Variant Management

Are you struggling with a rising number of product variants that are making your business processes more complex and more costly? Are many of your more “exotic” products subsidized by “quick-win” versions?

Our integrated approach to variant management provides the right solution. Complexity and its associated costs are hidden in all of a company’s value levels, organizational structures and processes. These can only be identified by examining and evaluating each product in detail. In order to be able to ascertain the benefits of the various products and alternatives, the actual cost of each variant has to be ascertained.

The following aspects determine the measurable success of variant management:

• Creation of variants: during which production phase and at which component level are variants created the most economically?
• Product complexity: number of components, depth of production structure and range of features offered
• Variant complexity: finding the right balance of quality requirements, price acceptance and production costs as well as successful implementation in the company
• Cost controlling: continuous cost calculation in the production facility and appropriate production planning and control in order to minimize variant costs in production, assembly and logistics
• Analysis of the cause of variant diversity: consideration of external and internal factors

Analyzing your variants offers you the following benefits:

• High cost transparency: cost breakdown of variant development with a clear picture of components, subassemblies and end products – process-orientated and product-orientated cost allocation
• Recognition of non-profitable variants: development efforts and investments in non-profitable variants can be recognized and avoided at a very early stage
• Control of variant-specific processes: recognition and optimization of the processes involving the highest variant-specific costs
• Market orientation: achievable margins become a criterion for maintaining or reducing the number of variants.

Together with you, we conduct a variant analysis of your range of products.