A wide range of variants under control – with a product configurator in ERP

Nowadays, standard goods with rigid properties no longer attract any attention. Instead, there is a demand for customizable products that are precisely tailored to the customer’s needs – at the price of mass production, of course.

From the customer’s point of view, product configurations are a good thing all round. For companies, however, they can be problematic. After all, the associated diversity of variants brings with it a number of challenges. A product configurator that is integrated into the ERP system and significantly simplifies order processing can help.

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Diversity of variants: What is the biggest challenge?

The biggest problem in variant production is complexity. Flexible product programs with many design variants entail considerable effort – not only in sales and design, but also in production and throughout order processing. Nevertheless, your customers always expect fast order processing at favorable prices. The pressure is growing and errors are inevitable.

Even a small number of possible combinations leads to a considerable number of product variants. Let’s assume that you only offer three different decision features for a product , each in five versions. Even with this manageable range, you must be able to offer and produce 125 different variants.

Clarifying the customer’s wishes during the quotation process can lead to difficulties if there is a large number of variants. This is because not all combinations are usually feasible or recommendable:

• It is possible that two components together exceed the maximum load capacity of the frame.
• The total temperature development of several components may be too high.
• Or perhaps some components meet the requirements in terms of temperature and contamination. But they are not compatible with another component that ensures adequate performance.

To make matters worse, manufacturers normally attach great importance to long-term product support. Sometimes they are even legally obliged to do so. New components should therefore always be backwards compatible with older ones. This in turn further increases the dependencies of the individual components during configuration.

The ERP system in variant production: The basis for smooth processes

If you want to master the increasing complexity of variant production, there is no way around modern technology. Optimizing and consolidating the IT infrastructure is therefore a top priority in variant management. This is the only way to create a stable foundation for dynamic growth.

The ERP system plays a fundamental role in the IT environment:

• The software ensures that all necessary order and process data is available via a common platform.
• This enables processes to be seamlessly linked and synergy effects to be exploited.
• As a result, the solution supports cross-departmental thinking, ensures clear processes and increases planning reliability.

Many medium-sized manufacturing companies in Germany are well aware of the importance of the ERP system for efficient variant production: the study “ERP Challenges 2025/26” revealed that around two thirds of the companies surveyed have introduced a new ERP system within the last two years. For 57%, support for individual production up to batch size 1 is a decisive criterion when choosing a suitable ERP system.

However, process-optimized variant production is only possible if you have a comprehensive system architecture with central data storage. Features and modules for CRM and controlling as well as the online web store should be seamlessly integrated into the architecture.

However, the all-important building block for smart variant management is another module: a product configurator integrated into the ERP system.

Why a product configurator in the ERP system is so important

Some variant manufacturers still handle the project planning of an order manually . Colleagues have to click together and forward all documents by hand. This applies to parts lists, drawings and production documents, for example.

As you can imagine, this manual work often causes project planning and calculation errors in practice. It also leads to long processing times and a lack of quality in quotations. Without automation, this is practically unavoidable.

This is where the product configurator comes into play: it facilitates the handling of cross-departmental processes and increases usability for everyone involved.

What exactly is a product configurator?

When you hear the term “product configurator” , you might initially think of a web-based tool that your customers use to click together their individual offer on their own PC. A typical example of this is the configurators used by car manufacturers: users select the model, color and equipment they want in their browser. They then immediately find out which branch offers a test drive and the conditions under which the vehicle is available.

However, such web-based configurators are rather rare in the context of complex products and services. It is much more common to find internal company tools that support the sales department in preparing quotations and at the same time relieve the design department in its day-to-day business.

An internal product configurator in the ERP system basically works in the same way as an external one. In this case, however, the users are not end customers but sales employees. In face-to-face meetings with customers, they use the tool on a tablet, for example, to discuss possible variants together.

This is how it works:

• The sales department uses the configurator to put together product variants that are precisely tailored to customer requirements.
• The tool records the relevant product features, checks them for plausibility and uses them to determine the price.
• The customer finds out immediately whether the provider can meet their requirements – and if so, on what terms.

Once the customer has placed an order, this triggers a series of automated processes via the configurator:

• The configured order is automatically created as an order in the CRM system.
• If necessary, the software makes adjustments to the parts list, checks the stock levels and informs the purchasing department directly if required.
• The ERP system processes all order data and ensures that the flow of information to production is guaranteed by transferring all relevant information in full.
• Production can then plan the order precisely, taking stock levels and capacities into account.

With the help of a product configurator, modern ERP solutions can significantly reduce the additional work involved in variant production.

Markus Reichl, Asseco Solutions

Product configurator with set of rules: ideal, but time-consuming

Ideally, the internal product configurator contains a complete set of production rules with all restrictions and dependencies. This can pull data on stock levels and capacities from the ERP system and use it to calculate all sales and production-related details, e.g. parts lists, delivery dates and prices.

With such a tool, the sales department processes a complete order without involving the design department. This benefits both sides:

• The design department no longer has to deal with routine tasks.
  As long as a product variant exists that covers all customer requirements, the configurator is completely sufficient. The design department only becomes active in special cases when no variant fits and new developments are necessary.
• Sales can respond more quickly to customer inquiries.
  As coordination with the design department is no longer necessary, communication-related friction losses are eliminated. In addition, the design department is no longer a bottleneck in the sales process. The time required to prepare quotations is reduced.

In practice, however, a product configurator with a set of rules is not always so easy to implement. Especially in more complex production environments, there are such a large number of dependencies that the development effort can be relatively high. In addition, a person must be found to maintain and further develop the set of rules. After all, you want to ensure that the sales department always has access to the latest data.

For these reasons, some companies choose a different approach to support sales. They rely on a configurator without a set of rules.

Product configurator without a set of rules: slimmed down but uncomplicated

A configurator without a set of rules only displays rules and dependencies in text form. The software gives the user information such as: “Remember that this component is not compatible with the following housing variants: …”. However, it does not check whether the selected configuration can actually be implemented. It is therefore more of a guided dialog than a fully functional configurator.

Such a “product configurator light” is much easier to set up and maintain. Changes and additions to the rules and regulations are recorded in text form and do not require any programming effort.

This approach also has advantages from the point of view of the divisions concerned – even if it lags somewhat behind the “deluxe version”:

• The sales department receives support in preparing the offer.
  The results provide information on the feasibility and framework conditions of a project – i.e. the information that is relevant for the offer.
• The design department is relieved as it no longer has to be involved in the sales process.
  It still has to create a technical design for every order. However, this only applies to confirmed projects, not just inquiries. In addition, the design department receives a framework with the quotation, which it can easily supplement and convert into drawings and parts lists in the event of an order.

Product configurator with and without rules – overview

Application example from practice

PALME masters complex variant diversity with ERP-based product configurator

PALME Duschabtrennungen GmbH has been manufacturing customized shower oases of the highest quality for decades. The comprehensive product portfolio requires multi-layered variant production and complex shipping processes.

The product configurator integrated in the APplus ERP system makes it possible to manage this complexity efficiently. As soon as an order is received, the module takes over the recording of all relevant parameters. Parts lists, calculations and order data are generated directly from the configuration.

Other special features:

• The new maximum BOM concept replaces the previous BOM pool. This has reduced the number of basic BOMs from around 20,000 templates to around 2,000, which in turn significantly reduces the maintenance effort.
• Clean, centralized data storage ensures greater transparency and more efficient processes.
• Individual scripts avoid the unnecessary creation of new articles and support the optimal use of existing material.

Read the full case study now

Conclusion: A product configurator in ERP takes the fear out of variant diversity

With a product configurator seamlessly integrated into the ERP system, the diversity of variants is no longer a problem. In combination, ERP and configurator create a continuous data chain that creates transparency for the customer and significantly accelerates cross-departmental order processing. This relieves both the sales department and the design department in their day-to-day work.

As a variant manufacturer, you are able to flexibly produce any technically feasible customer request and deliver it within the shortest possible time. As a result, orders are implemented quickly, error-free and as cost-effectively as possible. This means that you will also be ideally equipped to meet increasing customer demands in the future.