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Extending the Theoretical Framework of Mass Customization: Initial and Adaptive Solution Space Development for High-Variety Production Environments

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Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Mass Customization, Personalization, and Co-Creation (MCPC 2014), Aalborg, Denmark, February 4th - 7th, 2014

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Production Engineering ((LNPE))

Abstract

In today’s markets, customer needs are becoming increasingly heterogeneous. In response to the diverse customer needs, companies are oftentimes forced to offer a broad product variety in order to meet the individual demands of their customers. Being confronted with such a business environment, manufacturers need to establish new business models that are capable of dealing with high levels of heterogeneity, such as mass customization. However, as offering limitless choice is economically unfeasible, manufacturers have to develop a suitable solution space by clearly defining which product variants will be offered and which options will be explicitly excluded from the firm’s offering. In this context, this paper introduces the distinction between initial and adaptive solution space development (before and after market launch) and discusses the interrelation between these two modes of defining a product offering for high-variety production environments.

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Acknowledgments

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant agreement No. NMP2-SL-2009-229333. For detailed information about the research project or access to the project deliverables, please visit http://www.remplanet.eu.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technology and Innovation Management Group, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

    Frank Steiner

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  1. Frank Steiner
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Correspondence to Frank Steiner .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Thomas D. Brunoe

  2. Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Kjeld Nielsen

  3. Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Kaj A. Joergensen

  4. Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Stig B. Taps

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Steiner, F. (2014). Extending the Theoretical Framework of Mass Customization: Initial and Adaptive Solution Space Development for High-Variety Production Environments. In: Brunoe, T., Nielsen, K., Joergensen, K., Taps, S. (eds) Proceedings of the 7th World Conference on Mass Customization, Personalization, and Co-Creation (MCPC 2014), Aalborg, Denmark, February 4th - 7th, 2014. Lecture Notes in Production Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04271-8_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04271-8_18

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