Also: Assemble-to-Order, Design-to-Order, Engineer-to-Order.

The build-to-order process is used to produce custom products to meet a customer's specific needs. The terms "assemble-to-order," "design-to-order" and "engineer-to-order" are used to differentiate the level of custom processing required and describe practices ranging from assembling standard components to make a custom part, to designing, engineering and manufacturing "one-off" parts.

Build-to-order e-commerce systems use a product configurator to allow engineers, sales staff and customers to specify their requirements. Using rules-based product knowledge, these systems generate CAD drawings, bills-of-materials and pricing based on the configuration.

A quote can then be issued to the customer for approval. Once the quote is approved, the build-to-order system routes the order to an ERP system for processing and to the shop floor for manufacturing.

CustomCommerce provides the product configuration tools, CAD functionality and integration services required to support the build-to-order process from proposal to manufacturing. TechniCon's product visualization tools allow customers to see the exact product they've specified before it's built.