Malibu Boats is a manufacturer of recreational watersports towboats with manufacturing facilities in California, Tennessee, and Australia.
Every Malibu Boat is uniquely configured around customer preferences. Getting those details right the first time is critical to avoiding production delays, rework, and customer dissatisfaction.
- Prevent incompatible product configurations through rules-based guidance
- Automatically create manufacturing production orders
- Connect dealer ordering, CRM, and ERP processes
- Give dealers a browser-based product configuration experience
- Automate BOM and pick-list creation from configured orders
- Reuse configuration rules across multiple boat models
Challenge
Malibu Boats relied on an extensive dealer network to promote and sell its customized boats, but its previous online ordering process made configuration more difficult than it needed to be.
Dealers had to sign into two different systems to order boats from Malibu's two different product lines. The systems also lacked rules-based intelligence, increasing the possibility that incompatible options could be selected.
“We cater to the customer. We’re known for the quality of our relationships with our customers and our dealers — and the fact that customers always get the boats customized the way they want them.”
The standalone order-entry system created another manual handoff. It tracked the order and produced specifications for the boat, but employees then had to go into Microsoft Dynamics GP and manually create the manufacturing order, bills of materials, and pick list.
Dealers had to move between separate systems depending on which Malibu product line they were ordering.
Manufacturing orders, BOMs, and pick lists had to be recreated manually inside Dynamics GP.
Without product rules, dealers had to understand which options could and could not be combined.
Every boat required a customer-specific combination of models, equipment, and options.
Solution
Malibu Boats evaluated leading CPQ solutions and selected Experlogix CPQ. A critical requirement was connecting product configuration with the Microsoft environment already supporting the business.
Experlogix integrated with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and, through CRM, Microsoft Dynamics GP. Instead of treating configuration and manufacturing as separate processes, the configured order could become the source for the manufacturing information needed downstream.
“It connects everything together. Configuring an order automatically creates a manufacturing order, bills-of-materials, and the pick list.”
Product rules limit configurations to combinations that work correctly together.
Dealer configuration connects with Malibu's CRM and ERP processes.
Completed configurations can automatically create the manufacturing order.
Product configuration drives the bills of materials and pick list needed downstream.
Malibu also established separate development, test, and production environments. Dealers could train in the test environment, access documentation and FAQs, and become comfortable creating orders before the new system went live.
Result
One of the biggest practical improvements was that dealers could access Experlogix CPQ through a browser rather than being tied to the previous ordering environment.
“Our dealers could be sitting on the showroom floor with a laptop, or at a boat show with a tablet and configure a complex order with Experlogix CPQ.”
The flexibility was particularly valuable for a dealer network that needed to configure complex customer orders from showrooms, events, and other selling environments.
Experlogix also handled the changing complexity of different Malibu models and orders. Rules could be written once and applied to multiple models instead of rebuilding the same logic repeatedly.
Dealers can configure orders from laptops or tablets in the places where they are actively selling.
Both major product lines can be configured without moving between two separate dealer ordering systems.
Rules guide dealers toward permissible configurations without requiring them to memorize every dependency.
Preventing misaligned models and options helps avoid downstream production rework and order delays.
Configured orders can automatically create manufacturing orders, BOMs, and pick lists.
Rules can be written once and applied across additional models where the same logic is required.
“Everyone likes Experlogix because it so greatly simplifies things. The rules take care of so much — where our dealers no longer have to remember everything.”
Speak with one of our experts or download the complete Malibu Boats customer success story.
