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Build-to-Order Cars?
MadMonk writes "Baseline has an article about a new car company that wants to be 'the Dell of the auto industry.' Build-To-Order, Inc. could turn the auto industry on its ear. At worst, BTO will be an interesting technology petri dish. I want a customized car to match my customized computer."
If I recall correctly, GM has already had designs in the works for an electric car that would be built on top of a "skateboard", basically a car base with batteries and electronics all built in. You could pop any shell/interior top onto that base. The idea was that you spent the big bucks on the base, and then spend your fashion dollars on a new top from year to year. In fact, an aftermarket was envisioned for custom, made to order, modularized, pop-together tops for the base.
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The current auto manufactureres are already the "Dell of automobiles." They give you a selection of options (color, radio, interior, etc.) and you can choose what you want. If you want something for which they don't have a configuration then you don't get it (go ahead and try to get a real Windows CD from Dell, I dare you) or it costs you more than it should.
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The first page of the article was good, good enough to make me go onto the second.
.NET services. Not worth the read imho.
The second page on the otherhand was a GIANT advertisement for Microsoft's
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build to order cars were fairly common. you'd go into the showroom, choose the options you wanted and then wait 2 months.
you could mix and match interiors fabrics with exterior paints. you could choose from different size engines, different size wheels, etc.
doesn't sound too revolutionary.
All Mini Cooper models are built to order. I toured the production plant in Oxford England recently. 100% just-in-time manufacturing process. You'll have a blue British spec followed by a yellow North American spec followed by another color Japanese spec, etc. Of the hundreds of cars in the plant at the time NONE of them were exactly the same as mine and probably not as each other.
Now, if this guy has the same 280 Million British Pounds to invest in building a plant (as was done by BMW group for the Mini), more power to him. I doubt he realizes what he's really getting into. Probably trying to build hype in the media to attract the investors he needs for such a project.
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the article states that the problem will be getting 50 different vendor computer systems to talk to the central database. it also states that they will be publishing specs (standards) on how to build the parts to fit on the car. the actual difference is that instead of like a GM car where you have only 2 stereo options (the bose or the delco) you can have one of 50 different stereos (which is just an example since there is pretty much a standard there already anyway). see it helps to read the actual article before commenting.
Option bundling is because of the imports. When you're shipping a car from Germany or Japan to the USA, you're gonna have to wait a while for them to build you a car to your specs. So the imports got into the habit of offering two or three option packages, then building cars with those packages in all possible color combos. Then, if one dealer didn't have the package you wanted in the color you wanted, probably another dealer in the area did. The domestic makers (GM, Ford, Chrysler) picked up on this because it's what the public wanted. Most people want their car NOW, not in 4 to 6 weeks, and they're willing to take fog lights to get the sunroof.
I don't see how this company is going to overcome the public's desire for instant gratification. Pick a car, drive it home today.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
http://www.btoauto.com/
It would have been nice to see exactly what the article was talking about, by linking to it in the summary...you know, because this is slashdot.
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http://www.btoauto.com/index.html
This is not entirely true today. Most major foreign automakers at least have assembly plants in the USA. From an options standpoint, this puts them in the same situation as a domestic manufacturer.
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I know that all large European car makers are doing this already. My VW Golf that I bought last year was custom made, as are most VW's that you buy. You have 4 basic trims (Base, Comfortline, Highline and Trendline) and you can add options, features, colors (inside and outside), fabrics, ... like you wish. These trim levels are even not decided by VW, but by the importer in each country. A Base model in Belgium does not have traction control, in Germany that is standard on all Golf's.
Only very few cars of the VW/Audi group are built by order of the factory, and most of these company ordered cars end up in the showroom to give the public a general idea of what is available. Often you get even a discount on those models because they are not 100% configured to your own wishes....
Volkswagen has a "car configurator" on their website that can make thousands of possible Golf configurations.
Do you really mean you cannot order your own car in the USA? I'm stunned... I thought buying stock cars was almost impossible these days...
First of all, 100% JIT manufacturing? You mean inventory management? IF so, check the parking lot outside and nearby. There'll be trucks waiting to unload their inventory. JIT inventory management is somewhat of a crock. It's just an accounting trick, really.
Second of all, all MINIs are not BTO. A friend bought one off the lot in the very first month. Impossible if they are all BTO. How would one get built without an order?
Third of all, all lines run with different colored and such cars next to each other. That's old news. That's why your car as a build tag with RPO codes, so they know what to bolt on. Truly fancy manufacturing lines run multiple cars (some even cars and trucks!) back to back on the same line.
Recently, while looking at a Mitsubishi with the girlfriend, I noticed that the stereo controls were all over the center of the dash. I asked the salesman if the radio could be removed and replaced with an aftermarket.
I was told that it could not be. You had to just keep the factory radio or build your own custom enclosure to handle an aftermarket. He also said some automakers are installing speakers that only work with the factory radio (although I'm not sure how that's possible).
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Acutally, very few people perform automotive mods themselves these days. At the track I go to, I'd say 85% of cars are modded the same way by the same hadful of sport dealers. Of course, it's the other 15% that tend to burn them, but most people like the idea of spending a little extra to get it done RIGHT. After all, who wants to drop $5900 on a turbo mod, get halfway through it, and torch the engine? Better to make AAA Autospyd or XXX-trem Grafick Kreations do the work, and take the liability.
Plus, some of these assholes are modding LEASED CARS. You don't want to break your car, that's true, but you SURE AS SHIT don't want to break the bank's car.
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I believe that the idea could be profitable, if they take the viewpoint of Dell. Dell has an assembly line, as will BTO:
"the assembly line--which resembles a street intersection."
Basically what I in-vision them doing is a process similar to dell. Basically as the car comes down the assembly line, each person has his or her own station (Frame, axle, drive train, engine, etc). Each car would have it's own "Identifier" number as it came down and at each point in the assembly process, the specific part would be put in. Traditionally, car manufacturers assembly lines have a person doing each job, putting in the same part, etc. This would simply differ, not completely change, from tradition. Instead of putting 10,000 CD Players in, and 5,000 Cassette players in, it would be a specific CD Player, or whichever way you want to look at it.
I think the thing that will make or break this company is the organization. If they can organize and get the processes correct they will succeed. For example, let's say you have 10 cars coming down the assembly line. You're in charge of stereos, you have all 10 stereos, in the order that the cars are coming down the line in. This is just a small example of one way of organizing the manufacturing process that needs to not only take place on the assembly line, but in the background to make sure that everyone has what they need, when they need it. The process and organization will be what makes or breaks this company.
The current auto manufactureres are already the "Dell of automobiles." They give you a selection of options (color, radio, interior, etc.) and you can choose what you want. If you want something for which they don't have a configuration then you don't get it
The difference is that if you don't want something that they do have, then the unwanted car will be standing, and potentially sold at a discount (whereas the unwanted Dell is never built). The losses from the unwanted cars are passed on to the consumer, in the price of the popular varieties.
Tor
They were optional from some manufacturers as far back as the mid-70s or so. There's a timeline here that says the first airbag-equipped car to roll off a production line was a '73 Oldsmobile Toronado (with dual airbags, no less). They were available in certain models from Olds, Buick, and Cadillac until 1977...in the years they were available, only about 10000 cars were ordered with airbags. It's true that they didn't become common until the early '90s (and I'd just as soon have the choice to buy a vehicle without them), but they were available farther back than most people would guess.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.