Mass Customization Basics

Image: in "The third industrial revolution", Apr 21st 2012, from The Economist print edition

Mass customization (MC) is an original concept derived from the business language that seeks to answer the need that the industry has in offering a wide range of products. The term was coined by B. J. Pine II [1], who refers that MC solves the dilemma of offering individualized products at the price of standardized ones by eliminating inefficiencies and waste by ordering the productive process.

Any MC methodology implies the use of processes based in lean production [2], a succedaneum of the Toyota Production System (TPS) [3]. It is a production philosophy which considers as waste the use of resources for any objective other than the creation of value to the end-customer, and therefore targeted for elimination. It settles on the continuous processes improvement and is centered in the preservation of value with less work, by means of more efficient and optimized processes, waste reduction, empirical methods for decision making other than uncritical acceptance of pre-established ideas.

Continuous improvement is a MC requirement, but it also demands quite different organizational structures, different values, management and systems roles, learning methods and especially ways of relating with the client. The product and its development are not commanding, but instead the client’s desires and demands.

Therefore is not just about being better and working better as a team with a common purpose, but also to accept the unpredictable nature of the client, considering him as an opportunity, not an obstacle. It is about getting the best possible method to relate every participant within the context and the circumstances of each case. In architecture this should not be news, as most of the times the architect answers directly to the client’s demands. But normally this is made case by case, without a systematization of the type required by a large productive structure.

Applications of the MC concept to several industries are becoming increasingly common, but in some cases not without some major bumps in the way. Examples of companies such as Amazon or eBay are widely known. Nike's sport shoes, which can be designed by the client in the company’s website is also a widely known example. In the auto industry, the Smart car was precursor with its online configurator, and is currently just one more example of the plenty in this type of approach. Check out the mass customization links provided in an earlier post.

[1] Pine II, B J. (1993). Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
[2] Womack, J P, & Jones, D T. (2003). Lean thinking : banish waste and create wealth in your corporation ([Rev. ed.] ed.). New York: Free Press ; London : Simon & Schuster.
[3] Ohno, T. (1988). Toyota production system : beyond large-scale production. Cambridge, Mass.: Productivity Press.