Industrial Information Processing

This paper demonstrates, how cross-functional business processes may be aligned with product specification systems in an intra-organizational environment by integrating planning systems and expert systems, thereby providing an end-to-end integrated and an automated solution to the “build-to-order” challenge. An outcome of this capability is that the potential market for customized products will expand, resulting in a reduction in administrative and manufacturing costs. This potential for cost reduction, simultaneous with market expansion, is a source of competitive advantage; hence manufacturers have incentives to adopt these end-to-end solutions.