Session:

Product Configuration and Product Design (2)
Sunday, February 29, 2004, 18.05 – 18.30

Session Chair:

Robert Winter

Paper Title:

Logistic Process Model for Mass Customization in the Shoe Industry

Author(s):

M. Schenk, Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operations and Automation, Magdeburg, Germany
R. Seelmann-Eggebert, Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operations and Automation Magdeburg, Germany

Abstract:

Introduced by Joseph Pine in 1993, the marketing strategy of Mass Customization has become indispensable for the strategic development of many enterprises. The basic idea of Mass Customization along with all its different facets excites marketing and retail workers as well as marketing directors and CEOs. Nevertheless, Mass Customization is still not a worldwide standard. The reason for this can be seen in the complexity of implementing Mass Customization in existing mass or serial production. Pioneering examples often focus on newly founded enterprises or exclusively on production lines already set up. Precisely because every product, every form of production and every logistics system have evolved individually, no standard solution is or can be offered for implementation in an existing production or joint production line. Thus, questions remain such as which product, which possible features and how many of them should or could be individualized. In addition, time is becoming an even more crucial factor than it was before. Logistic systems have to be redesigned in order to meet new challenges. Long transport times have to be reduced in and between production lines. A lot size of 1 in a machine does not imply a lot size of 1 in transport. Both information and goods have to be controlled and managed in order for them to be at the right place at the right time. Therefore, logistics plays an extremely important role in Mass Customization.