Case Study: Solar Turbines achieves fact‑based supplier negotiations and significant cost savings with aPriori

Solar Turbines Uses aPriori Manufacturing Cost Models to Facilitate Fact-Based Supplier Negotiation

Solar Turbines, a Caterpillar company that manufactures mid‑sized industrial gas turbines for a global customer base, needed a way to support fact‑based supplier negotiations across its worldwide supply chain. The costing team required a centralized tool to store inputs, build robust manufacturing cost models, and validate supplier quotes against how parts could optimally be made.

Solar Turbines implemented aPriori to capture and iteratively validate model inputs, run optimal and supplier‑specific routings, and perform batch analyses. The validated models drove collaborative supplier discussions that uncovered inefficiencies (for example, a supplier quoted 48 hours vs aPriori’s 17.5 hours for a weld — resulting in about $450 saved per unit after changes) and identified material and nesting improvements that cut unit costs by roughly 15%, improving transparency and focusing negotiations on eliminating waste rather than squeezing margins.

Solar Turbines