Case Study: KONE Corp achieves 75% shorter lead times for should-cost analysis with aPriori

How KONE Streamlines and Standardizes Should Cost Analysis with aPriori

KONE, a global leader in elevators and escalators, faced a complex cost-modeling challenge: highly customized, low-volume products across many regions required frequent design changes to meet local safety codes, and manual should-cost analyses were slow, inconsistent, and dependent on scarce subject-matter experts—hard to reconcile with KONE’s two-week agile design sprints.

KONE implemented aPriori’s digital-factory simulation to standardize should-cost methodology and create a single source of truth. The platform enabled rapid, repeatable analyses, cutting cumulative lead times by 75%, increasing the volume of analyses by 45%, and uncovering tangible savings (one regional design was 11% cheaper than the average, with an additional 5% gained by harmonizing features). Today 60–70% of projects use aPriori, with plans to expand adoption and link automated CAD configuration to cost prediction.

KONE Corp