Mass customization has gained increasing importance in recent years due to its ability to provide customized products efficiently and effectively, and manufacturing companies are continuously searching for ways to develop their mass-customization ability. Despite extensive literature focusing on mass customization, few studies have systematically examined the impact of work-design practices on a company's mass-customization ability. Using the Sociotechnical Systems theory as a foundation, we link work-design practices with mass-customization ability, specifically identifying ten work-design practices and examining their impact on mass-customization ability using survey data and empirical research methods. The results support our hypothesized links and suggest that workdesign practices that manage both the technical and the social dimensions for achieving organization success have significant impact on a company's ability to achieve mass customization.

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the role of supply chain management in enabling manufacturers' mass customization capabilities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based upon survey data from 262 manufacturing plants, spanning nine countries and three industries. Responses from multiple employees were aggregated for each item. Hypothesized relationships between variables were analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results generally indicate that plant mass customization capabilities are driven by customer‐focused product design and reduced supplier lead times. In turn, these factors are driven by management's emphasis on supply chain planning. Post hoc tests show that the effects of supply chain planning on mass customization capabilities are fully mediated by customer‐focused product design and reduced supplier lead time.Originality/valueWhile the literature suggests that mass customization depends upon a dynamic extended enterprise, extant empirical work has focused on internal firm characteristics. The paper is among the first to examine the significance of supply chain management upon the development of mass customization capabilities.

BackgroundIn the assisted reproduction, the infertile molecules of spermatozoa from normozoospermic men who underwent the unexplained failure of in vitro fertilization (IVF) due to the lack of sperm binding to the normal zona pellucida, and then achieved pregnancy with the rescue intracytoplasmic sperm injection (R-ICSI) remain unclear. More works are still necessary to explore this male infertile mechanism. MethodsNormozoospermicmen with the IVF pregnancy and normozoospermic men with the R-ICSI pregnancy after the conventional IVF failure were collected. iTRAQ-based proteomic approach were performed to reveal the new infertile causes between the IVF pregnancy men and the R-ICSI pregnancy men. To validate the confidence of proteome data, the individual samples were analyzed by western blot and immunofluorescence. Further, the spontaneous acrosome reactions were measured to evaluate the sperm quality.ResultsCompared with IVF pregnancy group, 56 sperm proteins were differentially expressed in the R-ICSI pregnancy group. Bioinformatic analyses (PANTHER, DAVID, PubMed and STRING) indicated these altered sperm proteins were involved in various molecular functions: reproduction, chromosome organization, and sperm-oocyte interaction. Moreover, the confidence of proteome data was confirmed by western blot and immunofluorescence using the individual samples, which were consistent with our proteomic data. Additionally, an increased rate of the spontaneous acrosome reaction rate was found in the R-ICSI pregnancy group.ConclusionsThe sealtered sperm proteins and the increased spontaneous acrosome reaction rate might account for this unexplained male infertility in the R-ICSI pregnancy patients. The present proteomic results will throw light on the better understanding of the unexplained infertile mechanisms underlying these normozoospermic man who achieved R-ICSI pregnancy after IVF failure.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12014-018-9203-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

PurposeManaging demand and supply uncertainties is critical for all manufacturers, but it has added importance for companies that intend to achieve mass customization (MC) ability because these uncertainties are an intrinsic characteristic of MC. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how managing uncertainties in a firm's demand and supply affects its MC ability.Design/methodology/approachRegression analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) are conducted on data collected from 189 manufacturing plants to empirically test two hypotheses.FindingsBoth demand and supply uncertainty management have a positive impact on a company's MC ability. However, managing either demand or supply uncertainties independently of the other is not enough to achieve MC ability; instead, a company needs to concurrently manage both demand and supply uncertainties to achieve MC ability.Originality/valueThe current literature lacks a sound theoretical basis to link demand and supply uncertainty management with MC ability. The paper provides such a theoretical foundation, and systematically identifies several demand and supply uncertainty management mechanisms that enable firms to achieve superior MC ability. In addition, it is one of the first large‐scale empirical studies to address the impact of managing both demand and supply uncertainties on MC ability.