Manufacturing Insights

From students designing innovative electric vehicles, to worldwide automotive manufacturers, all teams benefit from an agile approach to product design.

In KA-RaceIng the most brilliant engineering students and the most innovative technology companies come together to produce amazing automobiles and learning opportunities all around. The guest on this podcast is Jonas Sandelmann, the team lead for the KIT University racing team.

aPriori is a gold sponsor for the KIT University racing team 2024-2025.

With experience in both design engineering and procurement, Chad Wicklund knows how smart design feedback can reduce cost early in sourcing.

For manufacturers to truly take advantage of digital transformation, they not only need good software solutions, they need a change management strategy to ensure that business processes and the people involved with them adapt at an equal rate to technological change.

Many large manufacturers look to consulting services to help with process optimization, product strategy, and strategic change management. Consultants work with internal teams, lead stakeholders through strategic planning and ensure that the new technology really makes the business more agile and adaptable.

But whether or not you can engage a Change Management Consultant, anyone regardless of job title can be a change leader and help realize the benefits of digital transformation.

One of the most challenging tasks of engineering leaders is to roll out the adoption of a new process or technology. A lot can be said about right and wrong ways to push for change. In this podcast we talk about some of those best practices, and mistakes to avoid when it comes to change management.

But change doesn't happen in a vacuum. If change is needed in an engineering organization, it also means there are people resistant to change. How can you make the case for change in a way that leads to success? Here to talk about change management in engineering is an experienced change leader. Hank Marcy led Johnson Controls Hitachi Air Conditioning as Vice President of Technology and Innovation, and then as Vice president of Global Product Development. Before that, Hank Marcy was the senior Vice President of Product Design and Engineering at Bissell Inc. and the Vice President of Global Product Technology at the Whirlpool Corporation.

With twin goals of achieving science-based targets for Scope 3, and saving millions of dollars annually, sourcing and procurement specialists are learning how to use smart manufacturing insights to reduce scrap at their suppliers.

The commitment to environmental sustainability is rippling through the manufacturing world, from lifecycle management initiatives, to promises on behalf of executives to reduce the carbon footprint of their products. But it takes smart tools to give manufacturers the kind of data they need to evaluate real trade-offs between cost, carbon and design functionality. That's why PTC and aPriori have partnered together to deliver sustainability insights directly to design engineers, cost engineers, and sourcing professionals right within the software they're already using every day, such as PTC Creo and other 3D CAD products.

Catherine Knicker guides PTC Strategy as the Chief Officer of Strategy and Marketing. We spoke at aPriori's recent Manufacturing Insights Conference, where Catherine Knicker explained how PTC helps industrial and manufacturing companies incorporate sustainability throughout their entire product lifecycle, from design and manufacturing to service and end of life. We spoke about the skills and data that front-end designers need to really make a measurable impact on environmental goals. And she talked about how successful companies are empowering their decision-makers with the data and the tools they need to make the best real-time decisions for their business and for the planet.

Digitization makes it possible to analyze carbon footprint across the supply chain. So why are only 50% of manufacturers ready with a digital thread?

The COVID-19 pandemic brought into focus the need for digital tools to manage supply chains, preferably tools with intelligent analytics capabilities that look out for cost savings and manage risk in a shifting procurement landscape. Digitization was already near universal in some industries such as retail, but for physical commodities such as non-ferrous metals, oil, and gas, the adoption of the digital thread for the supply chain is still less than 50%. What does it take for these industries to move away from traditional paper and spreadsheet methods and what's the upside when they do so?

Andrea Aranguren is the CEO of MineHub. On this podcast, Andrea Aranguren makes the argument that digitization of the supply chain is not only good for inventory management and productivity, it opens the door for sustainability assessments that help companies reach their net carbon targets and reduce emissions throughout their supply chains.

Design for Manufacturing and Design for Assembly deliver real cost savings in addition to product improvements.

Geopolitical strategist and bestselling author Peter Zeihan brings a unique perspective on how geopolitical risks are re-shaping the world economy, and what that means for global manufacturing.

In this interview we discuss:

The long-term labor crisis, and whether reshoring will help manufacturers solve the labor problem.

3 reasons to bring manufacturing to the United States.

And why the end of the world is just the beginning for manufacturing

Continuous improvements come from linking design, cost engineering, and procurement in one insights platform.

In this podcast, Vincent Bigot, the Director of Design to Cost at Alstom, explains Alstom's dynamic strategy, which brings together the cost engineering team and the design engineering organization through shared data in aPriori.