Assemble To Order - Types of Operations Systems
This is an intermediate category, where varied products are quickly put together from stocks of standard components or sub-assemblies. It requires the product to be designed on the Lego-block principle, to give the operations system the benefit of a relatively simple planning task, economies of scale and low unit costs, whilst offering the customer a wide range of product choice at an affordable price.
Nowadays car manufacturers, in response to dealers' requests, assemble cars with customer-selected options: body colour, upholstery, engine type and size, automatic transmission, air conditioning, etc. A fast-food 'burger' outlet might be considered to be an assemble-to-order operation.