Product customisation and manufacturing strategy

Abstract

Reviews literature from manufacturing strategy, flexibility, agile manufacturing, and aspects of industrial marketing and highlights fragmented and inadequate treatment of fundamental issues relating to product customisation. Through synthesis of the literature and the analysis of four case studies ± in the manufacture of fork-lift trucks, electro-mechanical devices, small telecommunications systems and stationery products respectively ± presents a novel model of the customisation process. Identifies typologies of customisation problem-solving situations and custom-build option types. Demonstrates the importance of the relationship between the degree of design activity and volume of manufacture, and of the distinction between products that are custom-built from options, and those that involve some custom-designed elements. Proposes a range of potential roles for customised products to support management decision making in the selection of appropriate business activities. IntroductionProduct customisation has recently attracted interest due to the emergence of`m ass customisation'' (Kotler, 1989;Pine, 1993;Kotha, 1995). In industrial markets, however, customisation is nothing new, and has always been significant. The treatment of this issue in the manufacturing strategy literature is sparse, however, and frameworks for linking customisation to broader manufacturing, marketing and organisational issues are lacking.The objective of this paper is to redress this to some extent, and it presents a model that accommodates product customisation, manufacturing strategy and aspects of industrial marketing. The paper begins by reviewing the treatment of customisation in the manufacturing strategy and industrial marketing literatures. It then reports case-study research carried out by the authors. The final two sections use a novel model to discuss important aspects of customisation identified from the research.

Fields and Weapons of the Competition: A Model to Formulate the Production Strategies for Small and Medium Companies

“…O grau de ajuste entre os critérios competitivos da empresa e as áreas de decisões estruturais e infraestruturais são as chaves para o pleno desenvolvimento da produção como arma competitiva. A análise da literatura sobre estratégia de produção comprova que os critérios competitivos mais citados são: custo, qualidade, entrega e flexibilidade (ALVES FILHO; PIRES; VANALLE, 1995;BADRI;DAVIS, 2000;BOYER, 1998;BOYER;MCDERMOTT, 1999;CHEN;SMALL, 1996;GARCÍA-CEBRIÁN;LÓPEZ-VIÑEGLA, 2002;KIM;ARNOLD, 1996;LEONG;SNYDER;WARD, 1990;MINOR III;HENSLEY;WOOD JUNIOR, 1994;MONTAGNO;AHMED;FIRENZE, 1995;NOBLE, 1995;SANTOS et al, 2001;SPRING;DALRYMPLE, 2000;SWINK;WAY, 1995;VOSS, 1995;WARD et al, 1998;WHEELWRIGHT, 1984;WHITE, 1998).…”

Mass customisation as a collaborative engineering effort

“…It corresponds to the design specification stage as defined by Spring and Dalrymple (2000) (Figure 1). Configuration is essentially a special form of product design with the PFA already defined and the solution space determined.…”

“…In discussing product customisation in a broad manufacturing strategy context, Spring and Dalrymple (2000) propose a generic model of product customisation, which includes three stages, namely problem solving, design specification, and transfer (Figure 1). The problem-solving stage can be further decomposed to problem definition and solution realisation.…”

“…Production here corresponds to the transfer stage (Spring and Dalrymple, 2000) by including material conversion, material transportation, shop floor control, procurement, inventory management, etc. To many manufacturers, inefficiencies in production remain a critical roadblock to pursue mass customisation strategy.…”

“…Companies implementing mass customisation often find themselves mired in a net of conflicts both strategically and operationally. For example, McCutcheon et al (1994) discuss the conflict between customisation and responsiveness, which is often cited as a key roadblock to achieve mass customisation; Squire et al (2006) conduct empirical studies and demonstrate the existence of conflict between customisation and manufacturing cost; Agrawal et al (2001) and Zipkin (2001) assert that mass customisation is only viable for a very limited range of applications; Spring and Dalrymple (2000) conclude similarly that mass customisation has limited novelty and restricted applicability.…”