Case Study 3: 38% Production Cost Reduction by Reducing Variant Diversity

Initial Situation

A customer in special vehicle construction produced small batches for various end customers—each with individual features. The result: a multitude of cable harness variants—over 40 variants for essentially the same vehicle platform. Production faced long setup times, complex inventory management, and frequent picking errors. Manufacturing costs soared — despite small batch quantities per variant.

Analysis

Many cable harnesses differed only minimally (e.g. extra conductor, different connector, dummy wire)

Separate part numbers and orders for each variant

No evaluation of whether functions could remain optional/unoccupied

Inconsistent production utilisation, inefficient batch sizes

Solution

Functional analysis and grouping

Which differences are technically necessary? Which are only “customer spec” with no technical relevance?

Introduced master cable harnesses

Universal harness with optionally connectable branches/dummy wires

Modularised branches

Standardised principle—80% of parts identical in all variants

Revised part structure and bill of materials

Reduced from 42 to 9 variants, 2 as universal master harnesses

Result

38% lower manufacturing costs (less setup time, better repeatability)
Reduced from 42 to 9 variants
27% shorter delivery time (due to standardised processes)
100% reduction in manufacturing errors from part confusion
Inventory turnover improved by 45%

Conclusion

Variety is expensive—and often unnecessary. Those who critically question technical differences create room for efficiency. Standardisation in cable assembly is not a loss of quality—but economic intelligence.