Mass Customization - The Production Process

THE PRODUCTION PROCESS

Above all, 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. Whether it's automobiles or clothing, firms are fragmenting their production processes so that, when customers communicate their orders via the Internet or other means to the manufacturer, a minimum amount of production slowdown and reordering is required to fulfill the order's specifications. In more production-intensive industries, breaking up production is the key to keeping a steady stream of products coming while also allowing for mass customization, all at a relatively low cost to the firm. Postponing the finished product is another key to reaping all the potential value from mass customization. This pushes the final stages of production as late as possible in the chain of production and delivery. Third-party logistics services increasingly offer late-stage assembly as part of their services, moving some production into the distribution channel and allowing greater flexibility to customize products.

Particularly when many stages of the production process are outsourced to other firms, an increasingly common configuration by the 21st century, the need for all levels of the production and distribution chain to be adequately wired together in a seamless fashion is paramount. But because manufacturing operations require a high degree of capital investment and back-end overhaul, relatively few had yet integrated mass customization architecture by the early 2000s.

Although in the ideal mass-customization environment production wouldn't even begin until the customer's order was submitted, for most industries that's simply not practical. They need to have the supplies handy and some level of production underway in order to keep their facilities moving and in order to get their entire range of products to their point of delivery in a timely fashion. Thus fracturing the assembly process proved the best compromise, allowing firms the flexibility of producing standard, mass-production models while also remaining capable of fulfilling custom orders as they arise.

Clothing and apparel manufacturers from Nike to Levi Strauss implemented mass customization technology to take body measurements, color preferences, and design specifications directly from customers over the Internet and feed them to the assembly line, while Mattel, according to Business Week, introduced mass customization to allow consumers to purchase its Barbie-theme dolls with their own unique hair style, skin color, and accessories.