|
Manufacturers of products with highly configurable and ever-changing customer requirements - often referred to as assemble-to-order, manufacture-to-order, or engineer-to-order, and identified collectively in this document as make-to-order (MTO), manufacturers - must confront specific challenges and operate far differently than traditional product development environments. Because they must respond to unique, and often new, customer specifications for every single product, MTO design environments must be fast, innovative, and accurate to respond cost-effectively to the numerous challenges they face.
These challenges are especially trying for product development organizations contemplating a transition from 2D CAD to 3D solid modeling. These companies have grown with 2D CAD and typically have developed a complete library of legacy orders and sophisticated tools to help them find "similar" jobs they have done in the past. Once an old job is located, engineers quickly rework the drawings to comply with the new order.
For these types of customers, moving from 2D to 3D CAD in order to gain the benefits of 3D solid modeling (improved visualization, interference detection, shop-floor automation, increased quality, etc.) is unappealing because of the time involved. Simply retraining engineers on 3D is time these manufacturers cannot afford because of its impact, however slight, on MTO design time. Ironically, most MTO manufacturers do not realize that they can ease the transition from 2D CAD to 3D solid modeling and realize substantially shorter design times, greater productivity, and more consistently high product quality by moving to 3D CAD in concert with a knowledge capture and design automation environment.
A Different Product, Every Time
Unlike traditional made-to-stock (MTS) product lines, where identical products are repeatedly ordered with no modifications, MTO manufacturers face the seemingly daunting task of configuring or designing a completely different product each and every time. While some MTO product lines are simple variations on a theme (i.e. changing style, size, and other well known features) many others require significant alteration or re-design. In many cases, each order requires product engineering because of the ever-changing nature of customer constraints, engineering best practices, and requirements. In addition, size limitations, governmental regulations, and operating loads - to name a few of the long list of potential design variables - vary widely from customer to customer. Sometimes, the job calls for just configuring a previous order differently; and sometimes, a completely new design. MTO manufacturers have a need for infusing their product knowledge and experience into every product they develop because every product is a custom job and every customer wants to be treated special.
Fast, Fast, Fast
Responding quickly to customer requests for proposals in a competitive bidding environment is another challenge unique to MTO manufacturers. Frequently, these proposals must include detailed information regarding the proposed design, including engineering drawings. MTO manufacturers must not only re-configure an existing product or custom-design a new one, they must do so under relatively short deadlines: typically, from six-to-eight weeks. MTO manufacturers have a special need for automating design processes and tapping their product knowledge to accelerate the rate of proposal development.
Speed and Accuracy
In today's competitive manufacturing environment, companies often do not have time to manually pre-engineer a system, so many companies frequently guess at the proposal stage, only to discover these estimates frequently take away margin later on when errors related to early assumptions have to be addressed.
Also, information obstacles have traditionally compelled many people involved in sales to make product decisions without enough information, leading to costly guesswork, inaccurate estimates, and unnecessary trial and error. Studies have shown that the earlier an error is made in the product development process, the greater the cost will be downstream. In addition to creating unnecessary costs, design errors made in the sales process can have a negative impact on product quality and customer satisfaction, both of which can hurt business over the long term.
Estimating Costs
For MTO manufacturers to win business, make a profit, and stay in business, they must do a good job of analyzing their cost structures and estimating proposed bids accurately. If they are conservative and overbid, trying to account for the unanticipated, their bid may be too high and they will not win much business.
|
