To thrive and grow, a manufacturer must be responsive to every increasing customer demand for product variety and sophistication. Global consulting firm Accenture confirms that complexity is here to stay in a report* that warns: “Problems can occur, however, when companies lose control of product complexity, which in today’s fast-moving, global, competitive environment has become an all-too-common occurrence.”
For manufacturers, control means having accurate information and making good decisions. Manufactures of stock, custom, or batch products most likely have a proliferation of similar yet distinct products and need more control of the product lifecycle management.