Analysing the shift of product management strategies concerning ETO products
Résumé
This paper deals with engineer-to-order (ETO) products made of modular parts that have an existing assigned product strategy among: make-to-stock (MTS), make-to-order (MTO), assemble-to-order (ATO) and ETO. The goal is to lead an analysis to show how shifting from an existing to another strategy becomes possible to shorten the global lead-times. Many attempts have been made to deal with shifting between only two kinds of strategy, but rarely has a clear structured approach been developed to cover all shifting possibilities. The goal of the paper is to suggest a suitable shifting approach that supports managers in strategy assignment avoiding the intuitive decisions. Previous attempts to identify the factors influencing the product strategy did not provide satisfactory approaches. This paper, after defining a two-level analysis (strategic and tactical), discusses specific drivers that, once applied accurately, lead to a clearer strategy assignment. This approach is applied to an electronic product used in the automotive industry. The research was performed in the frame of a European project, ESTIMATE-Eurostars for sustaining successful ETO products.