NO. 61E-Book

SAP Center for Business Insight | Brief | Q&A | Case Study | Inquiry | E-Book

4 Ways Manufacturers Can Embrace the Make-for-Me Future

E-Book: 4 Ways Manufacturers Can Embrace the Make-for-Me Future2 NO. 61©2014 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Access to lower-cost 3D printers, computer numerical control (CNC) machines, and a number of other technologies available at lower price points than ever before gives the public power that they didn’t have access to otherwise. Manufacturers will have to rethink their design and production processes. Organizations will also have to incorporate insights derived from continuous customer engagement at every step along the value chain and be willing to quickly, and constantly, redesign their business models in this make-for-me future.

We are witnessing the beginning of the democratization, decentralization, and hyper-personalization of manufacturing – just in time, just in place, and just for me.

Here are 4 ways to do it.

Manufacturing Is for Everyone Now

E-Book: 4 Ways Manufacturers Can Embrace the Make-for-Me Future3 NO. 61©2014 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Automaker Ford has what it calls a modular engine, which can be produced in several variations, from 4.6 to 6.8 liters and from 8 to 10 cylinders. The engines themselves aren’t modular; the line is. The plant and its tools can be changed out in a matter of hours to manufacture different versions of the engine based on need rather than having to bet on one or the other.

Excerpted from The Make-for-Me Future.

Retool Production Lines and Back-End Systems to Increase Agility1

E-Book: 4 Ways Manufacturers Can Embrace the Make-for-Me Future4 NO. 61©2014 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Excerpted from the Q&A Can Customization Be Profitable?

Give Customers the Tools to Customize2

Customization can actually be cheaper. You can get rid of all the things that people don’t want. And if you stop producing things that people don’t want, you don’t have to put them on sale. ”

“

– Joseph Pine, business consultant and author of Mass Customization and The Experience Economy

E-Book: 4 Ways Manufacturers Can Embrace the Make-for-Me Future5 NO. 61©2014 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

Today, Mars Inc. has an entire business unit dedicated to customized candies and products called Mars Direct. But it started more than a decade ago with a small R&D group that wondered if offering custom colors and printing on M&M candies might be a viable moneymaker.

Take Risks and Gather Feedback3

Excerpted from The Make-for-Me Future.

E-Book: 4 Ways Manufacturers Can Embrace the Make-for-Me Future6 NO. 61©2014 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

With access to more granular customer data and input, manufacturers can make smarter decisions about customization because they can ensure that certain customers will want it. The more data companies can stitch together from devices, social networks, and customer communities, the smarter and more automated these make-for-me decisions will be.

Gather Data4

Excerpted from The Make-for-Me Future.

E-Book: 4 Ways Manufacturers Can Embrace the Make-for-Me Future7 NO. 61©2014 SAP AG or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.

To get the full story, download the in-depth report The Make-for-Me Future.

There’s More

The SAP Center for Business Insight is a program that supports the discovery and development of new research-based thinking to address the challenges of business and technology executives.

SAP Center for Business Insight | Brief | Q&A | Case Study | Inquiry | E-Book

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