Supply chain management seeks to get the right material, at the right time and place at minimal cost. Based on the type of product to be manufactured or assembled, different process chain types exist: 1) Make-to-Stock (MTS) for standard parts, 2) Assemble-to-Order (ATO) for components, 3) Make-to-Order (MTO) for prefabricated materials and 4) Engineer-to-Order (ETO) for customized products (Dallasega and Rauch, 2017). Different process chain types have different lead-times between order release and the product delivered to the manufacturer. ETO, our focus, requires usually long lead-times throughout the supply chain because components have to be engineered, produced and installed according to a specific customer order. It is often difficult to produce components on-demand and deliver them when needed for manufacture. As a result, this extended lead-time causes two kinds of problems: 1) Late deliveries and in the worst-case expensive production interruptions; or 2) Early deliveries that require a storing of engineered materials on-site increasing inventory costs such as obsolescence, holding costs, or damaging goods.
