variant planning

As a consequence of the increasing globalization many industrial companies see themselves forced to secure their competitive ability by an internationalization of their production locations. This requires a long-term planning of the future product structures and process chains, in order to control the variant variety and to protect the core competences. Objectives of the described method are a generation of variants close to the market and a bundling of the core competences.

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.