More than 50 percent of engineers at build-to-order and engineer-to-order manufacturers spend their time on activities that add no real value to the customer. This is according to a research report by software maker Cincom Systems.
Best Practices: Mass Customization and Build-to-Order Manufacturing discusses the findings of the industry's first report — from an engineering perspective — on the state of mass customization and build-to-order practices.
While engineers spend most of their time (32 percent) creating new product drawings for customers, the week is often consumed by numerous administrative tasks. Such low-customer-value activities include creating bills of material (14 percent), change orders (13 percent), product selection and configuration (10 percent), manufacturing changes in line (5 percent), cost estimates (4 percent), pricing orders (4 percent, and post-order revisions (4 percent).
Sales support activities such as general sales consultation and post-sales support of installation only consume five percent of engineers' time.
Visit www.cincon.com/EngReport for a copy of the report.