What is Assemble to Order?

Assembly to order term refers to a business strategy in which the products that customers have ordered are manufactured quickly. As the name suggests, the strategy indicates that the components of the product are manufactured, but is yet to be assembled. As soon as the manufacturer gets an order for the product, they assemble all the parts quickly and deliver them to the customer.

The main purpose of this production strategy is to produce the parts that might benefit the customers. In this strategy, the manufacturer aims to produce goods that the customers might order, assemble the parts, and then sell as many products as possible.

The strategy is mainly applicable to the goods that are sold in bulk or high-volume products. The opposite of assemble to order is the make-to-order strategy, in which the items are produced as soon as the production unit gets the order for the same. Basically, the production team starts assembling and Manufacturing goods once they get the confirmation for the order. This strategy is for the low-volume and special products that have low demand, and are expensive.

Advantages of Assemble to Order

The major benefit of the assemble-to-order production strategy is that the product could be customized on some level. As mentioned earlier, only the parts of the products are manufactured at this stage. It is possible for the production unit to change the product depending on the customer’s demand. This is especially useful for the units that require minimal efforts, time and cost from the customer’s end. The advanced technology and the latest inventory management functions have played a pivotal role in increasing the demand for assemble-to-order products.

Another advantage of this production strategy is the customization possibilities. While the parts of the products are already manufactured, they are not assembled yet. There is a chance you could customize the products to some extent and adjust them to your customers’ requirements. Take PCs and Laptops, for example. The manufacturer has all the components for the computers ready, such as motherboard, graphic cards, monitors, keyboards, and more.

The company has ordered these parts from different vendors and now all they need to do is assemble them to complete the order. They can wait until they receive the order from customers before assembling all the components. Once they get an order, they could customize the PC with the available components. The manufacturing process begins after the company receives an order, but the parts used for manufacturing the unit are already available on the shelves.

Customization is not possible when you follow the production strategy in which the goods are already manufactured and assembled. There is no room for customization in finished goods. Besides, the assemble-to-order method is quite fast and it allows you to have the production process completed in the shortest time possible. As all the components are prepared and the final product only requires the assembly of these parts, chances are you can get the order ready in no time.