1 As computer systems, product configurators have been widely applied in practice for configuring a right amount of product variety. While studies have been reported to shed light on how product configurators' application achieves time reduction and quality improvement in fulfilling customer orders, empirical investigations addressing the implications of product configurators' application for companies' business activities are very limited. However, understanding the implications is very important for companies because with such an understanding, they can better plan actions and make changes to embrace the implementation of product configurators. Thus, based on a survey, this study investigates the implications of product configurators' application. The results indicate (i) how product configurators' application affects companies' business activities, (ii) the difficulties in designing, developing, and using product configurators, and (iii) the potential barriers preventing companies from effectively applying product configurators in the future. With the results, we further highlight several improvement areas for companies to investigate in order to reap, to the largest extend, the benefits of implementing product configurators.
Since the early 90’s, product configurators have been receiving
continuous interests and investigations from both the academia and
industrial alike. Resulting from these efforts, countless articles have
been published to present solutions to diverse configurator related
issues. Many of these articles address configuration knowledge
representation and modeling, methods and approaches for product
configurator design from a theoretical point of view
This study tries to fill this gap by investigating the implications of product configurators’ application. It is done using a quantitative research method, as described in the next section. Based on the data collected, we present, in Section 3, the results and analysis. The results are discussed with respect to (i) how product configurators’ application affects companies’ business activities, (ii) the difficulties in designing, developing/maintaining, and using product configurators, and (iii) the potential barriers influencing the effective application of product configurators in the future. Built upon the insights in Section 3, we further discuss the possible changes and improvements that companies may undertake. 2
As the aim of this study is to identify the implications of product configurators’ application for companies’ business activities, an empirical study was performed. In doing so, a questionnaire was developed for collecting data. The collected data was computed and analyzed for revealing the application implications and for identifying the related opportunities as well.
In designing the questionnaire, we included such questions like the functions that product configurators perform, the business process and IT system changes caused by product configurators’ application, the difficulties in implementing product configurator projects, the potential barriers preventing the effective application of product configurators in the future, and the performance improvements resulting from product configurators’ application. Besides these questions, there are also general questions such as position titles, the application time of configurators. By considering the explorative nature of this study, we used nominal scales by presenting alternative choices for each question. The alternatives were determined based on the literature and our experiences of working with companies, where product configurators are applied. Besides alternatives, we included the opportunity for respondents to choose “Other” and give details. In this way, we avoid the possibility of missing potential alternatives. To verify the initial questionnaire with respect to the sufficiency and appropriateness of questions, we pretested it in 5 companies, with which we have collaborations. In the pretest, 5 company representatives filled up the questionnaire and provided comments. In addition, we made phone contacts for clarifications of the comments and additional remarks. Based on the feedback, some questions were revised, leading to the finalized questionnaire. (Appendix A summarizes the questionnaire.)
With the finalized questionnaire, survey was conducted in a research panel involving managers responsible for IT investments in US companies in October and November 2013. These companies were mainly from the computer, telecommunication system, and industrial machinery industries. Panel members were invited by a commercial research data collection company: EMPanel Online. Data was collected by sending invitation by email and using an online survey tool. To ensure that the respondents know about configurators and were responsible for configurator projects, a qualifying question was asked. In addition, another two questions regarding industry type and company size were asked. By considering these questions, we obtained and analyzed 64 completed questionnaires, which had balanced distributions with respect to the company size, industry, and time duration (in year) of product configurators’ application.
In analyzing the data, we computed the total occurrence of each alternative, which was selected by the respondents, and the corresponding percentage. In this regard, we analyzed the distribution of the selected alternatives. 3
In accordance with the questionnaire, the collected data is analyzed with respect to (i) how the application of product configurators affects companies’ business activities, (ii) the difficulties in designing, developing/maintaining, and using product configurators, and (iii) the issues potentially influencing the effective application of product configurators in the future. total number of tasks, instead of that of companies. In this regard, they are not mutually exclusive with respect to companies. This is the same with the calculation of all the rest figures.) Consistent with the tasks that configurators perform, the major users include sales staff (in 46% of the respondents), designers (in 25% of the respondents), customers (in 15% of the respondents), and production planners (in 14% of the respondents), as shown in Fig. 1(b). While published articles provide anecdotal evidences, there is no study presenting such a complete distribution of configurators’ functions and users.
Product documentation
29% Production 11% documentation
Sales order processing 60% No process changes
Quotation Production doc.11% preparation generation 16% 24%
Prod. document sPpreocdi.fifcuantciotinon generat2io2n% 27%
Planners14%
Customers
15% Designers 25%
Sales staff
46% No functional unit changes
19% Production 17%
Sales 32% Product design 32% (a) Major tasks and percentages (b) Main users and percentages (c) Major process changes and percentages (d) Main unit reorganization and percentages While product configurators take over tasks, which are performed previously in different functional units, their application does not bring many changes to the functional units. As shown in Fig. 1(c), both the sales and product design/development units in only 32% of the respondents are affected, thus reorganized; the production unit in 17% of the respondents is reorganized. It is interesting to see that product configurator application does not bring any changes to the functional units in 19% of the respondents. Our experiences of working with companies show that this might happen in the situations, where customers are the major users of product configurators. However, this needs to be further confirmed in the future investigations. As product configurators automatically perform many activities, which are carried out manually in the past, their application might incur business process changes as well. In the survey, many respondents indicate that their business processes have been changed. These changes include (i) the original manual quotation preparation is done automatically (in 24% of the respondents), (ii) the sales unit is responsible for the task of specifying product functions (in 27% of the respondents), (iii) product technical details, e.g., BOMs, drawings, are dealt with automatically (in 22% of the respondents), (iv) manufacturing documents are generated automatically (in 16% of the respondents), as shown in Fig. 1(d). It 3.1 3.1.1
In studying how companies’ business activities are affected by the application of product configurators, it is essential to understand the major tasks that product configurators perform. This is because these tasks contribute to many of companies’ activities for designing, producing, and delivering products. It is equally important to understand the major users of product configurators. In accordance with the configurators’ tasks and users, there might be changes to companies’ business processes, functional units, IT systems, the number of employees, and performances.
Being consistent with the literature, the survey results suggest that a configurator performs multiple tasks and has multiple users. As shown in Fig. 1(a), configurators in 60% of the respondents (i.e., the responding companies) perform sales order processing, such as quotation preparation, sales order specification, and product specification; configurators in 29% and 11% of the respondents carry out product documentation: BOM and drawing generation and manufacturing documentation: routing and process plan generation, respectively. (Note that these figures were calculated based on the is worth mentioning: as pointed out by 11% of respondents, that product configurators’ application does not bring changes to their business processes. This seems consistent with what we have found above: 19% of respondents indicate that product configurators’ application does not cause changes to the functional units. When there are no changes to companies’ functional units, there may not be the changes to the business processes. However, this needs to be further tested in the future.
In performing tasks, product configurators interact with companies’ other IT systems for receiving inputs and/or sending outputs. Consequently, product configurators’ application may cause changes to companies’ legacy systems. The results confirm this. As shown in the results, (i) design systems are modified to be linked with configurators (in 33% of the respondents), (ii) production systems, such as product planning and control systems and material resources planning systems, are modified to be linked with product configurators (in 48% of the respondents), and (iii) accounting systems are modified to be linked with product configurators (in 9% of the respondents). At last, 10% of the respondents indicate that there are no changes to their legacy systems. When product configurators are built-in modules of ERP systems, it might be possible that companies do not need to modify their legacy systems.
employees to the number of As product configurators perform automatically many activities, which are performed manually in the past, intuitively, product configurators’ application should reduce the number of full time employees. However, it is surprising to see that 63% of the respondents hire full time employees, whereas only 6% indicate that they lay off employees. 31% point out that there are no changes to the number of their employees. As indicated in the following results (Subsections 3.2 and 3.3), companies do not have sufficient good IT system designers and developers. In this regard, the application of product configurators may lead to the recruitment of new employees. 3.1.6
The available literature reports diverse performance improvements resulting from the application of product configurators. This study finds similar results, thus supporting the literature. For all the respondents, the improvements include (i) increased sales volume, (ii) increased correct sales orders, (iii) reduced production rework, (iv) increased customer orders, (v) reduced order processing time, and (vi) reduced sales delivery time. As indicated by the results, 47%/44%/ 44%/31% of respondents achieve 30%-50% increase of sales volume/increased correct sales orders/reduced production rework/increased customer orders accepted, respectively. Seen from the results, it is difficult for companies to achieve higher improvements in these performance measures. For example, only 3% of the respondents achieve 80% increase of sales volume. It is interesting to see that companies reduce much order processing time, whereas they do not achieve equivalent improvement in the sales delivery lead time. (50% of the respondents indicate higher than 50% reduced order processing time; 30% and 22% of the respondents 3.1.4 achieve 0-30% and 30%-50% delivery lead time reduction, respectively.) This might be caused by the fact that there are more interactions among different functional units in the entire cycle of delivering sales orders. These interactions may result in lower improvements in sales delivery lead time. 3.2
As shown in the results, most companies experience difficulties in
designing, developing/maintaining, and using product configurators.
50% of the respondents indicate that it is rather difficult for them to
design product configurators. The two major reasons are (i) the lack
of IT system designers (in 50% of the respondents) and (ii) IT system
designers and product designers cannot communicate well (in 45%
of the respondents). With our experiences of working with
companies and based on the literature, these results are
understandable. Manufacturing companies normally hire IT
engineers for maintaining systems in support of their core business
activities: design and production. In this regard, the IT engineers
may not possess sufficient skills and capabilities for designing
product configurators. The early literature points out that due to the
differences in communication languages, configurator designers and
product experts have difficulties in making effective
communications
Similarly, most respondents have difficulties in developing/maintaining product configurators. The biggest challenge for companies to develop/maintain product configurators is the high complexity of product configurators, as supported by 52% of the respondents. The other two main difficulties include (i) the lack of good IT system developers (in 24% of the respondents) and (ii) the continuous evolution of products and the resulting high product complexity (in 24% of the respondents). While product complexities do not appear as a main difficulty in designing configurators, they do cause difficulties in developing and maintaining product configurators. This is because in accordance with product complexities, the product configurator design is complex too. It is understandable that complex product configurators are difficult to develop.
In using product configurators, companies also have difficulties.
These are caused by (i) un-user friendly interfaces (in 44% of the
respondents), (ii) the inefficient communications for getting
required inputs (in 31% of the respondents), (iii) the high complexity
of product configurators (in 12.5% of the respondents), and (iv) the
lack of sufficient training (in 12.5% of the respondents). In
processing customer orders, configuring products, and generating
product/manufacturing documents, configurators require diverse
inputs. These inputs are from customers, sales staff, designers, etc.
In many cases, the input providers are from different offices or even
different companies. This location dispersion may hinder the
effective communications for required inputs. In addition, even in
the situation where the input providers are in the same location, due
to, e.g., other tasks that they need to deal with, the input providers
may not be able to supply required inputs on-time. In our view, the
other three difficulties are interconnected with one another. First,
complex product configurators may have many interrelated modules
and procedures. More training is required to understand and use
these modules and procedures. However, companies are busy with
dealing with daily operations activities and may not give enough
training time to users. As shown in practice, e.g., the fail of SAP
project in Avon
One question in the questionnaire asked respondents for the barriers,
which may potentially prevent them from effectively applying
product configurators in the future. The results here are consistent
with these discussed earlier. The earlier results show that companies
have difficulties in designing and developing product configurators
because of the lack of technical IT staff. Similarly, the lack of IT
staff also appears to be a major barrier for companies to effectively
use product configurators in the future. The fact that products keep
evolving is one of the three difficulties in using product
configurators is also acknowledged as one barrier for future use.
Two additional barriers, including (i) the unclear customer
requirements and (ii) the unsafe feeling of employees, are brought
up. Due to the linguistic origins, customer requirements are normally
imprecise and ambiguous
In summary, the largest barrier is the continuous evolution of products, as pointed out by 75% of the respondents. The other barriers include (i) the lack of technical IT staff for maintaining the configurators (seen by 47% of the respondents), (ii) the unclear customer requirements (perceived by 47% of the respondents), and (iii) the unsafe feeling from the employees because of the possibilities of losing jobs (agreed by 34% of the respondents). 4
Along with the benefits achieved, product configurators’ application brings many additional requirements and changes to companies’ existing way of doing business, as shown in this study. While the changes and requirements may not be perceived beneficial, they open up opportunities for companies to improve the new way of doing business, which involves product configurators. Based on data analysis and results, this study highlights three areas for investigation: (i) IT capacity and capability enhancement, (ii) organization redesign, and (iii) top down support and company-wide engagement.
are basically IT systems. The optimal design and development of
these systems will bring many advantages to companies, such as the
configuration of optimal products, the cut-down of configuration
time, the reduction of configuration errors, the easy application, the
reduction of training time, etc
Organizational redesign. Product configurators’ application
brings many changes to companies existing activities, processes, and
functional units (Sections 3.1.2 & 3.1.3). While simply reorganizing
the affected units, as what the practice does (Section 3.1.2), may to
certain degree facilitate product configurators’ application, it is
insufficient for companies to realize the full benefits of product
configurators
implementation of any new technologies, the implementation of
product configurators needs continuous support and commitment
from all levels, especially the top management level, in a company.
The support and commitment is very important for completing the
necessary organization changes (see above) and for successfully
implementing product configurator projects. The literature shows
that the lack of long-term commitment is one of the main reasons for
the failure of many technology implementation projects
In view of the lasting interests that product configurators receive, this study set out to investigate the implications of product configurators’ application for companies’ business activities. The belief is that it is beneficial for companies to understand the difficulties and challenges before embarking upon a product configurator project. As shown in the results, product configurators’ application brings many changes and difficulties along with performance improvements. The changes together with the difficulties highlight a number of areas to be investigated if companies want to achieve the optimal benefits from using product configurators.
In conducting the survey, we used nominal scales by considering the explorative nature of this study. While the nominal scale permits an easy understandable questionnaire, it makes analysis less exact than a Likert scale. In another words, it may not be able to identify the causal relationships among the interesting elements involved in the implications of configurators’ application. In this regard, this study highlights an interesting future research topic. An extended quantitative method involving data analysis based on Likert scales might be conducted to reveal these causal relationships. In addition, as an initial study, the survey treated configurator development and maintenance as one issue, instead of two. As computer system development and maintenance are two different projects, the extended future study might take this into consideration. Moreover, the survey results reveal that many interesting questions need to be investigated in the future, such as in accordance with the major configurator tasks, who should be responsible for a configurator project and how they can better lead such a project, what are the configurator maintenance tasks and how can these tasks be better performed. At last, while the initial results in this study show some trends, further work is needed to investigate differences between small and large companies and between business-to-business companies and business-to-consumer companies.
Appendix: A summary of the questionnaire General issues: 1: How long have the configurator been in use. 2. How many types of products are the configurator used for. Product configurator applications: 1. Which tasks are performed by the configurator. 2. Who are the users. 3. Which functional units were reorganized. 4. Which business process were changed. 5. Which changes were made to other computer systems. 6. Did you layoff/hire full time employees.
Performance of product configurator applications: 1. The percentage of increased sales volume. 2. The percentage of increased correct sales orders. 3. The percentage of reduced production rework. 4. The percentage of increased customer orders accepted. 5. The percentage of reduced order processing time. 6. The percentage of reduced sales delivery time.
Difficulties in implementing product configurator project: 1. The difficulties in designing the product configurator. 2. The difficulties in developing/maintaining the configurator. 3. The difficulties in using the product configurator.
Barriers preventing companies from continuously applying product configurator: