Engineer to order

Engineer to order is a production approach characterized by:
To speed up delivery time, the adoption of concurrent engineering, integrated product team, and lean product development methodologies are used. The critical path methodology is also essential.
Engineer to order environments must employ a flexible and adaptive, demand-driven approach to the manufacturing process. It is usually the right solution when details on a customer order are not provided and engineering development must be added to product lead time.
ETO is a technique that is leveraged to boost sales and improve margins for those companies with customers needing solutions that are tailored to fit their own unique environment. It begins with selling product concepts that don’t have fixed designs and are expected to result in a new, unique end product. This could be any product, from enterprise software applications to special aircraft to a pair of jeans. But the typical ETO environment usually deals with the design and build of unique custom engineered complex machinery and industrial equipment - one in which there is heavy involvement of the following engineering disciplines; mechanical, electrical, mechatronics, software, manufacturing and systems engineering. The ETO company works with its customers to develop new products that satisfy the customer’s requirements and specifications.
Engineer to order vs Make to Order.
The difference between the ETO approach to production and make to order products is that engineering original products to order includes the entire design process. In MTO companies typically have a fixed design and specifications to start with. The existing design is followed, even if the customer requests some customization of dimensions or materials. In engineering to meet unique customer orders, designs spring from collaboration with the customer, beginning with a need and a concept. Engineers do not know the final specifications, materials, or in software development, even the network or application platform until other primary concepts are ironed out. This is a much more creative process and requires a much closer relationship with clients, ultimately leading to a product that is unique.
Process Flow.
Engineers don’t always follow a smooth flow from step to step even in ordinary manufacturing. Most manufacturing design decisions tends to be highly iterative. It is common to create a design that meets customer approval, test it, make changes to meet specifications, and resubmit at certain stages or milestones in order for approval to proceed to the next stage. Engineer to order, due to its nature, is even more complex and client-centric. This requires on-going documentation, but the approach typically involves all of the following steps.
Quality.
Given the unique nature of the delivered product, clients may accept certain quality risks as a consequence of meeting delivery dates. Testing and trial periods may also be limited by the nature of the product, the manufacturing required, and the metrics established for quality controls. As each product is essentially a one of a kind prototype, smaller companies on either the manufacturer or client side may not have the expertise or resources to implement use-cases, user testing, or future quality guidelines. In MTO, quality is often defined as a lack of defects, but must meet minimal levels defined in the specifications. In Engineer to Order there is no original design. Where possible, prior similar products may provide some guidelines as to testing and precision, but the idea of re-designing or modifying an existing design is necessarily a core requirement of the engineer to order concept. It does however reduce costs and time if one can use previous designs.