Mass customization

Mass customization, in marketing, manufacturing, and management, is the use of flexible computer-aided manufacturing systems to produce custom output. Those systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization.

Related Topics:
Marketing - Manufacturing - Management

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Tseng and Jiao define mass customization as "producing goods and services to meet individual customer's needs with near mass production effiency" (Source: Tseng, M.M., Jiao, J. (2001): Mass Customization, in: Handbook of Industrial Engineering, Technology and Operation Management, 2001, 3rd. ed., p.685; ISBN: 0471330574)

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Joseph Pine II in his book Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition described this paradigm at the beginng of the 90s. Pine suggested a business model that he called the 8-figure-path which describes the process from invention to mass production to contionous improvement to mass customization and back to invention.

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Pine also describes four types of mass customization:

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• Collaborative customization - firms talk to individual customers to determine the precise product offering that best serves the customer's needs (see personalized marketing and personal marketing orientation). This information is then used to specify and manufacture a product that suits that specific customer. For example, some clothing companies will manufacture blue jeans to fit an individual customer.
• Adaptive customization - firms produce a standardized product, but this product is customizable in the hands of the end-user (the customers alter the product themselves)
• Transparent customization - firms provide individual customers with unique products, without explicitly telling them that the products are customized. In this case there is a need to accurately assess customer needs.
• Cosmetic customization - firms produce a standardized physical product, but market it to different customers in unique ways.
 
Mass customization: The spread of mass customization ►