Mass customization: four approaches to deliver customized products and services with mass production efficiency

Abstract

Enterprises in all branches of industry are being forced to react to the growing individualization of demand, yet, at the same time, increasing competitive pressure dictates that costs must also continue to decrease. Companies have to adopt strategies which embrace both cost efficiency and a closer reaction to customers' needs. Mass customization meets this challenge by producing goods and services to meet individual customer's needs with near mass production efficiency. The paper discusses four different approaches towards mass customization. The authors' focus is to show how product-service-bundles may be combined strategically to foster a mass customization strategy.