Customization and Customer-Product Learning

In order to support decision making in companies, who want to implement Mass Customisation (MC) and Product Configuration, a previously published model for customisation is developed. This model identifies customisation in four different levels, ranging from the structure level at the bottom, through the performance level and the experience level to the learning level at the top. This model has a dual view with customers/demand at one side and product/supplier at the other side. It is developed so that it can be generally applied and, typically, product designers must decide how far up in levels the customisation should aim.
This paper sets special focus on the upper levels of customisation, especially the learning level, and it is shown that products with a large range of user-oriented functionalities often require much training to use and that customers on the other hand are sometimes not prepared for such a learning effort. Means for overcoming this inequality must come in focus by the supplier and provided with the product.