mass customization

Mass Customization

A strategy in which a company attempts to market a product to a customer's individual wants and needs while still producing the products at high level. That is, mass customization combines features of custom service, where a company makes a product upon demand from the customer, and mass production, where a company makes a large number of products exactly the same and sells them to a large number of customers. A company engaging in mass customization may offer a basic package for a product and then allow a customer to add or subtract different features at his/her discretion.

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mass customization

the use of technology and sophisticated computing facilities to individualize mass produced (and therefore identical) products. For example, the manufacture of a pair of jeans specifically designed for an individual can be carried out using a mass production facility. The technique requires accurate measurements that are transmitted by Electronic Data Interchange to the manufacturing point. Cloth is cut by automatic cutting machinery, each piece is identifed by a bar code and the whole is then stitched together and forwarded to the customer. See MASS PRODUCTION.

Collins Dictionary of Business, 3rd ed. © 2002, 2005 C Pass, B Lowes, A Pendleton, L Chadwick, D O’Reilly and M Afferson