**HOW TO BUILD ANY PRODUCT IN A FAMILY ON-DEMAND**

and reduce cost down to1/10 of these costs:

Section 4.7 of the 2020 of the author's DFM Book will show how building families of products on-demand.

Cut material overhead cost to1/10 for standard parts (Section 3.8) based on surveys of Procurement managers:
        See opening page of Chapter 5: “Standardization” in the definitive book on Design for Manufacturability

Cut raw materials inventory down to /10 cost using:
        Spontaneous Supply Chains,” Chapter 7, in the 512 page BTO book which starts with a 60 page Summary

Cut work-in-process (WIP) inventory Cost to 1/10 the usual cost , which can cost more than profits! See:    “Design for Lean and Build-to-Order:” Chapter 4 in the author's DFM book, now translated into Chinese

Cut finished goods inventory Cost /10 of Mass Production cost by building all platform products to-Order "on-demand" without needing forecasted inventory. : See:
        http://www.build-to-order-consulting.com/ or
        "Build-to-Order & Mass Customization," the most thorough book written on Build-to-Order

* See Overview of Inventory Reduction article at:
            http://www.build-to-order-consulting.com/inventory_reduction.htm

With family products savings 10 times these overhead costs, those family products
could come close to making the case they not be charged any overhead charges at all!

When the rest of the products can be build to-order in families (Section 4.7),
then a total-cost based cost system will automatically assign all products proportionally less overhead cost.

This page presents a compelling case for a quick financial return from momdist investment providing nothing counter-productive gets in the way. If so, find out how to identify and overcome whatever is Conter-Productive page.

HOW TO DESIGN AND BUILD PLATFORMS OF PRODUCT FAMILIES

A "platform" is not just adjacent pages in a catalog or on web-site

Product families must be based on all four of the following criteria (Section 4.7.10:

1) customer/marketing feasibility, with the focus on profitability over completeness

2) operational flexibility, so any variation can be built without delays, onerous setup costs, or inventory carrying costs, ideally built on-demand

3) supply chain responsiveness, so family variations will not have to wait for parts and materials to be delivered, and distributed, and

4) design versatility to enable the above

IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH

a. HOW TO BUILD PRODUCT FAMILIES FLEXIBLY

FLEXIBLE MANUAL ASSEMBLY

B. SPONTANEOUS SUPPLY CHAINS (Section 4.2.1)

Note that when asked to deliver parts “on demand,” suppliers
will probably try to ship from their inventory

C. DESIGNING PRODUCT FAMILIES Section 4.7)

So if the existing production operations and supply chains can not quickly
and cost-effectively build product families, the product families and their processes
need to be concurrently engineered to make the product family strategy viable.

Consulting and workshops on "Product Families," " "Build-to-Order," and "Concurrently Engineered Equipment" uses most the above illustrations. To discuss hourly consulting and workshops on these subjects, , fill out the form below.

For more on BTO&MC principles see the book, Build-to-Order & Mass Customization

For an illustrated example of cellular manufacture for turned parts, go the bottom of the page at the Flexible Manufacturing page at http://www.build-to-order-consulting.com/flex-mfg.htm

Right-sized machine can form complete mini-lines, in which no changeovers
are needed. The economics are different with versatility and setup elimination
stressed over utilization.

POSTPONEMENT (Section 4.8.4.6)

Postponement is a mass customization technique that is applicable for certain products that can have their variety postponed until just before shipping. The factory builds basic “vanilla” platforms and quickly adds “flavors” upon receipt of order.

Postponement is most suitable for product architecture that has a major platform part can be built without variation and then customized by various adjustments, configurations, or bolt-on or plug-in modules.

Extending Product Families with Mass Customization

Mass Customization is the ability to quickly and efficiently build-to-order customized products.
It uses all the techniques presented so far for the build-to-order of standard products and extends that to custom products.
These products can be customized for individual customers or niche markets, such as versions optimized for certain market segments, industries, regions, or countries.

Synergies of Mass Customization and Product Families

There is a natural synergy between product families built to-order and mass customization. They share the same flexible operations and spontaneous supply chain.

Product families and mass customization operations are equally efficient and very complementary,

Adding mass customization to a product family strategy can push the combined volume over the threshold that may be necessary to justify these implementations.

The very first step may be to start with a few hours of thought-leader consulting
to help formulate strategies and implementation planning.

These are the general principles. Pass around this article or URL to educate and stimulate interest

In customized seminars and webinars, these principles are presented in the context of your company amongst designers implementers, and managers, who can all discuss feasibility and, at least, explore possible implementation steps

In customized workshops, brainstorming sessions apply these methodologies to your most relevant products, operations, and supply chains.

If you want to discuss product families, build-to-order, or concurrently engineering equipment, by phone or e-mail, fill out this form:

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Title/Position

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Phone number

e-mail address

Type of products

Comments are welcome with your challenges, goals, and opportunities:

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Call or email about how these principles can apply to your company:

Dr. David M. Anderson, P.E., CMC
fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers
www.design4manufacturability.com
phone: 1-805-924-0100
fax: 1-805-924-0200
e-mail: anderson@build-to-order-consulting.com

copyright © 2022 by David M. Anderson

Book-length web-site on Half Cost Products: www.HalfCostProducts.com

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