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英国剑桥大学留学生硕士论文定制The International Journal of Flexible Manufacturing Systems,  Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. Manufactured in The Netherlands.
Mass Customization: Reflections on the State of the Concept
FRANK T. PILLER piller@mass-customization.de
TUM Business School, Technische Universit¨at M¨unchen, Germany, and Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Uk
Abstract. The opportunities of mass customization are acknowledged as fundamentally positive by theoreticaland empirical studies for many years. Many companies are already operating on this new business model successfully.
But most of them are rather small start-ups which utilize the novelty effect of mass customization to entermature markets. Large scale mass customization operations are still limited to a few examples. The objective ofthis paper is to analyze the recent state of mass customization practice by answering four basic questions whichare frequently raised by managers and scholars when talking about the challenges of this approach: Do customersneed customized products? If yes, what prevents them from purchasing these offerings? Do we have the enablingtechnologies for mass customization? And why do many firms fail during and after the introduction of masscustomization? To answer these questions, this paper develops twelve propositions. These refer to terminologicalproblems, a shortage of reliable information about the real demand for customized products in various markets, thestate of implementation of configuration technologies, lack of management knowledge about organizational andstrategic capabilities of mass customization operations, and the demand for sincere change management activities.These issues may explain why the present state of practical implementation of mass customization lacks behindthe description and discussion of the phenomenon in the management literature.

Key Words: mass customization, personalization, customer co-design, configuration, review

1. Why is mass customization not there yet?
The editor of this special issue invited me to provide an introduction to mass customization.
I will build this introduction around a single question: Why is mass customization not thereyet? During the last ten years of my academic career, I have spent a fair amount of timeon research about mass customization.1 During this time, I had a chance to visit numerouscompanies performing mass customization. Many more examples are documented in thebusiness press.We also discussed the concept intensively at various conferences and workshopswith managers and scholars alike. My personal library of mass customization books,journals and articles is steadily growing. However, I still believe that mass customization isnot there yet, that it is not practiced to an extent that justifies all the talk and buzz aroundthis term. If you are an academic, just try this simple exercise in your next class: Ask howmany of your students have heard aboutmass customization, how many can name a masscustomization company, and how many have ever purchased a mass https://www.51lunwen.org/ygshlw/customized product.
On an average, I get numbers of twenty, ten, and two percent, respectively. If we wouldrepeat this survey with a representative sample of consumers in US or Europe, I believe thatthese numbers would be even lower (an indication as provided by Evans, 2005).
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