Mass customization

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Mass customization (in German also known as customer-specific mass production or less often as individualized mass production ) refers to the linking of mass production with individual products that are manufactured according to the customer's requirements. The advantages of mass production such as economies of scale , experience curve advantageand automation are retained. Mass customization is also an essential goal of Industry 4.0 .

The word itself is made up of mass production 'mass production' and customization ' customization '.

Basics

The target market is not the differentiated, but the mass market . Individualization is to be achieved here by varying a few features of the product that are decisive from the customer's point of view. Typical dimensions of customization are, for example, design features or fit. Often, however, these products are also based on the concept of modularization , which means that the product can be put together individually from various components.

By means of mass customization one is able to serve individual customer needs, whereby the costs are only slightly higher than those of a standard product. In the sports shoe industry, this price premium is around 20 percent. The supplier therefore ideally only has to produce for the specific requirement, saves storage costs and can avoid the price war in the segment of standardized products due to the fulfillment of customer requirements. Often it is even possible to position yourself as an innovation leader in the market.

The company also gains a wealth of customer data and information about customer needs that are difficult to determine using traditional market research methods. Through mass customization , a company also receives an additional instrument for the early identification of new market developments. Long-term customer loyalty is promoted.

The further development of mass customization is the open innovation concept, which tries to develop new products by integrating the customer.

Individualized mass production is only possible through the use of modern information and communication technology, for example when the customer designs his product himself with the help of a configurator . Behind the electronic surface, highly automated but flexible logistics and corresponding means of production that can produce in a one-piece flow are still required.

Mass customization has already gained a foothold in many different industries: textiles, shoes, watches & jewelry, prefabricated houses , kitchens, furniture, food, and much more.

By Mass Customization special demands on the design of information systems are required.

Concepts of mass customization

Soft customization

The customization is not carried out in production, but outside the company. There are basically three types of soft customization : explicit or implicit personalization; Individual finishing in sales and service customization (e.g. music programs for passengers; delivery to catering; telephone fault hotlines; website construction kit ).

Hard customization

The individualization already takes place in the production through: standardized pre-production and individual final production - or vice versa; individual combination of standardized modules (e.g. mass production of unique items, personal medication). In the meantime, this procedure has also established itself with many automobile manufacturers, where customers can put together their own individual vehicle with the help of a configurator . The customer first selects a vehicle model that is defined by the shape of the body, the engine and the transmission. Depending on the model chosen, he is offered a variety of equipment options from which he can choose his variants. In addition, the German automobile manufacturers in particular offer customers additional options for exclusive customization of their series vehicles.

Product configurator

In the case of technically complex and varied products, the correct definition of a product can sometimes be very difficult. There are often numerous dependencies ( constraints ) between the many different features of a product , which can be expressed as “commands” or “prohibitions”. In order to obtain a clear product definition, a product configurator is useful for both the customer and the manufacturer. This configurator helps the customer to select the features and indicates the permitted / inadmissible combinations of features, whereby the latter cannot be selected.

A good example of this are the car configurators from the various automobile manufacturers. For the creation of a configurator, a logical product definition in the form of an ideal Boolean algebra is helpful, which guarantees a consistent product definition and makes the description and entry of restrictions much easier. Features that exclude each other in pairs are grouped into feature families. Only one characteristic and exactly one characteristic must be selected from each characteristic family. This means that only features from different feature families may be combined with one another, which greatly reduces the possible feature combinations. In order to prevent certain combinations of features that are technically not possible or useful, explicit prohibition and mandatory rules must be formulated. Example: A fully automatic air conditioning system must not be combined with a battery that is too weak.

literature

  • B. Josef Pine II: Mass Customization: The new frontier in business competition. Harvard Business, Boston 1993, ISBN 0-87584-372-7 .
  • Frank T. Piller: Mass Customization: A Competitive Strategic Concept in the Information Age. 4th edition. Deutscher Universitätsverlag, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-8350-0355-0 .
  • Susann Hanisch: The concept of mass customization. Vdm, Saarbrücken 2006, ISBN 3-86550-281-4 .
  • Andreas J. Dietrich: Information systems for mass customization: institutional economic analysis and architecture development . Gabler, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8350-0838-0 .
  • P. Coletti, T. Aichner: Mass Customization: An Exploration of European Characteristics . Springer, 2011, ISBN 978-3-642-18389-8 .
  • FS Fogliatto, GJC Da Silveira, D. Borenstein: The mass customization decade: An updated review of the literature. In: International Journal of Production Economics. 138 (1), 2012, pp. 14-25.
  • Wilmjakob Johannes Herlyn: Pimp my ride by OEM . Lecture at the Paderborn Spring Conference (PBFT) 2007 (PDF; 847 kB).

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