MASS CUSTOMIZATION

Mass Customization



Mass Customization

Introduction

The mass customization is the strategy of producing goods and services geared to meet the individual needs of customers while preserving the efficiency of mass production, in terms of low production costs, therefore, prices selling content. The use of the phrase, attributed to Stan Davis, who used it first in the 1986 essay, in the Future Perfect, is common in various disciplines such as marketing, management and production management.

The strategy assumes that the producers are with considerable flexibility in the stages of production and assembly and interact with customers, they communicate their needs or choose the configuration of the desired product from the many possible alternatives (Wind & Rangaswamy, 2001). Today, the adoption of this strategy makes extensive use of a system of computer-aided manufacturing and information and communication technologies based on the web which can reduce the time between the event of customer needs and availability of the property requested by them.

Discussion

Today the marketing literature, agrees that mass customization should not be a mere expression of technological capacity of production. It must create value for the customer. The value is defined as an assessment resulting from a confrontation between the benefits and sacrifices associated with the purchase of a product (total value) or as a use value, that is to say that removed from a consumption experience.

The literature shows that the sources of the value of CM is resident in the product itself and customized experience in customization (that is to say the process of creating the product). Specifically, Merle explains that there are four components of the customized product value (order of appearance according to the citation frequency): the utility value, the value of interpersonal differentiation, the value of ownership, and the value of expression of his personality (Pine, 1992). The three components of value of the experience of CM: the hedonic value, the value of creative achievement (same as the value associated with pride, creativity following the review of the literature) and novelty value.

Mass customization generates a strong preference for the customized product, and the individual is willing to pay more. The CM seems appropriate to increase the turnover of the company, and the preference of the individual towards the products of the brand. However, it is necessary to study precisely the customization process to give greater choice to consumers without exploding costs of producing customized products (Kotha, 1995). As the technological capacity, of production is not personalized enough to guarantee the success of the strategy of the CM, as it is to succeed.

Variants

In the literature, four types of mass customization have been described which differ by the presence or absence of changes in the nature of the product and communication of its features:

collaborative customization (customization collaborative): defines the business with each customer's product or service that can best meet its needs and produces good customized based on the information received.

adaptive customization (customization adaptive): the company produces a standard product, but can be customized by end users directly, which, therefore, have the possibility ...