Customers increasingly demand customized products at standard product pricing. This is a dilemma for both the traditional Lean manufacturer and the traditional Build-to-Order job shop manufacturer. The first can provide low costs and the second can provide customization. Neither can do both successfully. Rapid flexible Build-to-Order, done properly, can. Rapid flexible Build-to-Order represents a faster, lower cost, higher quality way to satisfy customers with more custom products at competitive prices. Granted, this rapid and flexible Build-to-Order business model is neither traditional job shop nor traditional Lean. But by using the best of both with managed flexibility, companies in the 21st century can effectively compete in the global economy.

When we speak of Build-to-Order (BTO), images of low volume, highly engineered job shops invariably come to mind. Most high volume fabricators, whether they are making autos, parts for autos, or standardized products like lawn furniture have problems understanding how to switch to BTO in their operations. Some have spent considerable effort and not a small amount of money developing lean, sequenced product flows governed, in most cases, by a rigid adherence to Takt times. Considering converting a well defined, Lean production process to BTO seems to them downright crazy.

Many tools used to create a BTO operating system and a Lean one are similar, some even identical. A crucial first step for both is process mapping. Understanding the value stream provides the basis for guiding those involved in the implementation of systems, whether BTO or Lean. Continuous improvement efforts are the same, with the same focus and goals. Even so, BTO manufacturing is very different from Lean manufacturing. Rapid flexible BTO incorporates characteristics of both.

Rapid flexible Build-to-Order is an even bigger shift in manufacturing philosophy from Lean or BTO than JIT was from traditional mass production. Lean and JIT have been described as efficient mass production whereas BTO is described as demand-based job shop production. Neither of these descriptions is totally accurate since certain parts of JIT are indeed "pulled" based on customer demand and Build-to-Order can be used for high volume, highly repeatable production. While Lean and JIT are usually associated with low costs, rapid flexible BTO done properly can result in even lower costs.

What makes rapid flexible BTO so different? The answer is both simple and complex: Rapid flexible Build-to-Order focuses on being flexible when responding to customer demand while Lean focuses on the elimination of waste of all forms in the pursuit of operational excellence. Even here, there is an overlap because rapid flexible BTO also wants to eliminate waste, but not at the expense of flexibility. It also relies on operational excellence like Lean, but not at the expense of flexibility. Rapid flexible BTO is a strategic business decision aimed at leveraging proximity-to-market with fast response to customer demand while accomplishing significant cost reductions through supply chain synchronization. It achieves this by creating and synchronizing flexibility in internal (Operational, Materials, Engineering, and Shop Floor) and external processes in the supply chain including R&D, Sales & Marketing, and Organizational.

Flexibility is a broad term. There are 10 types of manufacturing flexibility alone*. The following flexibility types are measured by the degree each can execute without incurring high transition penalties or large changes in performance outcomes:
1. Machine- The number of operations a machine can perform.
2. Labor- The number of tasks a worker can perform productively.
3. Material Handling- The number of alternative paths between processing centers and the variety of products that can move down those paths.
4. Routing- The number of products with alternative routes.
5. Operation- The number of products with alternative sequencing plans as well as the variety of sequencing plans capable of being used.
6. Expansion- The ability to quickly accommodate volume changes.
7. Volume- Similar to expansion, the ability to change volume without penalties in productivity.
8. Mix- The variety of products that can be produced.
9. New Product- The ability to introduce new products into a production system.
10. Modification- The number and variety of product modifications which can be accomplished.

A rapid flexible BTO strategy for a supply chain means achieving mutual agreements on the support for shared levels of flexibility as well as collaborating on the tradeoffs inevitably required between the types of flexibility available. How these agreements and tradeoffs are constructed will determine the speed and cost savings derived as a result of a particular BTO strategy.

Rapid flexible Build-to-Order, done properly, represents a faster, lower cost, higher quality way to satisfy customers. While different from Lean and job shop, by using the best of both, rapid flexible BTO leverages proximity to market as a competitive advantage. As the capabilities of off shore competitors improve, it might be the only differentiation North American manufacturers have left.