Case Studies > Alstom Uses aPriori to Model Supplier Costs for 100,000+ Parts While Implementing Zero-RFQ

Alstom Uses aPriori to Model Supplier Costs for 100,000+ Parts While Implementing Zero-RFQ

Company Size

1,000+

Region

Africa
America
Asia
Europe

Country

France
India
South Africa
United States

Product

aPriori

Tech Stack

Digital Manufacturing Simulation
3D CAD
PLM System

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Customer Satisfaction
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Functional Applications - Product Lifecycle Management Systems (PLM)

Applicable Industries

Railway & Metro
Transportation

Applicable Functions

Procurement
Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Digital Twin
Manufacturing System Automation
Predictive Maintenance
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Alstom is a global leader in the transportation sector, particularly in the manufacturing of rolling stock, which includes trains and rail systems. The company operates in over 60 countries and employs more than 75,000 people. Alstom’s Rolling Stock Division is the largest within the company, responsible for designing and manufacturing a wide range of train cars and components. The Design to Cost department within this division is tasked with evaluating new projects and developing cost models to facilitate more effective supplier negotiations. The team works with different branches of the company spread across the entire globe, making it essential to have a robust and efficient system for managing supplier costs and sourcing components.

The Challenge

Within the Rolling Stock Division, Alstom’s Design to Cost department is tasked with evaluating new projects and developing cost models to facilitate more effective supplier negotiation. The team needed a tool to generate manufacturing cost models for a diverse variety of train car components. Each car requires thousands of distinct parts, and Alstom’s global operations offer many different car designs. The right tool needed to offer detailed manufacturing cost models for the shell of the rail car and everything inside. Often, Alstom needed to source simple components at the last minute, leading to a scramble to find savings and source the part without delaying product development. Every new RFQ introduced a risk for delay, as suppliers could take up to three weeks to return a quote. Rushed RFQ processes limited Alstom’s ability to wait for multiple quotes for maximized savings. The Design to Cost team faced the challenge of supporting an urgent timeline while ensuring the most cost-effective option possible.

The Solution

Alstom selected aPriori as a tool capable of modeling manufacturing costs for the huge variety of components that go into rolling stock products. aPriori quickly matured as a solution used across virtually all the products managed by the Rolling Stock Design to Cost team. Digital manufacturing simulation is an essential capability for a team charged with generating a high volume of manufacturing cost models across a number of sub-systems. The department uses aPriori for both simple parts and extremely complex assemblies like complete car body shells. Once a 3D CAD model for a part is uploaded into the PLM system, aPriori generates a digital twin of the design. Its production can then be modeled with aPriori’s digital factories, which have been configured to reflect the capabilities and cost structures of different suppliers. With the ability to generate supplier-specific manufacturing cost models directly from 3D CAD files, Alstom’s purchasing team is now able to award purchase orders to suppliers based on the aPriori output, avoiding the need for lengthy quoting and negotiating timelines.

Operational Impact

Alstom has been using aPriori since 2013, with over 30 active users on the Design to Cost team spread across France, India, the US, and South Africa.
The Zero-RFQ initiative has dramatically accelerated Alstom’s sourcing process by automating supplier selection, significantly reducing the purchase process lead-time.
By collaborating with suppliers to configure aPriori’s digital factories to reflect each supplier’s cost structure, Alstom benefits from near-instant quotes without sacrificing accuracy.
The end-to-end process to establish Zero-RFQ with a new supplier takes about four weeks. Once in place, Alstom can send a new PO to the supplier, who will start manufacturing the part within days.
Suppliers collaborating in the Zero-RFQ process report significant improvements through efficiency savings in resources on responding to RFQs, stronger relationships, and enhanced win forecasting.

Quantitative Benefit

Alstom’s team estimates that the Zero-RFQ process is driving a 40% savings on recurring costs.
In a recent 12-month period, aPriori handled around 26,000 different parts.