One-to-One: Akoya Reducing Cost the PLM Way

I had the chance to talk with …
Brett Holland of Akoya about
how their solutions
help manufacturers design cost out of products. I have always been
intrigued by the potential for Product Cost Management solutions to
allow manufacturers to design with cost in mind. Given today’s
economic outlook, this is certainly top of mind for many
manufacturers.

What do they Offer?
In my post about designing
your company out of a bad economy I pointed out the importance
of engineering to reduce cost. Akoya is aligned with that
goal, offering software that helps companies make better
design decisions related to cost. The key is to make good
design decisions that are also good supply decisions. For
example, the software and related content can help a designer make
tradeoffs between different types of castings based on a good
estimate of cost. Akoya has traditionally offered a Category
Workbench that offers great insight into cost drivers for specific
categories (like the casting example above). Akoya has now launched
a Design Workbench as well that is intended to be used by the
engineer directly. The concepts is for designers to gain insight
into the factors that drive cost in supply, and have
them make better tradeoffs between performance,
quality, and cost up front. Types of things to
consider are:

• Standardization across parts
• Supplier selection
• Impact on other parts
• Impact on your supply base

Given the number of cost reduction projects manufacturers are
embarking on, the timing is good for this approach. Akoya provides
both the software and the sourcing knowledge/content to help
manufacturers design for supply effectively.

Who do they Work With?
Akoya has worked closely with large industrial
equipment manufacturers. Most notably (and publicly) they
speak about CAT. They have also worked with Agco, among others in
the construction and agricultural equipment
markets. Other sectors of interest include the
automotive industry, where cost reduction and
simplication offer huge potential savings.

How does this Fit into the Ecosystem?
To me,
this is a no-brainer to be included in the PLM
suite. After all, the goal of PLM is to help
companies profit from their products. As PLM continues to address
more than the technical aspects of the product, cost is an
excellent area to focus on. This is a blind spot for many companies
today, as ERP can’t offer insight on things that have not been
purchased before, or for that matter what a part should cost versus
what is being paid for it. Procurement solutions typically don’t
tie down to the details of the products. And PLM solutions, for the
most part, still have a lot of work to do in regards to
understanding and managing product cost. This is a company that
offers a very compelling value in the current economy, and is worth
a look.

So that’s what I hear from them Akoya, I hope you found it
useful. What do you think? What else should I have asked them?