Texturing, Spackling, and Jointing: Strategies for Helping Coordinate Product, Process, and Supply Chain Design

We develop a framework for determining whether the production process should be designed as make-to-stock (MTS) and/or make-to-order (MTO), given the firm’s assessment of market preferences for standard product designs and custom product designs and the firm’s production capabilities in terms of efficient versus flexible production. These process and product design decisions can in turn impact supply chain design since standard products might typically involve retail outlets, while custom products can often be sold directly. If the firm chooses to offer only standard products we suggest considering a process strategy called texturing, if it offers both standard and custom designs we suggest considering a process strategy called spackling, and if it offers custom products we suggest considering a process strategy called jointing. All three strategies involve both MTS and MTO.