Manufacturers of components are using lean variant processes

Meeting customer demands yet also minimising own costs – a task that often drives manufacturers of components such as doors, gates, frames, fittings or windows to despair. To hold their ground in the highly competitive component market, component manufacturers and dealers are increasingly relying on ERP systems with integrated data and variant management.

The topic of variant management

Challenge: Customised production

ERP software with smart variant configurator for manufacturers of construction elements.

Variant configurators in ERP software are of particular significance here: Medium-sized component manufacturers and dealers are faced with the challenge of meeting individual customer demands – even when volumes are low. To many companies in the component industry this appears virtually impossible, yet this is the only viable option for survival in the face of constantly growing competition.

Intelligent variant management is indispensable to meeting the challenge of less depth of manufacture with simultaneously higher variant diversity – and this in the face of constantly increasing data volumes. Complex, error-prone planning, calculation and manufacturing processes cannot be reliably controlled without ERP processes with deep embedded variant configurators. High degrees of automation and close interaction with business departments will entail minimal data maintenance, thus saving considerable time and ensuring the commensurate high quality of data.