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Supply-chain configurations for mass customization

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TLDR
In this paper, the authors take a step towards integrating these perspectives into a more systemic view of mass customization strategy implementation, exploring how a firm's supply chain should be configured when different degrees of customization are offered.
Abstract
Much of the research on mass customization strategy implementation reflects a functional focus, considering product design, marketing, manufacturing or sourcing, individually. This paper takes a step towards integrating these perspectives into a more systemic view of mass customization strategy implementation. More precisely, the paper explores how a firm's supply chain – meant as the whole of its supply, manufacturing and distribution networks – should be configured when different degrees of customization are offered. The empirical research consists of a multiple case study including firms in the telecommunications, transportation vehicles and food processing equipment industries. Case analyses highlighted that the degrees of freedom customers have in specifying product features, heavily affects the supply-chain configuration, as well as product architecture and, ultimately, firm performances. Our findings further show that two peculiar supply-chain configurations can be identified, each one suggesting a...

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Citations
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The mass customization decade: An updated review of the literature

TL;DR: This paper updates the literature review on MC presented in a previous paper, and identifies research gaps to be investigated in the future through summary statistics.
Journal ArticleDOI

Product Variety Management

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the challenges of managing product variety throughout the entire product life cycle, and the effective co-development of variants and their manufacturing systems to ensure economic sustainability.
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Mass Customization: Reflections on the State of the Concept

TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze the recent state of mass customization practice by answering four basic questions which are frequently raised by managers and scholars when talking about the challenges of this approach: Do customers need customized products? If yes, what prevents them from purchasing these offerings? Do we have the enabling technologies for mass customization? And why do many firms fail during and after the introduction of Mass Customization?
Journal ArticleDOI

Overcoming Mass Confusion: Collaborative Customer Co-Design in Online Communities

TL;DR: The paper challenges the assumption made by most mass customization researchers that offering customized products requires an individual (one-to-one) relationship between customer and supplier and proposes the use of online communities for collaborative customer co-design in order to reduce the mass confusion phenomenon.
References
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What should I stock up on now supply chain?

Our findings further show that two peculiar supply-chain configurations can be identified, each one suggesting an isomorphism between market characteristics, product structure and supply-chain configuration.