Order fulfillment

Order fulfillment (in British English: order fulfilment) is in the most general sense the complete process from point of sales inquiry to delivery of a product to the customer. Sometimes, it describes the more narrow act of distribution or the logistics function. In the broader sense, it refers to the way firms respond to customer orders. The first research towards defining order fulfillment strategies was published by Hans Wortmann, and was continued by Hal Mather in his discussion of the P:D ratio, whereby P is defined as the production lead time, i.e. how long it takes to manufacture a product, and D is the demand lead time. D can be viewed as: The lead time quoted by the firm to the customer The lead time the customer wishes it was The competitive lead time Based on comparing P and D, a firm has several basic strategic order fulfillment options: Engineer-to-order (ETO) - (D>>P) Here, the product is designed and built to customer specifications; this approach is most common for large construction projects and one-off products, such as Formula 1 cars. Build-to-order (BTO); syn: Make-to-Order (MTO) - (D>P) Here, the product is based on a standard design, but component production and manufacture of the final product is linked to the order placed by the final customer's specifications; this strategy is typical for high-end motor vehicles and aircraft. Assemble-to-order (ATO); syn: Assemble-to-request - (D