Engineer-to-Order (ETO) Product Automation

Creo Automation for One-Off Products—Yes, It Really Works

If you build Engineer-to-Order (ETO) products, you've probably heard some version of the same message:

"Your products are too custom to automate."

It's one of the biggest misconceptions in engineering.

The reality is that automation doesn't have to be all-or-nothing.

With SIGMAXIM SmartAssembly, manufacturers can automate whatever portion of the design process makes sense—from specific features and assemblies to large portions of a complete product—while leaving the remaining work in the hands of engineering.

The result is a practical, scalable approach to automation that works even for highly customized and one-off products.

Automate What Makes Sense

Traditional automation often assumes every product follows a predictable path.

ETO products rarely do.

That's why SmartAssembly allows organizations to automate whatever portion of the design process provides value—whether that's 30%, 50%, 70%, or 90% of the model.

Engineers remain in control while repetitive tasks, standard features, calculations, and design rules are handled automatically.

This flexible approach delivers meaningful productivity gains without forcing products into rigid templates or predefined configurations.

The Reality of ETO Work

Engineer-to-Order environments are often considered impossible to automate.

Every project is different. Customer requirements change. Exceptions appear constantly. And many automation approaches fail because they're built around rigid templates and predefined configurations.

As a result, engineers often spend valuable time:

• Rebuilding similar features and assemblies
• Fixing inherited geometry from previous designs
• Copying and modifying old models
• Maintaining fragile template-based systems
• Repeating calculations and engineering decisions
• Interpreting undocumented tribal knowledge

Lead times grow, workloads increase, and consistency becomes difficult to maintain.

The result is not only slower engineering—it is greater risk, increased rework, and reduced scalability.

Automation Built for ETO Reality

SmartAssembly uses a rules-driven approach that generates geometry dynamically from your engineering knowledge, formulas, standards, and design rules.

Instead of copying and modifying existing models, SmartAssembly creates new, clean geometry on demand. Models remain consistent, accurate, and free from the inherited issues that often accumulate over years of manual modifications.

The result is automation that adapts to your products—not the other way around.

Rules-Driven Building Blocks

At the core of SmartAssembly is SIGMAXIM's Building Block methodology.

Each product element is automated as an independent Smart Object—a rules-driven component that generates geometry dynamically based on your requirements.

These Smart Objects can be stacked, combined, and reused in virtually any order, allowing new configurations and one-off designs to be created without breaking the automation.

Because the automation is driven by rules rather than rigid templates, it remains flexible enough to support the variability that defines Engineer-to-Order products.

What SIGMAXIM Automation Delivers

SmartAssembly helps organizations automate engineering processes while maintaining complete flexibility.

Capabilities include:

• Works with truly custom and one-off products—not only repeatable, high-volume designs
• Creates new, clean models instead of copying and perpetuating old mistakes
• Generates whatever portion of the model you need, leaving the remaining work to engineering
• Captures engineering knowledge in rules, reducing reliance on tribal knowledge
• Automatically creates or checks models into Windchill
• Supports existing workflows and automation investments
• Includes Worry-Free Maintenance to ensure compatibility with future Creo releases

Real Business Impact

Organizations using SmartAssembly for ETO applications can achieve:

• 30–70% reductions in modeling time
• Faster quoting and delivery cycles
• Improved design consistency
• Fewer errors caused by inherited geometry
• Reduced rework
• Better knowledge retention
• Increased engineering capacity without increasing headcount
• Scalable automation that grows with the business

Most importantly, engineers spend less time recreating previous work and more time solving the unique challenges that differentiate their products.

Built Around Your Process

No two ETO companies design products the same way.

Through our RulesPerfect™ methodology, SIGMAXIM captures your engineering knowledge, design rules, standards, and best practices, transforming them into practical automation that supports the way your team already works.

No major CAD overhaul is required. We build on your existing processes, systems, and investments.

We don't change the way you do things—we automate the things you do.

Scalable, Maintainable, and Future-Proof

With over 20 years of Creo automation experience, SIGMAXIM has helped manufacturers automate products ranging from highly configurable product families to completely unique Engineer-to-Order designs.

Whether you're a small engineering team or a global manufacturer, SmartAssembly scales to support products ranging from relatively simple designs to highly complex ETO environments.

Our Worry-Free Maintenance program ensures your automation continues to work with future releases of Creo, protecting your investment for years to come.

Think Your Products Are Too Custom to Automate?

Many of our most successful customers started with that exact belief.

Today they're using automation to reduce engineering effort, improve consistency, accelerate delivery, and capture valuable engineering knowledge that would otherwise remain trapped in spreadsheets, templates, and tribal knowledge.

Whether your products are configurable, highly customized, or completely unique, SIGMAXIM can help identify where automation can deliver measurable value.

Contact SIGMAXIM today to discover how SmartAssembly can help automate your ETO process—without sacrificing engineering flexibility.