Shifting of product management strategy for optimizing Engineer-To-Order product leadtimes
Résumé
This paper deals with the study of ETO (Engineer- To-Order) product looking for improving the global company performance. Often, an ETO product is led as a project and as it needs (re-)design activities, the delivery delays are quite long. Therefore, the delay minimization (while satisfying customers' needs) can participate to improve the business success of companies. The ETO product, considered here, is split into different parts. These parts have to be managed and produced first in order to be afterwards assembled together forming the final ETO product. Four main product management strategies are defined in the scientific literature: MTS (Maketo- Stock), MTO (Make-to-Order), ATO (Assemble-to- Order) and ETO (Engineer-to-Order). The shifting from one strategy to another is possible. However rarely this issue was addressed in the past and no clear methodology covering possible shifting is known. The suggested shifting methodology of product management strategy supports managers in their task of strategy assignment to products and parts. After defining a two-level methodology, specific drivers are discussed allowing a clearer strategy assignment. This methodology is supported by an algorithm and applied to an illustrative case. This research was performed in the frame of an European project ESTIMATE-Eurostars whose goal was to sustain successful ETO product.