Industrial manufacturing faces the constant challenge of delivering complex, customer-specific products efficiently and without errors. The Configure-to-Order (CTO) scenario, in which products are configured and manufactured only after the customer order is received, is a decisive competitive advantage but carries considerable risks. Without an end-to-end digital strategy, manual processes, data silos and a lack of consistency quickly lead to errors, delays and unnecessarily high costs.
For companies that want to take their customer-specific manufacturing processes to the next level, what is known as CTO+, far-reaching automation and standardisation are essential.
The three pillars of CTO+ excellence
To master the complexity of the CTO+ lifecycle successfully, companies need to establish three strategic pillars that carry the entire process from the first enquiry through to delivery:
1. Synchronisation of the entire CTO+ lifecycle
The traditional process is often fragmented: sales, engineering, production and service work with different data and systems. The result is media discontinuities and costly errors at the transition from one phase to the next.
The key to efficiency lies in the end-to-end connection and synchronisation of product and process data across the entire CTO+ lifecycle. This covers the seamless handover of information from the quotation phase, through detailed technical configuration and production planning, to delivery and service. Only in this way can you ensure that the final manufacture is precisely aligned with the customer’s requirements and the original calculation.
2. A central product data model for agility and consistency
Managing several ordering and manufacturing models for customer-specific products is barely controllable without central control. A central product data model serves as a single source of truth. It harmonises all the relevant information and ensures a consistent data basis across all departments.
This central data basis enables greater agility in responding to customer requirements and guarantees the consistency of the product information. This is the basis for automated processes and faster decision-making.
3. Modularisation to increase reuse and resilience
The constant development of new, customer-specific parts drives up costs and reduces the resilience of the supply chain. The solution lies in modularisation. By breaking complex products down into standardised, reusable modules, the variety of parts can be reduced drastically.
Modularisation leads to significant gains in order development, accelerates the industrialisation of new products and increases the resilience of the supply chain, since fewer different components have to be stocked and procured.
The guide through complexity: the Interactive Value Journey
Putting these pillars into practice theoretically is one thing; applying them in practice is another. This is precisely where the Interactive Value Journey (IVJ) comes in. It serves as a structured guide that breaks the entire CTO+ process down into logical, traceable steps.
The IVJ highlights the critical phases that every company in the CTO+ environment goes through:
- Inquiry-to-Quote: How to create precise, fast quotations for standard and customer-specific products.
- Order Configuration and Engineering: Technical order planning and the management of detailed, customer-specific designs.
- Production Engineering and Planning: The automated handover to manufacturing structures and detailed project and cost planning.
- Order Fulfillment and Delivery: From production execution through progress monitoring to final cost control and delivery.
Each phase shows how a higher level of automation and efficiency can be achieved through the use of modern digital solutions.
Start your transformation:
Would you like to see in detail how your company can master the challenges of Configure-to-Order(+) and benefit from harmonised, end-to-end manufacturing?
Click here to start the Interactive Value Journey and explore your individual path to CTO+ excellence:
To the Interactive Value Journey
Use this interactive tool to identify the potential in your own company and to understand the added value of an integrated process landscape.