Types of Configurator

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Types of Configurator

Configure to sell, design and manufacture

There are different types of configurators. Each is differentiated by the technology, the configuration process they support, and in the type of production configuration will be used for.

Each of these specifically focused automations can be combined, in any combination, with any other configurator variety to produce a hybrid configuration platform with greater seamless functionality.

These variations can be summarized as:

Sales Configurators (CPQ)- Configure Price Quote

Also called CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote)

CPQ are sales tools designed to help companies produce accurate and highly configured quotes for the sales of the complex product, where pricing, and business rules centralized, automatic and available in real-time.

This allows salesperson to have everything they need at their fingertips. CPQ is most widely used where manufacturers employ a pre-engineered 150% bill of materials (BOM) and the handling of complex product geometry is not needed.

Examples: car set-up configurator, personal computers.

Technical Product Configurators

Companies that manufacture solutions based predominately on their customer’s requirements employ technical configurators to develop products.

By incorporating, and documenting, manufacturer’s best design practices and then automating those practices using Engineering To Order automation or Assemble To Order processes, technical configurators custom products in the same timeframes as its Sales Configurator counter parts but are also able to provide and automate the specific analyses (FEA, CFD, etc.) and the simulation validation necessary to meet or exceed the requirements put forth by the customer.

A suitable technology for this purpose is the Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) systems.

Production Configurators

Production Configurators support and automate production process workflows such as scheduling, engineering, technologies, resource allocation and materials management. For simpler manufacturing applications (low complexity of manufacture and straightforward resources allocation) Production configurators are usually “embedded” in ERP tools.

For more complex operations dedicated Production Configurators can be developed to augment ERPs enabling the expansion of their functionality by including the automation of their best engineering and manufacturing practices and rules.

Configuration Platforms

Many companies need a configuration platform that enables integrated configuration for all departments directly involved in product development, typically sales, presales, engineering and some production tasks.

For this application there are systems based on a methodology called “knowledge based engineering” or “rule based configuration” which by managing (creation, modification, improvement) the rules, adapts to the needs of the company by integrating with existing systems such as CRM, CAD, and /or ERPs.

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