product configuration

The increasing product variety and complexity is a problem which, more or less pronounced, applies almost every company. The output quantity remains below the actual level, the effort in the quotation and order processing is higher than necessary, and the customer satisfaction with the delivery reliability could be better. Intuitively, these companies often know why that is. The complexity of processes and changing bottlenecks hide the view of the solution. To counteract this, all business areas are looking for intelligent and effective methods. The hurdle is to meet customer requirements without increasing the internal complexity and costs, to act lean, flexible and value-oriented.

Customer specific value creation is an adequate mean for technology oriented small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to differentiate themselves in the global market place. To achieve this, a tradeoff between efficiency and individualization in value creation has to be handled. In context of mass customization, sales configurators help to accomplish this. However, implementing such solutions rise both an organizational and strategic challenge. Therefore, referencing the context of change management, configurator implementation project case studies and a cross-case analysis are presented. Based on this, a model of implementation phases is derived which allows for addressing the specific challenges and recommendations with respect to such projects..

This paper describes an approach for knowledge based product configuration through the integration of experience and knowledge from the product use phase. The goal of this approach is to enable a faster and software-controlled harmonization of the different customer’s and the manufacturer’s point of view during the pre contract phase. Therefore a case-based reasoning method was developed to be integrated in a rule based product configuration system.

The processes for the procurement of individual components are coined by a high grade of complexity. The reason is that an individual component often cannot be identified by a unique item number. In point of fact an additional detailed description for each individual part is necessary. As a rule the needed descriptions cannot be created in an ERP system directly which causes an additional effort concerning the distribution of the individualization information to all suppliers that are involved in the manufacturing process. The following article shows how the distribution can be configured in an effective and transparent way within a supplier network.

More than ever individualized products which come up to the exact customer wishes are in great demand. This statement also applies to the automobile market especially to vehicles of the upper class. Because the manufacturer offer a great supply of individual packages nearly every customer wish can be realized. If you look at this development from a company’s disposition point of view you notice that the biggest problem is the management of the variety of variants which partly go almost ad infinitum. In the following an approach should be shown for the reduction or rather the complete avoidance of the complexity through the use of a special product configuration system which is decoupled from the actual product model.

CRM manages customer interactions in marketing, sales and service. Based on an empirical survey the barriers for product configuration software to support the sales process in the automation industry are presented. In this industry, CRM systems are currently primarily employed for the optimization of after-sales services.

This article describes modern product configurators in the area of high variant and complex products. Next to being a tool for external sales force, product configurators are introduced as a modern e-commerce medium for product presentation on the internet. Their relevance as a back office interface between CRM and ERP systems is illustrated.

Today, in many industries the customer demands on products and services change rapidly. Most customers expect individualized products at simultaneously low costs and delivery times. Therefore, many enterprises attempt the strategy of Mass Customization (MC). The result is a variant-rich production process which causes complex prerequisites for the enterprises. This contribution shows an infrastructure for the transfer of customer specifications in the MC.

Innovative companies are embracing innovative variant planning as a new management method for individual production. This method allows companies to create greater product variety and more individually customized goods and services at competitive prices. To fulfil these requirements, the gap between specific customer product requirements and the production requirements of standardized processes has to be bridged. This article describes experiences on organizational transformation from individual manufacturing to mass customization both from product and from process point of view. It shows managers how to proceed in a step-oriented manner.