Mass customization

Mass customization produces goods tailored to individual customer preferences while retaining the efficiency and scale of mass production.

Modular design: A design approach that builds products from interchangeable, standardized components. Standardized modules let manufacturers assemble many customer-specific combinations without redesigning each product.
Mass production: The large-scale manufacture of standardized goods, typically using specialized equipment and repeatable processes. Mass customization retains its scale-oriented production logic while adding customer-specific variation.
Nike By You: Nike's service for customizing selected footwear and apparel through a range of design options. It lets customers choose product details while Nike uses an established manufacturing and sales system.
Craft production: The manufacture of goods by skilled workers using adaptable tools and methods, often in small quantities. It achieves individual variation through labor-intensive work rather than mass-production systems.
Postponement (supply chain): A strategy that delays product differentiation until closer to the time or place of customer demand. Late differentiation reduces the risk of holding large inventories of finished variants.
Product configuration: The selection and arrangement of product features to meet specified requirements. Configuration translates a customer's choices into a defined product that can be made.
Economies of scale: Cost advantages that arise when production volume increases and fixed costs are spread across more units. High volume can offset the added costs of offering customized products.
Dell: A technology company known for selling computers assembled to customer-selected specifications. Its direct sales model became a prominent example of build-to-order personalization at scale.
Lean manufacturing: A production approach focused on reducing waste while delivering value to customers. Lean methods can support customized flow, though their central aim is waste reduction.
Customer experience: A customer's perceptions and responses across interactions with a company and its offerings. Choice and participation can improve perceived fit while adding effort to the buying process.

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