Beyond mass customization: Exploring the features of a new paradigm

Technological and organizational developments are stretching the capabilities of industrial systems, which are now able to address the needs of smaller and more diversified target groups. Mass customization is the expression of such effort to adapt large production systems to customized solutions. At the same time though, substantial transformations in the social and economic conditions of our societies are challenging the basic assumption of the existing production systems. This is creating extreme differentiations in demand patterns and changing the role of customers in the production process. Mass customization may not be sufficient to address such changes. The authors of this chapter propose a new perspective in which customers have an active role in the value creation process via highly individualized and localized solutions. Such a perspective would change the role of industrial companies and the nature of their offering. This paper outlines the characteristics of the new perspective framework and explores some methodological directions for addressing new strategies.