Design and change management for mass customization

As mechanics, electrics, electronics and software follow a synthesis trend to mechatronics, customer specific variation can increasingly be offered at competitive prices. This competition strategy known as "Mass Customization" is implemented using a methodology of designing a construction kit for customer specific solutions. A modular product architecture forms the logical backbone of this construction kit. Deduced variants and applications are individualized by selection of standardized, discretely and continuously varying components and cross-disciplinary variation mechanisms. The design methodology is characterized by a systematic, structured procedure based on classic German design theories and takes the specific requirements of mechatronic systems into account. In order to open up potentials of customer specific construction kits, a change process in values and behaviour must take place within each key discipline of company. Following the iceberg model of organizational learning, fields of action within change process as well as success factors of change management are pointed out.