From mass production to mass customization: Impact on integrated supply chains

'Mass Customization' can be considered the 'holy grail' of manufacturing in which products made are perfectly attuned to customers' wants and needs. This paper analyses what should be seen as mass customization by developing the mass production/mass customization continuum. In addition, whether all products can be easily mass customized is debatable; where products consist of combinations of goods and services, organizations may find that one component or dimension of the product is more easily customized The main issue discussed is supply chain change due to mass customization of products. Given that mass customization is significantly different to the mass production paradigm, there should be changes in either the way the supply chain is configured or in the way the supply chain needs to be managed This paper will consider what changes may impact on a supply chain for mass customized products using the generic supply chain framework. The analysis concludes that both supply chains and their management will be different to supply chains aligned to more traditional manufacturing processes.