What is mass customization?

Mass customization, or mass personalization, is the production process aimed at satisfying every individual taste of consumers.

In practice, companies offer a large number of customers products and services that can be personalized at affordable costs.

Through e-commerce websites, consumers can customize their purchases, order them online and receive them directly at home in a short time.

Therefore, mass customization is an alternative to differentiate from competitors and presents itself with a flexible and fast marketing strategy. It adapts to the continuous changes of the market and promotes dialogue with customers which allows for a better understanding of their needs to provide solutions to their expectations.

The Advantages of Mass Customization

The key word in mass customization is: satisfying everyone.

Mass customization allows companies to profit from the variety of offerings that the market provides. In fact, it will no longer be the manufacturer who must strive to create a product capable of satisfying the largest number of people in the market niche, but it will be the customer who creates the right product for themselves that meets their needs.

In this way, new customers can be quickly brought on board, offering better service, allowing the retailer to increase its perceived value and the possibilities for word-of-mouth about the brand.

This type of strategy requires the formation of four strategic elements:

• Value innovation;
• Creation of a new market;
• Approaching the service or product in a different way;
• Development of an innovative business model.

Mass customization is a phenomenon related to uniqueness and originality, reflecting the customer's personality.

Thanks to the innovations in mass media, companies can manage consumer information more effectively, allowing them to provide products and services specifically designed to meet the needs of each individual customer.

From production to mass customization

The various market suppliers must manage production processes and synchronize operational activities to reduce inventories while consequently increasing production.

To achieve these objectives, it is important to be able to control quality processes and optimize production.

To optimize the market and demand, it shifts from the production of the product itself to customization based on each individual consumer. 

To achieve the processes of production and customization, it is important:

• to improve the visibility of productive activities;
• to reduce inventory and stocks of raw materials by increasing production;
• to standardize the management of the company's quality.

Thanks to this process of production and customization, the necessary flexibility is ensured to adapt, synchronize, and improve the quality of products within production environments.