Modular production

[imperialbari]

Pilfered from a LinkedIn thread. The author is a Chinese guitar maker. The wording may not be too elegant, but I think the point applies to brass instruments also:

Musical instrument business is special business , smaller market, many different customers needing .
One strategy is the idea of postponement. Postponement, or delayed configuration, is based on the principle of seeking to design products using common platforms, components or modules but where the final assembly or customization does not take place until the final market destination and/or customer requirement is known.
One good designer need design product by modularity ideas, dividing one product into several modules . In fact , there are two kinds of modules in one product , Common modules which can be used by other products or one product line , Special modules which only use in this products . Common modules are base of platforms,pay attention on them, Building one or two good tech platforms help your business more.

[MikeW]

Sounds like the idea known as "late binding" in the software world.

[windshieldbug]

In manufacturing, this is simply known as final assembly of a highly configurable product.

[Lingon]

Do I misunderstand something here or? Isn't that exactly what trbn makers as Shires, Edwards, Rath and others are doing but in a very small scale for each customer?
Maybe then for the Chinese it is the same idea but in larger quantities for the customer that buys fifty more or less identical instruments instead of one?