Tech-Clarity

Making the value of technology clear

  • Published Research
    • eBooks
    • White Papers
    • Survey Results
    • Buyer’s Guides
    • Infographics
  • Research Invitations
    • Survey Invitations
    • Assessments
  • Presentations & Videos
    • Webinars
    • Live Presentations
    • Tech-Clarity TV
    • Virtual Events
  • Insights & Activity
    • In the News
    • Insights
  • About
    • Tech-Clarity Team
    • Jim Brown
    • Michelle Boucher
    • Julie Fraser
    • Arvind Krishnan
  • Search
  • Search
  • Date

Rules-driven Product Management

Jim Brown - April 11, 2012

Share

Rules-driven Product Management: Achieving Greater Value from Customer-Specified Products highlights the manufacturing strategy of customizing products to exact customer specifications to combat commoditization, globalization, margin shrink and increased competition, and how Rules-driven Product Management can help.

Please enjoy the free Executive Summary below, or click the report title above to download the full PDF (free of charge, no registration required).

Table of Contents

  • Executive Overview
  • Eliminating Product Management Guesswork
  • A Different Product, Every Time
  • Customization without Sacrificing Responsiveness
  • Proposal Speed without Sacrificing Margins
  • Delivery Speed without Sacrificing Design Quality
  • Quality without Sacrificing Efficiency
  • Leveraging Corporate Product Knowledge
  • Rules-driven Product Management
  • An RPM Example
  • Summary
  • About the Author

Executive Overview

Commoditization. Globalization. Margin shrink. Increased competition. These are the watchwords for manufacturing today, and manufacturing executives are charged with achieving a profitable business despite these challenges. One way that companies are addressing this situation is by developing products that align more exactly with customer needs. Many companies, in fact, are moving towards making their products to exact customer specifications to maintain or recover elusive margins—and better yet drive business growth. While not all industries offer the opportunity to tailor each delivery to exact customer specifications, moving products closer to that model can provide significant return to manufacturers in many industries.

This approach has its challenges, as many naysayers will be quick to point out. Typical arguments against a “to order” strategy include the belief that customizing products is too expensive, not achievable within allowable delivery lead times and causes havoc and disruption in the manufacturing plant. Unfortunately, without an innovative approach there is truth behind these objections. But, on the positive side of the argument lies an increased ability to differentiate products, an enhanced ability to meet customer needs, increased sales and the potential to charge a price premium. The challenge, of course, is to maximize the ability to achieve the positive impacts while minimizing or alleviating the negatives. Perhaps that approach is obvious, but the solution may not be.

This paper will review one approach, Rules-driven Product Management (RPM). RPM provides the ability to deliver the benefits of customized products without paying the high penalties traditionally associated with customization. For companies that are already providing products to customer specifications, RPM offers the ability to streamline processes, reduce cost and improve lead times. For companies that are not already providing customized products, RPM offers the ability to capture additional revenue potential by providing more specification options to the customer without increasing manufacturing costs.

Related Posts

  • Design Data Management (survey invitation)
    Supply chain resilience

    How do leading manufacturers manage their design data? We invite you to join a research…

  • How to Streamline New Product Development (survey invitation)
    Supply chain resilience

    How do leading companies streamline new product design and development? Tech-Clarity invites you to join…

  • CAD and Product Development Collaboration (survey invitation)
    Supply chain resilience

    How do leading companies collaborate on CAD and product development? Take our collaboration survey to…

Filed Under: Published Research Tagged With: Design Automation, ETO, MTO, Product Knowledge, Product Management, Configuration, Mass Customization, Configurator, Features, Options, Proposal

Join our community to receive our newsletter and survey invitations.

Copyright © 2012-2024 – Tech-Clarity, Inc.

  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Date

  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook

Copyright © 2012-2024 – Tech-Clarity, Inc.