Page 38 - MetalForming August 2015

36 MetalForming/August 2015
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Product Customization
The increased need for product-postponement manufacturing has coincided with recent advances in the enterprise-software solutions necessary to make the strategy viable.
with recent advances in the enterprise- software solutions necessary to make the strategy viable. A recent report by McKinsey and Company asserts that the time is ripe. “We believe the time for widespread, profitable mass cus- tomization may finally have come, the result of emerging or improved tech- nologies that can help address eco- nomic barriers to responding to con- sumers’ exact needs in a more precise way,” it reads.
Here’s where advanced enterprise solutions can help discrete-product companies successfully implement a postponement-manufacturing strategy:
Enhance product configuration— Product specialization typically starts with the ability to manage multiple configurations of a product. This can be accomplished through an online portal where customers pick and choose variables. A design engineer also can use tools to update product specifications, and sales teams can reduce the time needed for quoting complex configurations.
Improve visibility—Modern ana- lytics and business-intelligence (BI) solutions offer enhanced capabilities to consume data at a more granular level. Manufacturers now can get better vis- ibility into their operations. As a result, they’ll know exactly how many parts are in inventory, enabling them to meet the more precise production require- ments necessary in postponement manufacturing. They also get better visibility into demand, allowing for