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L. Hagedorn et al.
Mass Customization as “developing, producing, marketing and delivering affordable goods and services with enough variety and customization that nearly everyone
finds exactly what they want.” (Pine 1993). In the following years, the principle
was increasingly addressed in the scientific world from a corporate perspective.
Tseng and Jiao define Mass Customization as “producing goods and services to
meet individual customer’s needs with near mass efficiency” (Tseng and Du 1998).
Customer-specific mass production can be differentiated in various ways. Several
categories of customer-specific mass production are conceptualised based on the
type of individualization (Reichwald and Piller 2009). Among these categories
one can identify the following: individual specifications of the consumer, specific
customer functionalities, and specific aesthetic product characteristics indicated by
the consumer.
The individualization of products can be divided into different types. Products can
be individualized aesthetically, functionally, and according to desired dimensions.
In this paper the aesthetic individualization is examined in particular.
Reichwald and Piller formulated a detailed description of Mass Customization.
The authors identify four principles that construct the basis of mass customization:
customer integration in the design of products, an increase in perceived benefit from
the products, financial advantages and the fixed solution space for allocated designs
(Reichwald and Piller 2009) (Fig. 7.1).
The subjective benefit of the products to each customer is higher compared
to conventional products because they are more adapted to the needs of the
customers. This way, companies achieve a differentiation advantage against traditional producers.
Reichwald and Piller define the concept of space allocated for generating solutions as the multitude of standardized processes that are constant and stable and
that are necessary to achieve individualization of products. In mass customization,
the products are individualized, but the structure of all processes is standardized.
This approach is intended to ensure a high quality of production and low costs. In
addition to production, the design process also needs to be standardized. The principle of customer integration mentioned by Reichwald and Piller is defined as a
co-production or a co-design process. Important to mention in this context is that
customers cannot design elementary product features themselves, but have the opportunity to choose from variations of components, i.e. modules, pre-developed by
Fig. 7.1 Schematic visualization of the papers content
L. Hagedorn et al.
Mass Customization as “developing, producing, marketing and delivering affordable goods and services with enough variety and customization that nearly everyone
finds exactly what they want.” (Pine 1993). In the following years, the principle
was increasingly addressed in the scientific world from a corporate perspective.
Tseng and Jiao define Mass Customization as “producing goods and services to
meet individual customer’s needs with near mass efficiency” (Tseng and Du 1998).
Customer-specific mass production can be differentiated in various ways. Several
categories of customer-specific mass production are conceptualised based on the
type of individualization (Reichwald and Piller 2009). Among these categories
one can identify the following: individual specifications of the consumer, specific
customer functionalities, and specific aesthetic product characteristics indicated by
the consumer.
The individualization of products can be divided into different types. Products can
be individualized aesthetically, functionally, and according to desired dimensions.
In this paper the aesthetic individualization is examined in particular.
Reichwald and Piller formulated a detailed description of Mass Customization.
The authors identify four principles that construct the basis of mass customization:
customer integration in the design of products, an increase in perceived benefit from
the products, financial advantages and the fixed solution space for allocated designs
(Reichwald and Piller 2009) (Fig. 7.1).
The subjective benefit of the products to each customer is higher compared
to conventional products because they are more adapted to the needs of the
customers. This way, companies achieve a differentiation advantage against traditional producers.
Reichwald and Piller define the concept of space allocated for generating solutions as the multitude of standardized processes that are constant and stable and
that are necessary to achieve individualization of products. In mass customization,
the products are individualized, but the structure of all processes is standardized.
This approach is intended to ensure a high quality of production and low costs. In
addition to production, the design process also needs to be standardized. The principle of customer integration mentioned by Reichwald and Piller is defined as a
co-production or a co-design process. Important to mention in this context is that
customers cannot design elementary product features themselves, but have the opportunity to choose from variations of components, i.e. modules, pre-developed by
Fig. 7.1 Schematic visualization of the papers content