Author: William Green
Supplying the mix: planning the factory, suppliers and subcontractors for ETO and CTO manufacturers
Part 3 of 3: Planning what you haven’t designed yet Part 2 ended with a forecast of each model and its expected option mix. How does that become a plan for the factory, material suppliers, subcontractors and distribution, for products that aren’t defined yet, and stay executable as orders arrive? The short answer: attribute-based planning …
Forecasting the mix: demand planning for ETO and CTO manufacturers
Part 2 of 3: Planning what you haven’t designed yet In Part 1, we made the case for planning the model and the mix instead of the part number. That raises the obvious next question. How do you forecast demand for products that haven’t been configured yet, and what should demand planning hand to supply …
Why ETO and CTO manufacturers still plan in spreadsheets, and what to plan instead
Part 1 of 3: Planning what you haven’t designed yet Put an S&OP manager from an engineer-to-order (ETO) or configure-to-order (CTO) manufacturer next to one from a make-to-stock company, and the difference shows quickly. For the ETO or CTO business, most of what will ship next quarter hasn’t been configured yet, and some of it …
