Variant product configuration of industrial air handling units in a MTO environment

Abstract

A growing appeal for increased product variety and customization implies low-volume highly flexible production environments, consequently referring to a complex alignment between the organizational functions of production and sales. Considering a context of manufacturing through sales order and mass customization (MTSO + MC), the creation of specific technical lists for products can derail the timely release of a product to the market. This article describes contextual, structural, and procedural aspects associated to the implementation of a MTSO + MC environment to produce commercial air-conditioning equipment known as air handling unit. The equipment is high-aggregated value and has over 30 million different variants, sold in low volumes, generating high complexity for its sale specification and production processing. It becomes, therefore, a propitious scenario to discuss how mass customization and modular production concepts may be used to implement an information support system based on variant configuration, to enable demand and production management. The study was carried out with real data on a multi-national organization of the refrigeration industry. Implications to this organization and others interested in the theme include the following: waste reduction along the productive information management process, increased demand management effectiveness, and compatibility of project and production levels in the MTSO + MC context.