MASS CUSTOMIZATION

MASS CUSTOMIZATION

Mass Customization is all about the (economically viable) mass production of individually customized goods and services. In his book, Joe Pine describes five basic methods by which organizations can achieve mass customization:-

Customization of services around standardized products and services
Creation of customizable products and services
Provision of ‘point of delivery’ customization
High responsiveness throughout the value chain
Modularization of components to customize end products and services
Pine also discusses four innovations which further help to eliminate the ‘mass’ and ‘customized’ contradiction within an organization:-

Just-in-time (JIT) delivery
Reduction of set-up and change-over times
Reduction of cycle times throughout the value chain
Production based on orders and not forecasts