{"id":2634,"date":"2025-10-30T16:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T14:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adesso-mis.de\/?p=2634"},"modified":"2025-11-19T11:32:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T09:32:22","slug":"variant-management-explained-simply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adesso-mis.de\/en\/variant-management-explained-simply\/","title":{"rendered":"Variant management explained simply (Part 1): What pizza baking has in common with the manufacturing industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Variant management explained simply (Part 1): What pizza baking has in common with the manufacturing industry<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Salami or ham? With onions or mushrooms? And the question of all questions: pineapple - yes or no? We've probably all ordered a pizza and therefore know that just a few ingredients result in countless variations.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Variety sounds good - but it quickly becomes confusing. And this is where the challenges of variant configuration begin.<\/p>

In the industrial environment, it's not about topped dough patties, but generally about components, modules, machines or production systems with many variants. However, the basic principle remains the same: Customers want advice and choice, companies need methodology and structure.<\/p>

In this article, we explain exactly how variant management helps with this and why it is a real competitive factor today.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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How variant configuration and automation manage the balancing act between variety and efficiency<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Personal preferences and requirements are not just limited to the choice of lunch. Machine and plant construction also requires customised special solutions. Complexity is increasing significantly and manual processing is becoming ever more complex and expensive. Today, industrial companies must be able to design and manufacture products and solutions very efficiently and effectively, even as customised items.<\/p>

If companies succeed in developing, marketing and manufacturing unique products at costs and prices that are comparable with standard solutions, they can secure or even expand their market share in a globalised environment.<\/p>

These challenges have made the modularisation of products and the extensive automation of processes from development and sales to production and services an absolute necessity today. Only in this way can the best possible fulfilment of individual customer requirements be successful and profitable.<\/p>

An end-to-end variant management system is the ideal toolbox for meeting the increasing demand for customised solutions, or even profiting from it. Innovative methods and tools support the creation of customised offers and enable cost-effective production once an order has been received - for small batches and even for individual items.<\/p>

Before we delve deeper, we would first like to explain the most important basic concepts of variant management. Because \"not all cheese is the same\", and the following levels of complexity also differ: PTO, ATO, CTO, CTO+ and ETO<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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PTO - Pick-to-Order<\/strong><\/p>