Engineered-to-order approach for providing flexibility in e-commerce of mold parts

Abstract

In the mold parts industry, customers typically place orders for order-made parts with some changes to the design specifications of ready-made parts within the extent of the manufacturing capability of the supplier. Being customized for ready-made parts, existing e-Catalog systems cannot support this trade pattern. To solve this problem, an engineered-to-order (ETO) approach is proposed here, enabling the trade of order-made parts in an e-Catalog system by utilizing the design and manufacturing knowledge of part suppliers. After addressing technological challenges and their solutions, we describe application results of the ETO approach to two types of mold parts - ejector pins and mold bases.