Fundamental modes of operation for mass customization (original) (raw)
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Mass customization: implementing the emerging paradigm for competitive advantage
Long Range Planning, 1995
In many industries the dominant paradigm, 'mass production,' is being challenged by the emerging paradigm, 'mass customization. ' Accordingly, many researchers posit that firms which replace 'mass production ' with 'mass customization' will gain a signiJicant competitive advantage. Based on an in-depth study of the National Bicycle Industrial Company (NBIC), this paper explores the dynamics of pursuing both mass production and mass customization strategies simultaneously. A t the operational level, the paper discusses the organizational mechanisms instituted by the NBIC in order to benefit from the simultaneous pursuit of both approaches. At the competitive level, it isolates the relative contributions of both approaches to the overall competitive positioning of this firm in its industry. Based on this discussion, it provides a framework that illustrates the dynamics involved in the pursuit of both approaches. Implicitly, the paper argues that for firms competing in rapidly changing environments the ability to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage depends on the firm's capability to create knowledge by interacting both mass customization and mass production approaches. Finally, the paper concludes with managerial and research implications regarding the emerging paradigm of mass customization.
Special issue editorial: the what, why and how of mass customization
2004
This paper introduces the aim, scope and content of this special issue on mass customization. It begins by providing a background review of mass customization, which revolves around two questions: what is mass customization, and why mass customize? By focusing on these, the paper presents definitions and explanations of the different approaches to mass customization, and describes the potential reasons for and benefits of mass customization. In addition to setting the scene for the special issue, this introductory review asserts that there is a relative dearth of research on how to design and operate a manufacturing system capable of mass customizing. This is a system design or configuration issue, which involves determining the most appropriate or viable design for the available range of multiple and interdependent design variables. However, despite the strong interest in configurational research in the business and operations strategy area, there are few works that develop and propose models for understanding how to mass customize.
Organizing for Mass Customization: Literature Review and Research Agenda
International journal of industrial engineering and management, 2014
Due to the increase in sophisticated customer needs and intense competition, mass customisation has increasingly drawn the attention of companies and scholars. The importance of transforming organisations by building mass customisation capability has long been acknowledged. However, the discussion is generally scattered and disorganised in the literature. This paper reviews the mass customisation literature with the twofold purpose of providing a comprehensive and structured overview of prior research on mass customisation organisational antecedents and highlighting future opportunities to research this topic. By using an established framework in the organisation design theory, the paper provides comprehensive coverage of organisation-related issues and a reference for future research opportunities.
Mass Customization: A Review of the Paradigm Across Marketing, Engineering and Distribution Domains
Volume 1: 36th Design Automation Conference, Parts A and B, 2010
Introduced nearly 25 years ago, the paradigm of mass customization (MC) has largely not lived up to its promise. Despite great strides in information technology, engineering design practice, and manufacturing production, the necessary process innovations that can produce products and systems with sufficient customization and economic efficiency have yet to be found in wide application. In this paper, the state-of-the-art in MC is explored in order to answer the question of "why not?" and to highlight areas for specific research in the MC paradigm. To establish perspective for this work, we consider MC to be a product development approach which allows for the production of goodsafter a customer places an orderwhich minimize the tradeoff between the ideal product and the available product by fulfilling the needs and preferences of individuals functionally, emotionally and anthropologically. Results of this research were generated by reviewing 88 papers from various journals that span three domains of interest (marketing, engineering, and distribution) and explore proposed methodologies, specific information inputs and outputs, proposed metrics, and barriers toward the implementation of MC. Qualitatively, we show that the lack of MC in application is due to two factors: 1) a lack of marketing tools capable of capturing individual needs that can be mapped to the technical space; and 2) a lack of information relation mechanisms that connect the domains of marketing, engineering, and distribution. In the end it is our belief that MC is realizable and that eventually it will emerge as a dominant paradigm in the design and delivery of products and systems. However, pursuing the opportunities for research presented in this work will hopefully speed this emergence.
Research in Engineering Design, 2014
Introduced nearly 25 years ago, the paradigm of mass customization (MC) has largely not lived up to its promise. Despite great strides in information technology, engineering design practice and manufacturing production, the necessary process innovations that can produce products and systems with sufficient customization and economic efficiency have yet to be found in wide application. In this paper, the state-of-the-art in MC is explored in the context of an envisioned MC development process for both the firm and the customer. Specifically, 130 references are reviewed within the process frameworks (Sect. 3) and/or to highlight opportunities for future development in MC (Sect. 4) based on the review. This review yields opportunities in four primary areas that challenge MC development: (1) customer needs and preference assessment tools, (2) approaches for requirement specification and conceptual design, (3) insights from methodologies focused on the development of durable MC goods and (4) enhancements in information mapping and handling.
Approaches to mass customization: configurations and empirical validation
Journal of Operations Management, 2000
Mass customization is a paradox-breaking manufacturing reality that combines the unique products of craft manufacturing with the cost-efficient manufacturing methods of mass production. Although this phenomenon is known to exist in practice, academic research has not adequately investigated this new form of competition. In this research, we develop a configurational model for classifying mass customizers based on customer involvement in design and product modularity. We validate this typology through an empirical analysis and classification of 126 mass customizers. We also explore manufacturing systems and performance implications of the various mass customization configurations.
Mass customization research: trends, directions, diffusion intensity, and taxonomic frameworks
International Journal of Flexible …, 2007
Mass customization (MC) as a business strategy is designed to simultaneously compete on two rival competitive priorities-the price and customization level of a product. MC academics and experts have gone a step further. They suggest that MC is a unique strategy whose implementation promises across-theboard improvement in all four of the competitive priorities (price, quality, flexibility, and speed) simultaneously. Its growing adoption by businesses in recent years, the steep rise in success stories associated with MC, and the voluminous body of publications in a short period of its existence have created a need to study the directions, trends, application potential, and research strategies embedded in these publications. Accordingly, this paper studies and analyzes the trends and directions of the research published in 1,124 MC publications that have appeared in journals and magazines since the inception of the term mass customization in 1987 by Stan Davis in his classic book Future Perfect. Statistical trend analyses are conducted to study the vitality and health of the field of MC using number of publications and number of publication outlets and their respective trends. The publication outlet data conform to an S curve, establishing maturity of the MC field. The publication data show that the MC field has passed through four stages of growth: incubation or slow
Mass customization: Literature review and research directions
International Journal of Production Economics, 2001
Mass customization relates to the ability to provide individually designed products and services to every customer through high process #exibility and integration. Mass customization has been identi"ed as a competitive strategy by an increasing number of companies. This paper surveys the literature on mass customization. Enablers to mass customization and their impact on the development of production systems are discussed in length. Approaches to implementing mass customization are compiled and classi"ed. Future research directions are outlined.
The mass customization decade: An updated review of the literature
2012
The analysis and implementation of mass customization (MC) systems has received growing consideration by researchers and practitioners since the late 1980s. In this paper we update the literature review on MC presented in a previous paper (Da Silveira, G., Borenstein, D., Fogliatto, F.S., 2001. Mass customization: literature review and research directions. International Journal of Production Economics, 72 (1), 1-13), and identify research gaps to be investigated in the future. Major areas of research in MC, and journals in which works have been published are explored through summary statistics. The result is a concise compendium of the relevant literature produced on the topic in the past decade.