Almost the entire manufacturing industry today is struggling with the growing number of product variants or SKUs in their portfolio. At the same time, there is an increasing pressure to quickly deliver the customized make-to-order products at competitive prices. This is leading to ‘Lean Customization’ – an innovative way of achieving efficiencies of mass customization in a ‘lean manufacturing’ mode. A product configurator is a key enabler of ‘Lean Customization’ across the business processes from inquiry to quote, order acceptance, order amendments, manufacturing and delivery.

Patni’s solutions and services in this area have helped clients in many manufacturing segments to:

• Achieve drastic reduction in ‘inquiry to quote’ cycle time, with a single meeting closure of Sales
• Offer the right product meeting exact customer needs with accurate pricing
• Minimize the number of interactions between engineering, costing and sales during a sales cycle
• Set realistic lead times and meet schedules
• Avoid any communication gap between sales and manufacturing about product sold
• Promote standardized sub-assemblies while offering enough end-product variety
• Minimize obsolescence.

Patni has implemented COTS product configurators from leading providers like:

• SAP Variant Configurator
• Oracle Configurator
• Baan Configurator.

Patni has developed web-based bespoke applications completely integrated with ERP, document management and CAD systems. The bespoke applications are built with third party rules engine as well as custom-built rules engine based on specific customer needs and preferences. Such applications are deployed in both online and offline version to facilitate offer creation right at the customer’s desk.

Patni’s service offerings in and around the product configuration system include:

• Consulting in developing product models and extraction of configuration business rules
• Evaluation and selection of right product configuration system and components
• System architecture definition
• Implementation of ‘off-the-shelf’ configurator
• Development of custom configuration system
• Web and mobility enablement of the legacy configurator
• Ongoing application management including master data and rules maintenance.