This book is about a practical approach to the Mass Customization of complex products and services, namely "Configure-to-Order", the definition of modular product packages and their configuration on demand, to fit customer-specific needs. "Configure-to-Order" concepts apply equally well to configuring complex products, services and software and are relevant in industries ranging across manufacturing, public services and financial services. The objective is to provide the reader with a manageable approach to modularization and Mass Customization, the benefits of this approach and the shift necessary to get there.

Klappentext

A starter to the concepts of modularization and mass customization.

Condensed and application-oriented approach for a broad audience in engineering, production, sales and marketing.

Provides an extensive configurator evaluation checklist for future users and a supplement of business cases.

Zusammenfassung
The Time for Mass Customization Has Arrived Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison There's an allegory that many inventors have used to define their moment of inspiration when diligence, a strong work ethic and imagination met at the intersection of unmet needs and a paradigm shift in technology happened. Thomas Edison once said that opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. That's the case with mass customization, make-to-order, configure-to-order and engineer-to-order product strategies globally, across manufacturers and service organizations today. In the work of mass customization are significant rewards to customer responsiveness, service, and financial performance of any organization. Aiming at the goal of driving lean manufacturing, companies are finding that the strategies that looked like the hardest work, dressed in overalls as Edison would say, are delivering the biggest impact on the financial statements of the companies that boldly take on serving customers in entirely new ways. Driving costs of organizations through more accuracy in orders, assuring that highly configured products are actually what a customer has ordered, and making the many product attributes in complex products accessible for the creation of entirely new production workflows and products, is real and is delivering costs savings while driving up margins.

Inhalt
Introduction, with Focus on the Customer.- Mass Customization, Components and Customer Intimacy.- Selling Customized While Producing Industrialized.- Mass Customization of Services.- Mass Customization of Software Products.- Streamlining the Product and the Processes.- The Importance of Data, and the Ability to Capitalize on It.- Trends in the Order Process for Complex Products and Services.- Concluding Remarks.- Afterword: the Virtual Future .