Economic Advantages of Mass Customisation
Published on : Wednesday 08-04-2020
Most products of mass customisation are designed and produced with the focus on meeting the unique requirements of customers, says Jasbir Singh.
Mass Customisation (MC) has evolved from the market dynamics being a future concept of becoming valuable business strategy. A large number of firms in various industrial sectors has been applying advanced digitalisation in manufacturing to produce mass scale, low-cost personalised products. The demand for personalised products and services increased because more consumers desire an individualised product due to their needs emerging differently owing to experience of current system and market dynamics.
Mass personalisation with Industry 4.0 by digitalisation leads to the concept of collaborative networking in manufacturing. It increases flexibility of production processes to manufacture products with a high level of customisation. Despite high level of global competition, personalisation has always been a strategy applied by manufacturers to remain distinctive in the market. On the other hand, by incorporating personalised sub module/products next to main core products in market, developers respond to the demand for personalised users, where individualisation adds value and attracts customers to satisfy their need at low cost. The increased incorporation of digitalisation in manufacturing of industrial and consumer products in recent days improves the scenario of digital platform leading away from mass individualisation to mass customisation. To keep personalisation, along with variable options due to a variety of attractive add-on features, unique products are created that meet market demand. These add-on features are small but need of the hour to make our life easy. To cope with this variation, small manufacturers provide cost effective solutions to develop and produce such products. To capitalise on mass personalisation by small sub module, developers and manufacturers use collaborative network concept.
Mass customisation relies on digitalisation, modularisation of products, flexible processes and a close integration of each module and the customer. It builds on the foundation of advance digitalisation in combination of Internet technology in factories using Industry 4.0 making a paradigm shift in the manufacturing sector. This facilitates manufacturers to aspire to offer personalisation in addition to their core products and aims to conceptualise for mass personalisation. The theory is based on use of open platform to interface the basic open structure of these products to enable various module integration that increases the functional capability and enables to produce the right configuration, which is desired by customers. An open-platform where the main structural body (active or passive) allows easy integration of sub modules from different sources can fit into it in order to increase its functionality based on individual’s/customer’s demand and their requirements.
Practical examples
A number of innovative base hardware modules produced on open platform being invented having scope for integration with sub module to produce the final product meets consumer/end-user necessities. These sub modules are again a generic module, which can be fitted into main open platform module of multiple base module manufacturers. The common example is the laptop, industrial machines in factories which work on digital configuration. Available PCs in current days are open products where new hardware components for increasing functionality can easily be interfaced and improve its utilisation. There are examples of hardware to hardware integration to add features and hardware to software app improves functionality for its use.
The smartphone is another good example of hardware to software integration. A smartphone hardware loaded with system software is an open architecture which allows the addition of software apps to increase features of device based on user requirements. Apps that can be downloaded by user to run on smartphones are good examples for sub modules. Each customer individually downloads/deletes apps that generate due his/her needs, thereby creating product specific user’s smartphone. It provides additional features such as booking air tickets, ordering of food from multiple outlets, banking, tracking parcels, media app for social networking and so on.
Mass customisation where product architecture is designed by developer as a base module, and the sub module producer designs the components that can be easily integrated into the main product to increase its functionality. Some other known examples of mass customised products include automobiles, bicycles, computers, insurance products, fast-food chains, footwear, apparel, hospital beds, kitchen cabinets, refrigerators, office chairs, interiors and industrial machines. These varieties of products have been designed and produced in a way to meet the specific need of customers at a reasonable price. The manufacturer initially designs the product platform and standards with a large variety of possible interfaces for new sub modules and defines its interfaces. Next the customer searches on the Internet for desired sub modules that can be fitted into the selected platform. Then the customer finally prepares a design for his/her final personal requirement and product with all the selected modules. The customer orders and pays for the platform as well as for the selected sub modules. The producer/seller selects these modules and sends for assembly where final product is made to deliver.
Such products with an open hardware platform provide stage to potential sub module developer access to the basic architecture without proprietary constraints to add value of main product. The sub modules concept is cheaper to produce and can be frequently modified/replaced based on change of customers’ needs from time to time. The open- platform manufacturer builds products that enable others for easily adding sub modules/external modules by publishing standards on which it is built/developed and pass on written instructions that allow potential developers of sub module the way to integrate innovative sub modules that plug into the main product, adding thereby new features to the base product. The large manufacturers produce the base platforms wherein small companies invent and produce sub modules that could be easily interfaced with the open-platform products. The foundations for contemporary development work having emphasis on applied, implementation-related issues in mass customisation such as assessment of customer, preferences conceived by manufacturer and manufacturing suitability to mass customisation, product characterisation, product commonality and defined modularity are lately being addressed by producers, extending sub module addition facility directly to the hand of end- user.
Perfect Alignment
Business makes perfect alignment while moving from Individualisation to Mass Customisation using concept of C2B ~ B2B ~ B2C. Business intelligence is used to collect data/market trend to capture information of customer from masses. This intelligence is then converted into business opportunities. These predictions are very important to create packages for software or hardware products to design and produce in early stage of market demands. Logically both base platforms make changes to adopt the sub module and simultaneously sub module with variety of functions is available to plug in for Beta trial before it is made available to market for customer. Companies producing base modules are much conscious about their market image and customer perception as they are the face of the market. Sub module producers have no direct link with customers but they suggest innovative functions, which can be integrated with the base module. The number of functions directly provided by the base module manufacture is dynamic, whereas the sub-module requirements are variable and are determined by the customer’s specific needs and wishes. Individually customer needs can configured according to the requirements that arise by way of market demand or promotional apps by individual entity producing/marketing their products.
Each hardware sub module for futuristic open products modules will have a smaller market share, compared to the total market size of hardware modules for a variety of open-platform consumer products. Software apps for open products are cheaper compared to add on hardware modules but it creates an environment of quick downloading through applications and makes life easy for consumer. Hardware sub modules will not be free as many software apps are available in market. Sometimes the hardware modules will be more expensive than software app, i.e., just downloading apps, but the market potential for even hardware modules will be larger than compared to the software apps market.
As more people learn the potential advantages of open products, the customer will increase demand for additional such products. Public demand for mass customisation is constantly growing and shall become widespread across societies and nations, resulting in a massive expansion of the economy. Both corporates producing open product and the establishment of many new module design companies will grow generating opportunities in this segment for employment too. The market belief is that an economy that encourages open hardware products will flourish in long run as seen now.
Finally, in conclusion, mass customisation of the product architecture shall always be modular. All modules that are designed by the main base product manufacturer offered to customers with a minimum standard features and optional addition of features with product of choice requested by customer. The customer selects the sub modules that they wish for and then pays for the complete product. Then the product is assembled with sub modules and delivered. Most of these products of mass customisation (software app or electronic hardware attachments) are designed and produced with the focus on meeting the unique requirements of customers, arising time to time at reasonable price.
Jasbir Singh, Director, ECPR Technologies has over 32 years of business experience with extensive international exposure, both from business and cultural points of view. He is one of the experts in Foundation Fieldbus technology and recognised for continuous improvement in technological development.
