Computer aided confirming orders of configurable products - case study of data preparation

According to requirements of the market a great number of small companies are forced to offer a wide product variety and often to respond to the market with customized solutions. At the same time, fast delivery is often a key to win orders. Recent developments in Information Technology (IT) made available also for small companies a class of software tools called product configurators. This paper presents a method of confirming orders for configurable products, focusing on data preparation for IT systems. The method enables efficient management of a large number of product variants. The empirical evidence suggests that, in order to exploit the full potential advantages of product configuration, changes in the organization and support IT systems are needed. This paper reports a case study of the implementation of a product configuration software in small and medium (SME) manufacturing enterprises. The example of the manufacturing roller shutter was chosen.