what is assemble to order ato 
assemble to order ato is a business production strategy where products that are ordered by customers are produced quickly and are customizable to a certain extent it typically requires that the basic parts of the product are already manufactured but not yet assembled once an order is received the parts are assembled quickly and the final product is sent to the customer understanding assemble to order ato the assemble to order strategy is a hybrid between the make to stock strategy mts and the make to order strategy mto a make to stock strategy is one where products are fully produced in advance the idea is to build an inventory that matches expected or anticipated consumer demand this method would consist of setting a production level building up inventory and then attempting to sell as much assembled product as possible it s used mostly for high volume goods consumables and items that can be bought in bulk or as a single unit a make to order strategy is one where products are manufactured once the order has been received production is driven by demand and items are only produced when orders are confirmed in other words the supply chain operation does not begin until there is evidence of sufficient customer demand this strategy is often employed for high end goods or items made individually or in small batches the ato strategy attempts to combine the benefits of both make to order and make to stock getting products into customers hands quickly while allowing for the product to be adapted or altered in certain ways as per customer request in most cases the time and costs associated with building the product from its components are minimal however the time and costs to build the components which are usually ordered from a supplier can be considerable enabled by technology advancements in production processes and inventory management systems have played a big part in making assemble to order strategies a reality add cheaper methods of shipping products and the strategy has been a boon for product customization opportunities pros and cons assemble to order ato like many methods that chart a middle course assemble to order has both advantages and disadvantages no need to invest in materials and supplies and storage for themorders made to customer specificsless risk of having unsold units on handrisk of lost sales due to low supplypotentially longer lead times to produce goodsexample of assemble to order ato consider a manufacturer of personal computers it might have all of the essential parts of a computer motherboards graphic cards processors monitors keyboards in stock and already manufactured the company depends on various suppliers for these components 