Mass customisation Flashcards
(8 cards)
Starr
1965: Mass customisation = maximum productive variety through modular productive capabilities - parts that can be combined in many ways.
Core competency - harder for competitors to copy than mass production.
Hart
1995: Mass production = flexible processes and organisational structures to produce varied products at low cost.
Fragmentation of mass market, shorter product lives, rapid technological change all bring about the need for mass customisation.
Need to make sure we don’t overwhelm customers with choice - e.g. how many order black Americanos from Starbucks?
Duray
2003: ‘Customer’ from stage of customer involvement; ‘mass’ from modularity. Four types - fabricators, involvers, modularisers, assemblers.
* E.g. iPhone, BMW mini, Nike trainers*
Firms that were once standardised involve the customer later.
Those that play on existing capabilities do better.
Kotha
1995: National Bicycle Industrial Company - two markets, two (focused) factories, rotation system to make knowledge explicit
What if you don’t want an option but it comes as standard? E.g. Olives baguette of the week vs. create your own
Pine
2003: Five methods to progress from mass production to mass customisation, ending with ‘modularise components’.
Emergence of new technologies has removed the usual trade-offs; also need learning support.
Rungtusanatham & Salvador
2008: Mass customisation isn’t free…Hindering factors - identifying customer heterogeneity, accounting, commonality of parts, previous investments, reconfiguring supply chain
Ahlstrom & Westbrook
1999: Switching to mass customisation involves a big rethink through operations - overcome increased costs, understand customer wants, SCM, inflexible factories
A solution is e.g. DVD players - have all features but some are disabled according to region
Abrahamson
1996: Fads and fashions
Did it fulfil its promise? What’s happened to mass customisers now? Online, services…does modularity still exist?
