|
What do you find
in this issue ?
- Conference
Report: Participants
of the Sixth German Mass Customization Meeting (MC 2004, 11+12
Oct. 2004) discussed, among other issues, service mass customization,
creating MC value chains, need for corporate change management, and
merging mass (serial) production and mass customization. You can also
purchase the (German language) conference proceedings if you
have missed the event.
- Update:
Reflect.com is opening more stores, bringing its online configuration
to the real world, and expanding its personalization techniques in the
customer interaction process.
- Web-Links:
Jack Aaronson on Mass Customization & Personalization in
a series of articles on mass customization and personalization in ClickZ.
- My
Virtual Model implemented at Sears.com Online, empowering online
shoppers to customize tens of thousands of items with new "Sears
Virtual Decorator".
- New
Research: Abstracts of upcoming mass customization papers:
(1) Customers are willing to pay more for customized products,
a new study by Nikolaus Franke and Frank Piller showes.
(2) Striking the balance between utility and complexity
when marketing mass customized products, professors Benedict G.C. Dellaert
and Stefan Stremersch demand.
(3) Does mass customization pay? You have to consider
all potential benefits and additional costs, an approach to structure
the economics of mass customization says.
- Opening
of the EuroShoe Factory:
The first European factory dedicated to the manufacturing of mass customized
footwear was opened in September 2004 in Vigevano, the Italian capital
of footwear manufacturing
- Calls
for Papers:
Deutsche
Mass-Customization-Community: Upcoming German-Speaking Events
(1) Lean Management Summit (RWTH Aachen, 10-11 November
2004)
(2) Die Qualität der Kommunikation und die Kommunikation
von Qualität (Uni Trier, 18 -19 November 2004)
(3) Lothar Späth sucht innovative Mittelständler: TOP
100 Wettbewerb
- Reading
Mass Customization: Our recent books on mass customization,
customer integration, and open innovation
Conference
Report: The Sixth German Mass Customization Meeting (MC 2004, Oct 2004)
Already to the
sixth time, the German (speaking) Mass Customization Community met to
an annual conference in October 2004. The main topics of the conference
were service mass customization, creating MC value chain including suppliers
and customers as inherent parts of the organization, the need for corporate
change management when introducing mass customization, and the merging
of mass (serial) production and mass customization.
About 100 managers
from a broad set of industries participated at the event that the Technische
Universität München organized again in cooperation with
the Fraunhofer Institute IFF. On the first day, we presented
the results of the research project EWOMACS (www.ewomacs.de,
funded by the German Ministry of Research). The idea of this project
is to provide an integrated value chain design for mass customization,
beginning from the first interaction between a firm and its customers,
the configuration process, manufacturing tasks, supplier integration
and logistics, and ending with after sales service.
Up to now, most
research projects on mass customization focus on one of these activities.
Our idea was to provide an integrated view. Corporate research partners
were Adidas-Salomon AG (with its miAdidas sports shoe program)
and selve AG, a Munich based brand for customized women's shoes,
along with a number of technology and logistic service providers. Results
of the project, which are also available for other companies, include
a market research and customer feedback tool, work on store and interaction
system design for mass customization retail units, and process models
and process modeling techniques to analyze MC supply chains. One of
the premier results is coming from University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim.
There, information systems professor Stefan Kirn and his team
developed and implemented a simulation system to predict how a given
customer order influence the capacity utilization of a flexible mass
customization value chain, including pre-fabrication steps at the manufacturers'
suppliers.
On the second day,
eight presenters from various industries shared their experiences with
doing mass customization. Some of our speakers came from large companies
like BMW (topic: integration of the brand-new BMW car configuration
into the overall CRM strategy of BMW), Otto Group (how the largest
distance seller of the world regards MC not as a means for more customer
service, but first of all as a means to reduce returns) or ITG
(a leading logistic service integrator with strong capabilities to provide
outsourcing and value-added logistics services very efficiently using
mass customization principles.).
These experiences
were matched by the reports from smaller, specialized mass customizers
like Steppenwolf (reinventing the company after selling ten years
customized bikes in a large scale), Factory1to1 (using customization
of Swiss watches to customize retail in various channels), Swisstex
(customized apparel, discovering that the firm's MC ERP system is a
large selling point for other firms as well), and Logisch! (a
firm providing guided selling systems including body scanners to truly
customize the selling process of standard products).
Some of my learnings
from these two days include:
- There is still
too little focus on mass customization of services, both of
primary services and of secondary support services. Some papers have
commented on these opportunities, but up to now only few companies
have a straight forward approach to the efficient customization of
services. In the moment, automatization and standardization of services
still play a much larger role.
- Mass customization
and mass confusion are very close together. Several participants
reported that they could sell much more once they had reduced their
variety and customization options. But there is still rather limited
knowledge on how to reduce the offered variety systematically in order
to reduce the vurden of choice from the consumers' perspective, while
keeping the differentiation benefits of mass customization.
- Change management
for mass customization is badly needed. Many firms report from
strong internal difficulties introducing mass customization. Here,
appropriate means are needed to both educate members of the organization
about what and why mass customization is different; and to facilitate
organizational change towards mass customization thinking. Both fields
are just solved by learning-by-doing, but there is very little generic
or transferable knowledge on how to cope with the internal change
mass customization demands.
Concluding, the
Sixth German Mass Customization Meeting again was a fruitful and inspiring
place to meet old fellows and new persons, and to discuss in-depth how
to make the business world more customer-centric and customer-driven.
If
you are interested and understand German, you can purchase a copy
of the conference proceedings (containing all but one of the
presentation slides) for 50.00 Euro (plus VAT and postage; we will invoice
you) by sending an e-mail with your full address to seelmann@iff.fhg.de
quoting that you want to purchase the "MC 2004 Frankfurt Proceedings".
You may also refer to http://www.mass-customization.de/mc2004
for more information about the event.
[Back to Contents]
Update:
Reflect.com is opening more stores, bringing its online configuration
to the real world
I have reported
several times in this newsletter about Reflect.com,
a subsidiary of Procter&Gamble selling customized cosmetics
and body care products. The firm is an interesting case as they are
experimenting quite a lot with different sales formats for mass customization,
including catalog order businesses, own retail stores and several different
versions of their online configurator. After testing the first brick-and-mortar
retail unit in San Francisco in 2001, Reflect opened a second store
about a year ago in Northbrook, Ill., and expanded last fall into two
retail counters at Marshall Field's in Chicago. All retail units are
closely connected, and data on one customer is saved in a central database.
This allows to use the brick-and-mortar retail stores as training centers
for first-time buyers, and moving them on the web for repeat orders.
A story in 'Inside
One to One', the excellent newsletter by Peppers&Rogers Group
(http://www.1to1.com), recently used
Reflect.com as an example to discuss the benefits of a multi-channel
retail strategy for customized goods. Read in the following some quotes
from this article (see Peppers&Rogers' web site for the full story):
"Customer
data collected from each channel is housed in a central database. …
The result: if a customer tells Reflect that she spends a lot of time
in the sun, the company will present her with an offer on a shampoo
especially for her sun-streaked tresses. If she abandons her online
shopping cart without purchasing the fragrance she just created, Reflect
will send a promotion that sweetens the deal.
… the company
had just launched a personal shopper program for its lipstick. For example,
a customer would be offered a special lipstick for a Valentine's Day
promotion in the shade that she said she preferred. The program has
since grown to include most of the product line -- items such as moisturizers,
foundations, shampoos and conditioners. … 80-85 percent of Reflect's
customer communications is said to be personalized and relevant to individual
customers. Responses to Reflect's personalized e-mail campaigns are
60 percent higher than responses to non-personalized campaigns, and
revenues are three times higher. … When launching a new product,
Reflect markets it online and offline, using all the knowledge it holds
in the company database."
The last argument
is one of the strongest, but also most underutilized benefits mass customization
can offer for larger firms. The same holds true for the customized multi-channel
approach. Just introducing customized products as a differentiator is
by far not enough. To become successful in mass customization, a firm
has also to master a whole number of related business activities. Mass
customization is not a quick win in this regard.
[Back
to Contents]
Web-Links:
Jack Aaronson on Mass Customization & Personalization
Jack Aaronson,
CEO of The Aaronson Group (www.aaronsongroup.com) and a known face to
the participants of the last MCPC 2003 conference in Munich, is the author
of a regular column in ClickZ, an online magazine. There, he has compiled
a series of articles on mass customization and personalization. His main
argument is very true: "Companies who sell custom products (like
made-to-order shoes) need a personalized user experience, more so than
regular companies."
Read the full articles here:
Personalization, Meet Mass Customization (http://www.clickz.com/experts/crm/crm_strat/article.php/3091931)
- the general idea, and a case study of who is doing it wrong
Mass Product Customization, Continued (http://www.clickz.com/experts/crm/crm_strat/article.php/3101011)
- when mass customization makes sense, and when it doesn't
Mass Customization With a Personalized Experience (http://www.clickz.com/experts/crm/crm_strat/article.php/3383731)
- a case study of who is doing it right
[Back
to Contents]
My
Virtual Model implemented at Sears.com Online, empowering online shoppers
to customize tens of thousands of items with new "Sears Virtual Decorator"
Participants of
last year's MCPC 2003 conference in Munich will remember the presentations
of Bill Bass, Land's End (part of Sears, Roebuck and Co.,
a leading US multi-channel retailer), and Louise Guay, My Virtual
Model Inc. In two related talks they discussed how the "Virtual
Model" supported personalization and customization at Land's End.
Now our speakers teamed up again to develop and launch an even bigger
implementation of personalization in retail.
Sears debuted in
September 2004 with a newly enhanced
web site from which customers can fill their closets and shop for
every room in their home, too (on Sears.com, go to "For the Home",
and click on the right omn top the configurator button. "Sears'
online shoppers have been demanding apparel, so we're pleased to give
them what they've been asking for and in a way that no other national
retailer can," said Bill Bass, Sears vice president and general
manager, Customer Direct. "Our virtual customization features,
Sears Virtual Decorator and My Virtual Model, are innovations that make
our customers' online shopping experience even more useful and beneficial.
We're giving them the ability to visualize how Sears' products will
fit into their lives."
Shoppers can visualize
how they look in Sears' apparel through the popular My Virtual Model
feature, which was pioneered on landsend.com. Customers provide their
measurements and personal characteristics to create their own customized
online "model" to try on clothing. The updated version of
My Virtual Model now available on sears.com allows shoppers to zoom
in and get a close look at fabric, change an item's color and get customized
information on how an item will fit in the waist, thigh, hip or inseam.
Sears.com is the first national retailer to offer online shoppers the
ability to conveniently "try on" multiple apparel brands.
But the innovation
continues: With the widespread popularity of shows like ABC's Extreme
Makeover and other home decorating programs, sears.com is now helping
shoppers create their own "dream" rooms online. Sears.com
shoppers can use an exclusive state-of-the-art "Virtual Decorator"
feature modeled closely after My Virtual Model. Users who want to redecorate
or enhance their bedroom can view an image of a room on their computer
screen and browse through a selection of Sears' proprietary home fashions,
including Lands' End, Whole Home and Colormate. As shoppers click on
choices for Sears' home fashion merchandise including bedding, floor
coverings, window treatments and pillow options, the items are placed
accordingly throughout the room. Users can get the full effect of their
room "makeover" by hanging artwork or "painting"
their room with a choice of colors available from Easy Living paint
and choosing flooring finishes.
Sears.com has plans
in the coming months to give customers the ability to design their ideal
kitchens complete with Kenmore appliances or their garages with Craftsman
tools and storage products. Additional room decorating options will
be added to the Sears Virtual Decorator feature during the next year
to continue helping shoppers create solutions for home decorating.
"Sears and
Lands' End, together with the technology of My Virtual Model, continue
to enhance the online shopping experience with multi-brands of fashion
and home décor," said Louise Guay, president of My Virtual
Model (http://www.myvirtualmodel.com).
Montreal based My Virtual Model has set the standard for trying, sizing
and buying apparel online. With Sears, My Virtual Model introduces its
technology for multi-brand home decoration and apparel visualization.
[Back
to Contents]
New
Research
In this section,
I will present abstracts of upcoming or recently published papers on
mass customization and personalization. Send me your abstracts of new
(upcoming) mass customization related papers for this section.
(1)
Customers are willing to pay more for customized products
Together with Nikolaus
Franke, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management,
I conducted a study on the value of toolkits for co-design (configuration)
from the consumers' perspective. In our study, we asked (1) if customers
actually make use of the solution space offered by the mass customization
variety, and (2) if they are willing to pay for this option. Results
are very promising.
For our study,
we used a relatively simple, design-focused toolkit from the watch industry
for a set of four experiments with a total of 717 participants, 267
of whom actually created their own watches. The heterogeneity of the
resulting design solutions was calculated using the entropy concept,
and willingness to pay was measured by the contingent valuation method
and Vickrey auctions. Entropy coefficients showed that self-designed
watches vary quite widely. On the other hand, significant patterns are
still visible despite this high level of entropy, meaning that customer
preferences are highly heterogeneous and diverse in style but not completely
random.
We also found that
consumers are willing to pay a considerable price premium. Their willingness
to pay (WTP) for a self-designed watch exceeds the WTP for standard
watches by far, even for the best-selling standard watches of the same
technical quality. On average, we found a 100% value increment for watches
designed by users with the help of the toolkit.
Taken together,
these findings suggest that the toolkit's ability to allow customers
to customize products to suit their individual preferences creates value
for them in a B2C setting even when only a simple toolkit is employed.
Alternative explanations, implications and necessary future research
are discussed.
The full research
will be published in the November 2004 issue of the Journal
of Product Innovation Management ("Value Creation by Toolkits
for User Innovation and Design", by Nikolaus Franke and Frank Piller,
Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 21, Issue 6, pp. 401-415
[ http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/toc/jpim
].
(2) Striking the balance between utility and complexity
when marketing mass customized products
In this study,
professors Benedict G.C. Dellaert and Stefan Stremersch investigate
consumers' evaluations of different mass customization configurations
when asked to mass customize a product. For instance, mass customization
configurations may differ in the number of modules that may be mass
customized. The authors find - in the context of mass customization
of personal computers - that mass customization configuration affects
the product utility consumers can achieve in mass customization as well
as their perception of mass customization complexity.
In turn, product
utility and complexity affect the utility consumers derive from using
a certain mass customization configuration. More specifically, product
utility has a positive, and complexity has a negative effect on mass
customization configuration utility. The effect of complexity is direct
as well as indirect, because complexity also lowers product utility.
The authors also
find that consumers with high product expertise find mass customization
configurations less complex than consumers with low product expertise
and that for more expert consumers complexity has a less negative impact
on product utility. The study has important managerial implications
for how companies can design their mass customization configuration
to increase utility and decrease complexity.
The full paper
is forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing Research in summer
2005.
(3) Does mass customization pay? An economic approach
to evaluate customer integration
Another paper that
was available as a working paper already since a longer period of time
has now been finally published. Together with Kathrin Möslein from
London Business School and Christoph Stotko from our Munich research
group we present a conceptual model to structure the costs and benefits
of mass customization.
The paper provides
an integrated view of value creation in mass customization based production
models. While flexible manufacturing technologies are often seen as
the main enabler of mass customization, we argue that modern information
technologies play a similar important role. Their significance is based
on enabling a distinctive principle of mass customization efficiently:
customer integration into the production processes. The customer is
integrated into value creation during the course of configuration, product
specification, and co-design.
Customer integration
is often seen as a necessity and source of additional costs of customization.
However, we argue in this paper that customer integration may also be
an important asset to increase efficiency and could pave the way for
a new set of cost saving potentials. We coin the term 'economies of
integration' to sum up these saving potentials.
Economies of integration
arise from three sources: (1) from postponing some activities until
an order is placed, (2) from more precise information about market demands,
and (3) from the ability to increase loyalty by directly interacting
with each customer. By examining and structuring the economic principles
of mass customization the paper will give insights into the benefits,
but also the constraints of a mass customization strategy.
The full paper
is published in the journal "Production Planning & Control",
Vol. 15, No.4, June 2004, pp. 435-444. The whole issue of this journal,
edited Prof. Ian McCarthy from Simon Fraser University in Canada,
is very worth reading. It is a special issue on mass customization
and provides a very good selection of recent mass customization
papers. You find the issue easily on the publisher's web site: Taylor
& Francis, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals.
Note: Send me
your abstracts of new mass customization related papers for this section
!
[Back
to Contents]
Opening
of the Euroshoe Factory: The first European factory dedicated to the manufacturing
of mass customized footwear
The Euroshoe
("Extended User Oriented Shoe Enterprise") project is
one of the best known European projects on mass customization. It was
funded by the European Commission within the 5th Framework Program with
the objective to design, develop and implement methods, tools, machines,
logistics and software for a user-oriented extended enterprise to mass
produce individually customized shoes. The project should thus create
an innovative vision for the European footwear industry with intense
knowledge management centered around the user.
But the 33 project
partners from the industry and leading research institutions teamed
up not to produce only paper and reports, but to build and to equip
a real factory with the latest technologies for mass customization
of footwear. The factory is run as a "Design & Mass Customization
Lab" by ITIA-CNR, a leading Italian research institution. It
is directed by Sergio Dulio, who managed also the Euroshoe project
together with Prof. Claudio Boer. On September 20th 2005, the
factory was finally opened in a small ceremony and is now in its final
evaluation phase, producing real customized shoes (both with a match-to-order
and a true custom-made concept).
If you are from
the footwear industry and are looking for a showcase of the footwear
factory of the future, schedule a visit at the lab (Via Pisani 1, 27029
Vigevano, Italy). The factory will also take limited amount of contract
work from external partners interested in customization of men and ladies
shoes.
A perfect source
of information on the Euroshoe project is the "Special Issue
on the Euroshoe project" of the "International Journal
of Computer Integrated Manufacturing", VOL. 17, NO. 7 (Oct / Nov.
2004). It is published by Taylor & Francis, and can be purchased
via their web site (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals).
[Back
to Contents]
Call
for Papers: Share your thoughts and findings
(1)
The International Journal of Mass Customization -- send us your contributions
NOW
Finally: Mass Customization
gets its own journal. The International Journal of Mass Customization
provides an international forum for developing, promoting, disseminating
and coordinating the progress in mass customization related methodologies,
technologies, and practices among international professional communities.
The focus deliberately embraces both industrial & business practices
and academic research activities.
We have had planned
such a journal as a future activity of the MCP Institute. However, briefly
after the Munich conference, George Huang from the University
of Hong Kong approached us with a final concept for a MC journal, with
most of the planning work done. So we gratefully accepted George's offer
for participation and we are proud and glad to be able to offer you
an unique outlet for your mass customization research from this year.
The International
Journal of Mass Customization is a double-blind refereed quarterly journal
that publishes original research and application papers, review papers,
research and technical notes, case studies, empirical field studies,
tutorials, conference reports, management reports, book reviews, commentaries,
and news in all areas of mass customization.
Send us your
research now, and become part of the inaugurating issues which will
get a large audience around the world !
The Journal invites
contributions addressing theories, methods, tools, models, practices,
and enabling technologies related to all aspects of mass customization,
including business strategies, organizational structures, management
and product information management, market development, strategic product
planning, product design, product development and realization, configuration
toolkits, customer co-design and customer interaction, process planning,
production planning and scheduling, manufacturing system design and
analysis, assembly lines, quality control and planning, logistics and
supply chain management, relationship marketing, technical support and
customer services, and sustainability, product recycling and disposal.
We are not only
interested in manufactured products that are mass customizable, but
also software, service products and experience offerings. The coverage
of the Journal includes, but not limited to, the following subject areas
and topics:
- Fundamental
issues of mass customization (variety, modularity, commonality, adaptability,
flexibility, reusability, customizability, value creation and business
models, etc.);
- Customer / requirement
engineering, Kansei engineering;
- Market segmentation,
product proliferation, product definition, product line planning,
product portfolios;
- Product architecture,
product platform, product family architecture, modular and integral
product architecture, platform development and customization, variant
handling, design modeling and methodology;
- Configuration
systems, configuration rules and algorithms, visualization
- Customer interaction,
customer configuration behavior, customer choice, consumer risk and
benefits, willingness to pay;
- Marketing for
mass customization, communication policies, branding, and relationship
marketing;
- Agile, flexible
and reconfigurable processes, systems and supply chains, process and
assembly planning, production management;
- Logistics engineering
and supply chain management, early supplier and customer involvement;
- Re-usability,
environmental sustainability and ecological impacts of mass customization;
- Economic measures
and performance management in mass customization including the cost
of variety, time to market, etc.;
- Computational
intelligence in mass customization (Intelligent modeling of products,
product platforms, product variants, product families, product portfolios,
etc.);
- Enabling technologies,
ecommerce/e-business technologies, web and Internet applications;
- Knowledge management,
enterprise modeling for mass customization.
- Authors are
asked and encouraged to use the online submission facilities at http://www.digiprise.org/jmc
as far as possible. Manuscripts should be prepared in MS Word or PDF
format for online upload.
Each submitted
paper is first reviewed by an editor and, if it is judged suitable for
this publication, it is then sent to 2-3 referees for double blind peer
review. Based on their recommendations, the coordinating editor decides
whether the paper should be accepted as it is, revised or rejected.
http://www.digiprise.org/jmc
https://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=119
ISSN 1742 - 4208
[4 issues per year]
For more information, contact me or the managing editor, Prof. Georg
Huang (gqhuang@hkucc.hku.hk)
++++++++++++++++
(2)
Call for Papers: Concurrent Engineering: Research and Applications,
An International Journal, Special Issue on "Customer Requirement
Management in Product Development"
Customer requirement
management has been well recognized as one of the principal factors
in product development for achieving success in the marketplace. It
has been witnessed an exponentially increasing number of consensus and
publications in the field of customer satisfaction and requirement management,
as well as many endeavors in industrial applications. This research
topic bears a multidisciplinary characteristic involving such fields
as business studies, marketing research, psychological studies, human
factors, software requirement engineering, and of course engineering
design. More recently, the importance of these front-end issues has
been catalyzed by enormous e-commerce applications. This special issue
is dedicated to recent advances in customer requirement management.
While requirement engineering has been studied intensively in the field
of software and information systems, the focus of this special issue
is given to product development and engineering design of consumer and
industrial products. Original papers of both a theoretical and practical
nature are welcome, as well as state-of-the-art reviews and discussions
of future research directions in the field. Topics of interest include,
but are not limited to:
- User needs analysis
and functional design
- Affective design
and human-centered design
- Kansei engineering
and Kansei science
- Customer preference
and customer value assessment
- Customer behavior
and interaction with product attributes
- Mass customization
and personalization
- Customer involvement
and product definition
- Customer needs
elicitation and requirements acquisition
- Product proliferation
and variety management
- Requirement
modeling, language and supporting tools
- New strategies,
business models, enabling technologies (e.g., e-commerce, AI, OR,
etc.), case studies and industrial best practices.
Authors should
follow the Notes for Authors of CERA when preparing their manuscripts
for submission: http://ww.ceraj.com/author_information_instructions_for_authors.htm.
Please submit papers
in electronic form (preferable in Word or PDF) to the guest editors:
Dr. Roger Jianxin Jiao, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
(jiao@pmail.ntu.edu.sg)
Dr. Chun-Hsien Chen, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (mchchen@.ntu.edu.sg)
Dr. Clive Kerr, Cranfield University, UK, (c.i.kerr@cranfield.ac.uk)
Important
deadline: Submission of full papers: 31 December 2004
++++++++++++
(3)
Call for Papers: Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing: Special Issue
on "Product Family Design and Development"
The rationale for
developing product families is to satisfy diverse customer needs while
keeping costs low. This special issue is dedicated to recent advances
in product family design and development. Original papers of both theoretical
and practical nature are welcome, as well as state-of-the-art reviews
and discussions of future research directions in the field.
Topics of interest
include, but are not limited to:
- Fundamental
issues of product families (e.g., variety, modularity, commonality,
adaptability, flexibility, reusability, customizability, etc.);
- Customer engineering
for product families, Kansei engineering, customer decision making
and interaction with product families, product proliferation, requirement
management, product definition, product line positioning, product
portfolio, functional modeling;
- Product family
architecture, product platform, product family configuration, design
modeling and support, product family design automation and optimization,
designing product families for make- or configure-to-order production;
- Production and
process planning of product families, assembly systems for product
families, variant handling, agile, flexible and reconfigurable processes,
sales and manufacturing interface, synchronization of product and
process platforms;
- Supply chain
coordination for product families, early supplier and customer involvement
in product family design, e-design and e-manufacturing systems for
product families, design for postponement of product families, integration
of customer, product, process and logistics, collaborative product
and process commerce;
- Performance
measure, economies of scale and scope, valuation and cost accounting
of product families, product family data models and information systems;
and
- New strategies,
project management, organization issues, enabling technologies (e.g.,
e-commerce, AI, OR, etc.), business models, case studies, and industrial
practice.
Submission
of full papers: 31 October 2004
Authors should
follow the Notes for Authors of JIM when preparing their manuscripts
for submission. Please refer to the JIM website: http://www.kluweronline.com/issn/0956-5515/.
Please submit papers
in electronic form (preferable in Word, PDF, or Zip file) to one of
the guest editors: Dr. Jianxin (Roger) Jiao (jiao@pmail.ntu.edu.sg);
Dr. Timothy W. Simpson (tws8@psu.edu); Dr. Zahed Siddique (zsiddique@ou.edu).
[Back
to Contents]
German Community:
Upcoming German-Speaking Events
For all German-speaking
readers, the following two events may be interesting as they relate
to mass customization and similar topics. I will speak on both events,
so this might be an opportunity to meet and discuss again. The third
announcement is not an event but a competition: If you are the owner
of an innovative mass customization SME, participate at the TOP100,
you may consider to nominate your company for this competition.
(1)
Lean Management Summit (RWTH Aachen, 11-12 November 2004)
Um Wertschöpfungsprozesse
zu optimieren und ihre Wettbewerbsposition zu verbessern, haben viele
Unternehmen auch in Deutschland Lean Management eingeführt. Zehn
Jahre nach der ersten Lean Management-Welle steht das Konzept erneut
auf dem Prüfstand. Gerade in Branchen, in denen wirklich einzigartige
Produkte selten sind, hängt der Erfolg entscheidend von der Prozessqualität
in Design, Herstellung, Vermarktung und Kundenservice ab. Dabei geht
es vor allem um die Maximierung des Wertes für den Kunden bei Minimierung
der Verschwendung im Prozess der Wertschöpfung.
Mit Lean Management
lassen sich Lagerbestände, Fehlteilraten, Entwicklungs- und
Durchlaufzeiten drastisch reduzieren. Ganz aktuell beweist der Erfolg
von Toyota deutlicher denn je, dass mit Lean Management ein wirtschaftlicher
Quantensprung möglich ist.
Die zentralen Fragen
dieses Kongresses lauten daher:
- Wie sehen die
Standards des Lean Production-Systems der Zukunft aus?
- Wie lässt sich Lean Production als gesamtheitliches System in
der Fabrik umsetzen?
- In welcher Form eignet sich Lean Production für die unternehmensübergreifende
Planung der gesamten Supply Chain?
- Wie lassen sich instabile Betriebsphasen, wie der Serienlauf, besser
steuern?
- Wie lässt sich Lean Management auf die Bereiche Service und Dienstleistung
übertragen?
- Welche Konsequenzen entstehen für das strategische und operative
Management?
- Wie lässt sich Lean Thinking in die Unternehmensphilosophie über
alle Hierarchieebenen hinweg integrieren?
Leitung: Prof.
Dr.-Ing. Günther Schuh, WZL, RWTH Aachen; und Dr. Bodo Wiegand,
Lean Management Institut Aachen
Mehr Information:
http://www.wzlforum.rwth-aachen.de/cms.php?id=496
+++++++
(2)
Die Qualität der Kommunikation und die Kommunikation von Qualität
- Herausforderungen neuer Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien
für Unternehmen (Uni Trier, 18 -19 November 2004)
Kommunikationsqualität
ist abhängig von der Form der Kommunikation. Im Falle des E-Business
handelt es sich um eine weitgehend computerbasierte Kommunikation, d.h.
Online-Kommunikation auf der Basis des Internet, welche Veränderungen
für interne und externe Beziehungsnetzwerke von Unternehmen mit
sich bringen. Kommunikationsqualität ist damit nicht nur eine Frage
der Angebotsgestaltung im Internet, sondern stets auch eine Frage der
Beziehungsgestaltung zwischen Anbietern und Nutzern.
Die Tagung des
Competence Center E-Business Trier am 18. und 19. November 2004 - Die
Qualität der Kommunikation und die Kommunikation von Qualität
- Herausforderungen neuer Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien
für Unternehmen - widmet sich diesem Thema. Es geht hierbei um
die Kommunikationsqualität an der Schnittstelle zwischen Mensch
und Technik sowie die Kommunikationsqualität der Unternehmens-
und Kundenkommunikation. In verschiedenen Panels und Fachvorträgen
werden erfolgreiche Kommunikationskonzepte vorgestellt und Gelegenheit
zu Diskussion und Erfahrungsaustausch mit Praktikern geboten.
Panel A "Kommunikationsqualität
im Internet" beschäftigt sich mit dem Computerinterface
als zentrale Kommunikationsschnittstelle des 21. Jahrhunderts, dem Erfolg
interaktiver Schnittstellen sowie den erweiterten Konzepten von Benutzerfreundlichkeit
und Benutzerkomfort (Usability), die den veränderten Nutzungs-
und Verwendungskontexten Rechnung tragen.
Panel B "Unternehmenskommunikation
- Information-Flow-Konzepte und Netzwerkeffekte" untersucht
organisatorische Veränderungen in Unternehmen, die im Zuge der
Integration vernetzter Technologien entstehen und deren Auswirkungen
auf Beschäftigte, Unternehmensstrukturen und Unternehmensprozesse.
Häufig kommen hierbei technisch gestützte Lösungen zum
Einsatz, die eine höhere Transparenz, Effektivität und Effizienz
auf internen und externen Arbeitsmärkten versprechen.
Panel C "Kundenkommunikation
- Die Qualität der Kommunikation mit dem Kunden in vernetzten
Marktwelten" beschäftigt sich mit der zunehmenden Gefahr der
Anonymisierung in Anbieter-Nachfrager-Beziehungen, die die Vernetzung
der Märkte mit sich bringt sowie der Möglichkeit zusätzlicher
Erlöspotenziale, die durch individuelle Kundenansprache und Berücksichtigung
von Kundenbedürfnissen zu realisieren sind (Mass Customization
und Customer Communities).
Competence Center
E-Business an der Universität Trier
Frau Flavia Nicolai / Claudia Weirich
Telefon 0651 / 201-2634, kontakt@ceb-trier.de
http://www.ceb-trier.de
+++++++
(3)
Lothar Späth sucht innovative Mittelständler: Startschuss
für neuen Durchgang TOP 100
Die renommierte
Initiative "TOP 100 - Ausgezeichnete Innovatoren im deutschen Mittelstand"
geht ab 1. September in eine neue Runde. Bereits im zwölften Jahr
können sich Unternehmen nun wieder in die innovativen TOP 100 des
Mittelstandes einreihen. Ziel des bundesweiten Benchmarking-Projektes
unter der Schirmherrschaft von Lothar Späth ist es, das Innovationspotenzial
der Unternehmen aufzuspüren, zu fördern und die Mittelständler
einer breiten Öffentlichkeit bekannt zu machen. Teilnahmeunterlagen
gibt es unter www.top100.de, Bewerbungsschluss
ist am 30. November 2004.
Um in den Kreis
der TOP 100 aufgenommen zu werden, müssen sich die Unternehmen
in einem Fragebogen beweisen, den Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke von der
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien entwickelt hat. Die Untersuchung misst
einerseits den Innovationserfolg im Markt. Gleichzeitig bewertet sie
vier Bereiche: innovative Prozesse und Organisation, Innovationsklima,
Innovationsmarketing sowie innovationsförderndes Top-Management.
Für entsprechende Aufmerksamkeit sorgen Spartenpreise. Die Trophäe
"Innovator des Jahres" machen jene Mittelständler unter
sich aus, welche nach dem quantitativen Benchmarking auf einem der ersten
Plätze landen. Ausschlaggebend für den Titel ist das Votum
der hochkarätig besetzten Jury.
Alle TOP 100-Unternehmen
werden in dem von Späth herausgegebenen Buch "TOP 100 - Ausgezeichnete
Innovatoren im deutschen Mittelstand" vorgestellt. Bekanntheit
verschafft überdies eine umfassende Pressearbeit der Organisatoren
sowie das exklusive TOP 100-Event im Januar 2005. Ein individueller
Benchmarking-Report ermöglicht den Teilnehmern, ihre internen Abläufe
zu optimieren. Startberechtigt sind Unternehmen aller Branchen mit bis
zu 5.000 Mitarbeitern. Die Bewerbung ist zunächst kostenlos, lediglich
die ausgewählten TOP 100-Unternehmen bezahlen 4.900 Euro zzgl.
MwSt. für das komplette Leistungspaket. Dieses beinhaltet neben
dem Benchmarking-Report unter anderem die professionelle Pressearbeit,
die Präsentation im Buch, die Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung und
die Aufnahme in das TOP 100-Netzwerk.
Kontakt für
Unternehmen: compamedia GmbH, Hofstatt 7, 88662 Überlingen
Telefon: (0 7551) 94 98 63 0, info@compamedia.de
http:// www.top100.de
[Back
to Contents]
Reading
Mass Customization: New Books
(1) Mass Customization und Kundenintegration: Neue Wege zum innovativen
Produkt, hrsg. von Frank Piller und Christof Stotko, Düsseldorf:
Symposion 2003
Mass
Customization and Customer Integration: Innovative Paths to Innovative
Products, edited by Frank Piller and Christof Stotko
This is "yet another book" on mass customization (in German
language), but it has three characteristic elements: First,
I tried to base the text on my personal experiences of coaching managers
on mass customization and customer integration to make it a "field
book" on the topic. By looking on the myths of the concepts and the
learning from failed pioneers, Christof Stotko, my co-editor, and I wanted
to provide a text that is really on the core of the concept and the elements
that a company needs to make mass customization happen.
Second, we
were driven to explore what is coming next and how mass customization
can be developed further. The result was the connection of mass customization
and open innovation (as described above in this newsletter).
Third, and
this makes this volume really special, the book is the first
fully customizable German book. Readers can create their
very own copy and become their own editor. The book content is
structured in several modules: A main platform, consisting of seven main
chapters written mainly by me and Christof Stotko, provides the core of
the book. In addition, there are more than 30 optional modules written
by experts and acting managers. These modules contain case studies from
different industries, but also in-depth coverage of aspects like product
design for MC, customized pricing, or configuration systems.
"Mass
Customization und Kundenintegration: Neue Wege zum innovativen Produkt",
herausgegeben von Frank Piller und Christof Stotko, Düsseldorf: Symposion
Verlag 2003, ISBN: 3-936608-05-9, Euro 89,00 (mit CD-Rom und Individualisierungsgutschein).
Information und Konfiguration als Individualbuch: http://www.mass-customization.de/ibook.htm
 (2)
Proceedings of the MCPC 2003, edited by F. Piller, R. Reichwald and M.
Tseng, more than 1500+ pages on interactive CD-Rom (plus 300+ pages update
on special web site).
The latest state
of the art of mass customization and personalization research. Read what
more than 200 authors in over 100 contributions have to say about the
design, development, production, marketing, sales, and service of MCP
offerings.
More info:
http://www.mcpc2003.com/proc.htm
(3)
The Customer Centric Enterprise: Advances in Mass Customization and Personalization,
edited by Mitchell M. Tseng and Frank T. Piller
Despite a few exceptions,
literature about mass customization and personalization is dominated by
an argumentation focusing on the benefits of these strategies, but not
delivering concepts and implementation steps how to build a customer centric
enterprise. The book provides insight into these particular aspects. Following
an interdisciplinary approach, leading scientists and practitioners in
the field share their concepts and strategies for building a customer
centric enterprise from the perspective of design, production engineering,
technology and innovation management, customer behavior, as well as marketing.
The
Customer Centric Enterprise: Advances in Mass Customization and Personalization,
edited by Mitchell M. Tseng and Frank T. Piller, New York / Berlin: Springer
2003. (XII, 535 p. 168 illus.), Approx. $ / € 99,95, ISBN 3-540-02492-1.
Available NOW !
More information
and a 30+ page information
leaflet with abstracts of all chapters is available on http://www.mass-customization.de/cce
or http://www.mass-customization.de/cce.pdf.
(4) Mass Customization: Ein wettbewerbsstrategisches Konzept im Informationszeitalter,
3. überarbeite und erweiterte Auflage,
von Frank Piller
Frank Piller's
scientific book on mass customization building the foundation of this
concept from the perspective of production and strategic management. The
capabilities of new information and communication technologies break with
traditional borders and help to overcome, or at least reduce, many contradictions
and limits in management. Based on an analysis of 150 case examples, the
book provides an structural model around the "information cycle of
mass customization" and a process approach on the different phases
of a mass customization concept.
Ausgehend von den Potentialen
der neuen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien und den wichtigsten
strategischen Ansätzen wirtschaftlichen Handelns im Informationszeitalter
analysiert das Buch die Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen von Mass
Customization. Als zentraler Erfolgsfaktor gilt dabei die effiziente und
zielgerichtete Abwicklung der Informationsflüsse zwischen Anbieter
und Nachfrager. Auf Basis von 150 Fallstudien innovativer Pionierunternehmen
werden die Bedingungen diskutiert, wie Mass Customization dauerhaft Wettbewerbsvorteile
schaffen kann.
Frank
T. Piller: Mass Customization: Ein wettbewerbsstrategisches Konzept im
Informationszeitalter, 3. überarbeite und erweiterte Auflage, Gabler
Verlag: Wiesbaden 2003, (XXII, 415 S.), ca. € 64,90.
Nähere
Informationen oder downloaden Sie einen ausführlichen Auszug
(mehr als 50 Seiten) aus dem Buch unter http://www.mass-customization.de/mc-gabler03.pdf.
(5)
Kundenindividuelle Produktion: Mass Customization in der Investitionsgüterindustrie
VDMA 2003, von Patrick Schwarzkopf, Ralph Seelmann-Eggebert, Christof
M. Stotko und Klaus-Dieter Thoben
A brief German
brochure reports on the basics of mass customization for business-to-business
firms (the focus is on machinery).
In der Reihe Entscheidungshilfen des VDMA-Verlags ist der Leitfaden "Kundenindividuelle
Produktion - Mass Customization in der Investitionsgüterindustrie"
erschienen. Die "kundenindividuelle Massenfertigung" ist ein
Ansatz, mit dem Hersteller von Investitionsgütern den klassischen
Zielkonflikt zwischen preiswerten Standardlösungen und teuren "maßgeschneiderten"
Produkten auflösen. Neben der Bereitstellung von Produktionstechnik
für die kundenindividuelle Massenfertigung ("Enabler-Technologien")
geht es darum, kundenspezifische Anforderungen kostengünstiger als
bisher zu erfüllen. Neben einer Einführung in das Thema stellt
der Leitfaden zahlreiche Best-Practice-Beispiele vor. Der Preis beträgt
16 Euro für VDMA-Mitglieder (20 Euro für Nichtmitglieder).
Kundenindividuelle
Produktion: Mass Customization in der Investitionsgüterindustrie,
VDMA Verlag 2003, 48 Seiten, € 20,-, Online-Bestellung beim VDMA:
http://s28846117.einsundeinsshop.de
Mass
Customization News -- A Newsletter on Mass Customization, Personalization
and Customer Integration, edited by Dr. Frank
Piller, Technische Universität München (TUM), Leopoldstrasse
139, 80804 Munich, Germany, Tel. +49 / (0)89 / 289-24800, piller
@ ws.tum.de.
Vol. 7 (2004) (English
version, earlier editions are in German language only).
Printer friendly and easy-to-read version of
this issue in Acrobat PDF File
Subscribe and unsubscribe
at http://www.mass-customization.de,
or write at newsletter@mass-customization.de.
You will find also an backlist of old issues on this web site.
This Newsletter
is published by the TUM Research
Center on Mass Customization and Customer Integration at the TUM
Business School.
Please contact
us to learn about the possibility of speaking assignment, workshops,
studies, and consulting activities.
Share this newsletter
with other interested parties: Forward this newsletter to your friends
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Copyright (c)
2004 by Frank Piller, TUM. All rights reserved.
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