What Is a Build Method in Manufacturing?

A build method is a product's default planning policy: it decides whether the product is built only when a customer orders it, built ahead into stock, or built to stock with the option to override a single order to made-to-order. It is one attribute on the product record, and it sets the tone for how every order for that product gets planned.

This entry defines the build method and shows how it reads inside EDGEBIC by User Solutions. For the wider index of terms, see the manufacturing glossary; for the underlying strategy comparison, see make to stock vs make to order; and for the attribute that decides how the product is counted, see unit of measure.

How it works

The build method has three settings, and each one changes what happens when demand appears for the product.

• Make to order: the product is built only after a customer order arrives. No inventory is held in advance. This fits custom furniture, engineered parts, and anything with high variety where stocking would be waste.
• Make to stock: the product is built ahead and held on the shelf, ready to ship immediately. This fits standard bolts, common parts, and steady-demand items where a customer expects same-day availability.
• Make to stock with override: the default is make to stock, but an individual order can be flipped to make to order. This covers the everyday exception of a normally stocked item that one customer wants in a special variant.

The build method pairs with the stocked flag. Make to stock only works fully when the product is also marked as stocked, because that flag is what turns on inventory netting, receipt and issue posting, and replenishment. A make-to-order product needs none of that machinery and does not carry stock.

A concrete example

The analogy is a bakery. Bread is make to stock: the manager keeps loaves on the shelf so a walk-in customer never waits. A custom wedding cake is make to order: nobody bakes it until the couple orders a specific design, because holding a decorated cake in inventory makes no sense.

Now the override case. Suppose the bakery normally stocks a plain sponge but a customer wants that sponge with a bespoke topping. The sponge stays make to stock for its everyday demand, so the shelf keeps filling. The single custom order is flagged make to order, so it triggers its own build to the customer's spec without touching the standard stock plan. One product, one default policy, one clean exception.

The same shape applies to a widget that is normally stocked but occasionally ordered as a custom variant. Set the product to make to stock with override, and handle the variant at the order level. No catalog-wide change is required.

How EDGEBIC uses it

In EDGEBIC, the build method is a field on the product record with the three values above. It sets the product's default, and an individual manufacturing order can carry its own build-to-inventory choice that either inherits the product policy, forces build-to-stock, or forces made-to-order. That per-order flag is how the override case is expressed in practice.

When a make-to-stock product has on-hand inventory, the engine can satisfy demand from that stock rather than scheduling a build, emitting a satisfied-from-stock result and posting an inventory issue. When the product is make to order, every order schedules its own routing. The build method is therefore the switch that decides which of these two paths a given order follows.

To see the wider set of product planning attributes that sit beside the build method, read EDGEBIC products and planning attributes explained. To follow the inventory side of a stocked product, continue with reorder method and the generic make to stock definition.