#PLM > The mysteries of the ETO industry

Have you ever wondered how an elevator was made? There is no standardization for an elevator. They all have different size, serve building of different heights, have different speed and design...

In a world that ask for more standardization how can a company reduce their engineering cost on some products that are never the same? When maintenance is done, how can you manage the history of changes that happened on a elevator?

This is the problem of all Engineering To Order Industry. You can tell me that Aerospace is an ETO industry, that Ship Building is too, but they manufacture too little to know exactly the same problematic (for the moment).

They are three main processes that I propose to look at in the future posts.

• Management of standard products and their "standard options" (What models of elevator the company offers and what are the "catalog options"?)
• Management of Orders and their specifics requirements (When I have an order, what are my customer "specific requirements" that I will need to take in account?)
• Management of the on site services (How do I manage changes on a existing installation whether I did it or someone else did it)

We will look closely at those three processes through the glass of the largest PLM approach possible. How to manage data, schedules, design definition, configuration definition... we will the see where are the differences with other industries where PLM is well implemented (High Tech, Aerospace,...) and what are the challenges (technical but not only) that the implementation of a PLM implies for such industries.

So talk to you soon.

#PLM > Reboot

It has been a while since I have written there... I started this blog in a period where I had lot's of free time but now things have changed a lot.

I have been involved in the most passionating project I have took part in years. It's challenging everything I knew about product development, the tools I implement, the best practices I have tried to push my customers for years.

There is so much I have learned in the last 6 months, that I have to capitalize somehow. Rebooting that blog sounded the best idea.

My current customers has a Engineering To Order (ETO) business model with very complex products and large products. What does ETO mean?

It means that the product is ordered before it is engineered. A bit like a house you're buying. You know you will have a bathroom, a kitchen, a lobby, a heating system, maybe a garage for one car or two. The architect design its shape, and then you buy it. At this stage nobody knows which part will be used for heating, but you know you will have one.

I would like first to refer to the excellent article from Jos about BOM in ETO and list the topic I would like to discuss in the next posts.

• System Engineering design
• Transition from EBOM to MBOM in complex products
• Work schedule and resource allocation
• Role of configuration
• Design constrains for ETO Businesses
• ...

This will not come in order, but as I mature my thoughts about how to organize that.