MASS CUSTOMIZATION / CUSTOMERIZATION

PRAVIN R PILLAI SUBINRAJ E R & BITUPAN BORBORAH

What is Mass customization?

Customization and personalization of products and services for individual customers at a mass production price. Concept conceived by Stan Davis in his book future perfect. Further developed by Joseph pine in his book mass customerization-the new frontier in business competition. Through the new interactive technologies like the internet i.e., customers are able to interact with a company and specify their unique requirements which are then manufactured by automated systems.

Benefits

Higher profits - you shift the focus from price to benefits. - the option to charge a premium. Lower costs -providing exceptional value for money i.e. it allows ordinary man to acquire a product that would satisfy his particular needs at a competitive price. Market exploitation -will differentiate against commodity type products -forge a close relationships with suppliers, distributers, customers.

Relevance in modern SC

Mass customization is the new paradigm that replaces mass production. Mass customization proactively manages product variety in the environment of rapidly evolving markets and products, many niche markets, and individually customized products sold through stores of over the internet. Mass customizers can build to order both customized products and standard products without forecasts, inventory, or purchasing delays.

PROCESS

Mass-customization demands that the individual parts of a given good be produced separately and then assembled together at the end of the process, rather than continuously building and adding to the original skeleton from the ground up.

The production has to be broken down into: Manufacturing , Assembling and Delivery.

Ideally, the production process should begin once the customer order has been submitted.

The firm needs to have the supplies handy and some level of production underway to keep their facilities moving and in order to get their entire range of products to their point of delivery in a time.

DRIVERS

Customer Sensitivity

Consists of 2 parts: Degree of sacrifice the customer is willing to take for the product(pay) & Firms ability to produce according to customer specifications within a reasonable time and cost. Encompasses several areas including enablers, product design & production design.
Market conditions must be appropriate to support a competitive environment. Market Turbulence as defined by instability and unpredictability of demand is very important in determining the right time to employ a mass-customization system. Greater the market turbulence, the greater is the customer need for variety & customization.

Product Amenability

Competitive Environment

DRIVERS

Organizational Readiness

Organisation must be enlightened, open to new ideas

& aggressive in the pursuit of competitive advantage and promote a culture that emphasizes knowledge sharing through the development of networks and new product & process technologies.

Success of mass-customization depends on the

readiness of suppliers, manufacturers & retailers.

ENABLERS

Technology & Methodologies that support the system.

Mass customization methodologies address organizational and cultural aspects of implementation, while process technologies address manufacturing aspects.
Lean Manufacturing based on fine-tuning of every operation. Agility is more appropriate for responding to highly uncertain customer demand with quickly changing preferences related to customized features. Examples of technological enablers include:

EXAMPLES

Jeans: Levis Company offers cut-to-fit jeans that can be delivered to the customer store. Customers can order their jeans according to their specifications including selected fabric, style & personal dimensions. Cellular phones & pagers: Motorala Company allows customers to choose from a variety of features including language options, colors and accessories to meet their specific needs.

EXAMPLES

Computers: Dell Computer Co. provides customization of personal computers through interchangeability of parts. Computer systems are assembled according to customer requirements by adding or subtracting components from one of the several base systems. Configurations are achieved through the combination of several parts (hard drives, chips, storage media & accessories) which are added during assembly process.

REFERENCES

Books
Mass

Customization - A Supply Chain Approach by Charu Chandra & Ali Kamrani

Websites: