Configured Items and the Manufacturing Environment

A configurator is best suited to assemble-to-order and make-to-order manufacturing environments. Kit processing is usually better suited to pick-to-order environments if no relationships exist between kits or the components within kits. An engineer-to-order environment produces one-of-a-kind items that might never be built again. Thus, investing in a configurator and the associated setup is usually not cost-effective in such an environment. The basic to-order environments are: