Testing
Test the Digital Factories
It is important to test configured Digital Factories and reports to make sure they are compatible with the new version of aPriori. At the time your Digital Factories were configured, a Digital Factory test and calibration plan may have been created. If so, run that test plan in the new version of aPriori.
If you do not have a test plan already, one approach is to open and cost a set of parts in both versions and compare the results of each. An easy way to do that for many parts is to create a roll up in each version and add the same parts to each rollup. Note that there are differences in the cost of the same component in each version.
aPriori publishes release notes as well as a detailed list of changes to the cost models that cause differences in the costs between versions. Please refer to those documents for specific changes. Here are typical reasons for cost changes.
1 Improvements to geometry extraction.
• If you are costing the same CAD file in 2 different versions of aPriori, the way in which aPriori analyzes the geometry may differ. Improvements are often made which allows aPriori to more accurately and granularly interpret the geometry. If you are re-costing parts in the database that are not connected to a CAD file, these types of changes are not relevant.
2 Changes to starting point Digital Factory cost model logic
• Starting point Digital Factories: The aPriori starting point Digital Factories are based on logic from the baseline cost models. The baseline cost models often change with a new release of software to include new functionality. This is very likely to change cost estimates when using the starting point Digital Factories.
• Configured Digital Factories: Configured Digital Factories also typically inherit costing logic from the baseline cost models. However, the baseline cost models are versioned. New functionality is only put into new versions. Digital Factories inheriting from baseline cost models continue to inherit from the same version. Therefore, there is likely no change to the cost model from which the Digital Factory is inheriting. Bug fixes are an exception to this.
• The above is true for both overlay (inherited) Digital Factories as well as standalone Digital Factories. However, with overlay Digital Factories, you can easily update the version from which it is inheriting from the Digital Factory Manager.
3 Changes to starting point Digital Factory labor and overhead rates.
• For standalone Digital Factories, these changes have no effect. For inherited Digital Factories and starting point Digital Factories these changes result in an expected cost difference.
4 Improvements to cost engine.
• These types of changes are less likely to cause a difference than the ones above. However, it does happen on occasion. For example, in 2015 R2, improvements were made to the sheet metal nesting algorithm which could result in more parts per sheet, which increased the material utilization and decreased material cost compared to older versions.