Case study — Configure-to-Order
From 3 Days to 3 Hours
Configure-to-order for better cost, quality and lead times
- Client
- Custom automated equipment OEM
- Team
- 12-person engineering team
- Project length
- 4 weeks
Before
24+ hours
Design time to engineer each order
After
3 hours
Design time to configure each order
- Output is 100% consistent from designer to designer
- Designs released on time, in hours instead of days
What the client wanted
Release designs on time, every time, without losing the flexibility their customers expect.
The challenge
The existing engineer-to-order approach was resulting in worsening on-time delivery, a high cost of poor quality and inconsistent output. Together, that was costing valuable time and slowing the whole operation down.
The approach
- 01Reviewed the product portfolio with sales and engineering.
- 02Assessed which products had the highest opportunity.
- 03Standardized the product offering.
- 04Updated the design approach from engineer-to-order to configure-to-order.
The point of impact
Clearly defined rules and standards, built on purpose around what your customers need and value. The result is simple, easy-to-use configure-to-order models.
“Knowing that our designs can be consistently released on time, within hours instead of days, has dramatically improved our output. We are converting the remaining products on our top priority list so we can see the same gains across our full product offering.”
What made it work
“Our products are too custom for configure-to-order” is rarely true. Look for commonalities across your customers and find ways to industrialize your products, while keeping the flexibility a high-mix, low-volume business needs.
Next step
Want the same gains across your product line?
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