Stefano Villa

While variant configurators focus on variant changes on given, pre-defined products, the product configuration aims to DEFINE the products by choosing a set of variant and their options.
While variant configuration allows to define and show the different options already foreseen, the product configurator virtually build a new product at every mouse click.
For a product configurator the product is always the RESULT of the process of configuration, and not the starting point.

This is strategically important when you deal with a product that is more and more customizable, flexible and tailored on final customer needs.

On which aspects of the manufacturing process can a product configurator be useful?

E-COMMERCE CYCLE
- facilitate the process of product "discovery", with simplified interface to the options / variants, specifically dedicated to the end-user
- give an immediate, 3d graphic representation of the combination of choices (variants and options) from the user input;
- limit, according to the company marketing and/or production limitations, the possible combinations allowed, always ensuring a correct order;
- connect the output of the product configurator to an e-commerce site, to finalize the purchase.

ORDER AND PRODUCTION CYCLE
- using the same graphic and commercial database, there is no need to re-create in the factory the order that has been forwarded by the e-commerce site.
- produce a dynamic BOM (more than "bill of material" we should speak about a "bill of order material'), with an infinite-level drill-down, with the minimum data storage;
- produce manufacturing data as a natural output from graphic positioning and contacts between parts:

MAINTENANCE CYCLE
- easily identify the parts on a complex product with a one-to-one relationship between graphic components and their codes and description;
- speed up the process of maintenance by using virtual and/or augmented reality to identify failures and breakdowns.