Variantenmanagement

VDMA 2011
24 pages

Member price visible after registration
ISBN 978-3-8163-0618-4

Variant management is a very effective set of methods for planning, avoiding, reducing and controlling individual product designs. Methods applied holistically and anchored in the PLM process open up the opportunity to improve business potential in a targeted manner. With the help of this guide, interested companies can gain an initial overview. Starting with the product-market strategy, through product development to the automated control of variants in complex quotation, order processing and value creation processes, the guide provides an orientation aid. The aim is to use this guide to gain a better understanding of the overall context and to provide an initial orientation between sales and costs, between product variants and internal waste due to process complexity or opportunities and risks.

When applied in a targeted manner, it is possible to deliver individually configurable products without sacrificing process efficiency and cost-optimized repeat production. In this way, the variety of variants demanded by the customer can be largely absorbed and considerable cost-cutting potential can be tapped. High performance, individuality and low costs no longer have to be a contradiction in terms.
This guide is aimed at specialists and managers from the sales, design and production environment of variant and/or contract manufacturers as well as organizational and IT managers who deal with the topic of variant technology and its implementation.

Content:

• What is variant management?
• Who might need it?
• How do you recognize the need for variant management?
• What are the benefits?
• Which methods can be used?
• What solutions are available?
• Solutions for managing product variance
• Overview and description of possible organizational methods and tools
• The use of variant management using the example of typical use cases of variant configurators
• Table for self-positioning