A Tactical Demand-Supply Planning Framework to manage ‎‎Complexity in Engineer-to-Order Environments: Insights from an in-‎‎depth ‎case study

Journal article, 2022

The challenging demand-supply balancing in engineer-to-order (ETO) environments is often attributed to complexity. This study expands the understanding of managing complexity to obtain demand-supply balancing, focusing on the tactical planning logic of the order fulfilment process. An in-depth single case study was conducted and data describing the order fulfilment process at a construction company were collected and analysed. Findings suggest a tactical-level planning process framework, incorporating nine key decisions and three crucial activities, and their potential complexity-reducing and complexity-absorbing impact. The study contributes to the theoretical discussion of complexity in management practices, linking demandsupply balancing as a performance measure. The findings guide practitioners in ETO settings on anticipating potential medium-term consequences of key decisions on capacity. This emphasises the need of proper IT support to apply knowledge generated from previous projects and conduct comprehensive and robust scenariobased analyses.