What is the future of make-to-order manufacturing?

Excellant for some of the Industrial products.

Manufacturing is of great importance - as it is one of the Main Wealth Generation activity.

We are human and every one of us is a Unique. We always feet appreciated when we have a property of the object which is Unique.

I will call these ITEMS as Taylor Made Item.  Yes one need to organise the manufacturing - by following standard of Quality / split the Big Item as some standard sub items / components - which are standardised to avail benefit of quantity and item is build with minimum of taylor made Sub Item / component.

e.g. Overhead crane is a Taylor made Items but components such as wheels / snatch blocks / gearboxes etc are standardised, while Fabrication is done for required components as taylormade item

Amin Paniwala 

First of all..i appreciate all of the views written above.well i may support the "make-to-order"

manufacturing in a small or medium scale industry.they are mostly suitable for "low volume

products",which we often see in the case of mediocre manufacturing divisions.

However,one more process called "bulid-in-stock" manufacturing, they give the chance

to the manufacturer to speculate about the demands of the consumers.Here the prodn volume is

driven by the historical demand information.advantages-"saves cost of production and time,extend

the horizon of the consumer's expectations.

The main advantages of the BTO approach in environments of high

product variety is the ability to supply the customer with the exact product specification required, the

reduction costly sales discounts and finished good inventory, as well a reduction in stock

obsolescence risk.

The main disadvantage of BTO is manufacturers are susceptible to market demand fluctuations

leading to a reduced capacity utilization in manufacturing.

So,the need of the hour is "HYBRID build-to-order" manufacturing, where some items are built to

stock and others are built to order.

It may not suite to all the industries but for some high end it may come handy

"MAKE TO ORDER" MAY NOT SUCESS FOR LONG TIME IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY. IT MAY HELPFUL FOR A NEW INDUSTRY FOR MARKETING BUT SERVICE BECOMES A HEDACHE IN FUTURE DUE TO VARIETY OF PRODUCTS. 

"MAKE TO ORDER" MAY BE SUCESS IN ANY MANUFATURING INDUSTRY IF "INTERCHANGIBILITY" IS CONCENED AMONG ALL THE THE VARIETY OF PROCDUCTS !

THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF CUSTOMER FOR ANY PRODUCT. ONE ASKS FOR QUALITY PRODUCT AT ECONOMIC PRICE & THE OTHER ASKS FOR BEST QUALITY. FOR SECOND ONE PRICE IS NOT A FACTOR. SO IN ANY INDUSTRY TWO TYPES OF PRODUCT IS BADLY NEEDED TO GROW MARKET VERY FAST.

The manufacturing of products relates to 1] as per relevant specifications based on national and international, 2] as per requirements & specifications given by the particular customers. The first one is common to all and the second one is for specific. However in both cases the manufacturing process has been initiated after getting the order from the respective customers only.

Make-to-order manufacturing can only work in certain spheres....the concept will never be successful if the products concerned have any retail value. The very nature of market is unpredictable.....demand to supply ratio is almost impossible to predict and can also prove to be quite unprofitable in the long run. Yes some products like BMW and porsche or lamborgini can afford to run such business modules.... but if the question is about the future of make-to-order manufacturing its not advisable for any product that has any retail value.   

Every body wants faster and at low cost it will be a challenging to the firms to keep the face and at the same time it has to see the salary of the employees and cost of the product both are to be taken care as employees are always looking at increase in salary and custmers wants always at less rate