers actionable feedback on manufacturability, cost, and carbon directly from 3D CAD models as early as the concept phase, vastly reducing downstream work for cost engineers and procurement teams and unlocking higher performance from the entire product development team. aP Design integrates seamlessly with existing CAD systems and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems, and can be used as a standalone application or with aP Generate for scaled design analysis.

Features & Benefits

• Bring Cost and CO2e Visibility to Product Design
  • Conduct design reviews for product costing and manufacturability earlier in the product development lifecycle to pinpoint and address issues without incurring costly delays associated with late-stage changes. The software identifies design features that unnecessarily increase cost, such as those requiring expensive specialized tooling, and quantifies the results of changes made to the CAD model.
• Compare Design Variations and Iterations
  • Evaluate multiple design options quickly for cost, manufacturability, and sustainability. Users can upload design variants along with different materials, processes, and sourcing options to build comparisons, then publish and share the best options for design reviews.
• Cloud Platform with Minimal Overhead
  • Operates as a cloud-based platform, eliminating the need for server installations or significant IT expenses. The platform is maintained in the cloud, allowing authorized users secure access to manufacturing insights anywhere via a web browser. It leverages secure HTTPS protocols, AWS infrastructure with high availability, independent third-party security testing, and SSO across aPriori web applications.
• Collaborate with Cost Teams, Sourcing, and More
  • Facilitates sharing design scenarios and gathering feedback from product stakeholders, including cost engineering, sustainability, sourcing, and manufacturing, through the integrated aP Workspace collaboration application.