Design methodology for mass personalisation enabled by digital manufacturing

Abstract

Mass Personalisation (MP) is becoming more significant to answer diversifying customer needs, as a result of the advancements in digital manufacturing. In contrary to the modular design in mass customisation, Design for MP (DfMP) proposes more profound changes in product and active user involvement in the design process, while maintaining mass efficiency. Traditional product development methodologies fall short in guiding MP, as it has the distinct differences with product variability and the customer involvement with specific needs. In this study, a dedicated design methodology for MP is presented, focussing on these key dimensions. The proposed methodology guides the designer through the development process of a user modifiable design and demonstrates how to facilitate the user involvement in reaching a personalised design. It proposes a flexible and adaptable seed design architecture, and an interactive customer co-creation process. The development of a seed design, construction of its design space, and management of the solution space with a design solution algorithm are elaborated. The application of the methodology was illustrated on the personalisation of knitted footwear, and 3D printed saxophone mouthpiece. The examples show the potential of the methodology to deal with coupled MP cases. A systematic approach to DfMP will allow expanding MP to more products, and acts as a foundation for the customer co-creation oriented design in the context of this emerging paradigm.

pARam: Leveraging Parametric Design in Extended Reality to Support the Personalization of Artifacts for Personal Fabrication

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A generative-based design methodology to enable the democratisation of 3D printing

“…Movements towards distributed manufacturing indicate a paradigm shift in the way things are made. The advancements in Digital Manufacturing that underpin this shift are also a pre-requisite for the paradigm of design for mass personalisation (Ozdemir, Verlinden & Cascini 2022) where products are designed to specific customer needs in a near continuous design space (Wang et al 2017)in other words; designing for a market of one. In this design paradigm customers 3/39 are given an active and direct role in the design process to ensure products are designed to meet their individual needs (Sikhwal & Childs 2021).…”

Electroforming of Personalized Multi-Level and Free-Form Metal Parts Utilizing Fused Deposition Modeling-Manufactured Molds

“…In contemporary manufacturing, a notable shift is observed towards the fabrication of smaller batches of personalized products [ 1 ]. This transformation resonates with the principles of just-in-time manufacturing and addresses the escalating demand for customization, rapid prototyping, and the growing demand for the personalization concept.…”