Projects at the Mass Customization Research Centre:

Order fulfilment for complex products
This is the latest in a sequence of projects that are studying how fulfilment systems respond to increased levels of customization and product complexity.

Customization Experts
This project aims to identify the skills required of professionals employed in the new generation of customization enterprises. This includes managerial roles for formulating customization strategy and technical specialist roles such as product development, production and customer interaction. Training systems will be developed to address the gaps in competence. This project is funded by the European Union under the Leonardo da Vinci Programme.

Rapid Effective Quotation
This project is aimed at manufacturers offering a high variety of products and operating in complex environments. It targets sectors such as capital equipment, machinery and instrumentation e.g. medical instruments. The aim is to identify opportunities for compressing the time taken to provide customers with quotations.

MC in Manufacturing Enterprises
The Mass Customization in Manufacturing Enterprises was a joint project with Oxford University. The project ran from September 2000 to August 2003.

Analysis of Front-End Processes in High Variety and Customized Manufacturing Environments
This project examined some of the issues facing many companies who manufacture products for business markets. These issues include handling requests for non-standard products with speed and accuracy and supporting a continually evolving product range. An in depth investigation was conducted into the front-end processes used by a business to respond to customers' enquiries. This exploratory study uncovered a range of issues including those associated with an organisational structure that had evolved to provide flexibility for rapid customer response. This project was partly funded by the Nottingham Innovative Research Centre.

Systems and technological implications of Print-on Demand Technologies
Print-on demand (POD) technologies continue to develop. They provide opportunities to redesign supply chains for greater levels of customization and personalization as well as rapid response and low inventories. This project investigated the potential of POD technologies for integration into large scale, multi-item, high variety, print supply chains. This project was partly funded by the Nottingham Innovative Research Centre.