The manufacturing industry needs to adopt best practices and technology to accommodate the growth in customized products. Researchers for this report surveyed over 200 companies, finding that product customization is growing significantly. Why? For some companies, it helps them differentiate. For others, their industry doesn’t give them a choice. It’s just the nature of the business. Either way, growth in product customization drives increased complexity that leads to late deliveries, recalls / warranty work, and missed financial targets. The cause? Manual processes for custom products make Engineering a bottleneck to getting quotes and orders out of the door.

Fortunately, Tech-Clarity research shows that companies taking more advanced ETO approaches to customize their products end up with better results. This report investigates trends in customization and digs deeper into these best practices. The analysis finds that manufacturers achieving the highest sales and profitability growth, The Top Performers, place more strategic emphasis on rapid quote and order turnaround. They also perform better when executing orders, experiencing significantly fewer errors.

Our research shows that Top Performers adopt leading design practices including platform, modular, and rules-based design techniques. Survey reports show they support these best practices with leading technologies, finding that they are:

• More than twice as likely to use technical product configurators
• 53% more likely to have quote automation
• 22% more likely to leverage design automation

This research concludes that customization performance can be improved with ETO best practices and technologies. These approaches help Top Performers relieve engineering bottlenecks, leading to better order performance and financial results.

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