Quality

Quality challenges of Mass Customization

Mass Customization implies rapid response to customer requests, high efficiency and limited cost overheads of customisation. It also implies the quality benefits of the mass production paradigm are guaranteed. However, traditional quality science in manufacturing is premised on volume production of uniform products rather than of differentiated products associated with MC. This creates quality challenges and raises questions over the suitability of standard quality engineering techniques.

Kolarik (1995) defines a new quality paradigm emerging - techno-craft - that is identical to Mass Customization. Techno-craft is seen as the emerging quality paradigm, following on from custom craft, mass production and sorting, statistical quality control, and total quality management.

Kolarik wrote: ‘The techno-craft paradigm is a new frontier in quality that seeks to emulate the custom-craft paradigm in performance but reduce cost and the delivery time .... In the techno-craft paradigm customers get exactly what they want’.

The paper below considers MC from a quality perspective and discusses the suitability of existing quality methods and tools for supporting it, in respect of:

• product development
• order fulfilment
• customer interaction

Brabazon, Philip G. and MacCarthy, Bart L. (2007) Consideration of the relevance of standard quality techniques in Mass Customisation. International Journal of Mass Customisation, 2 (1/2). pp. 76-94.

Garvin, D.A. (1987) "Competing on the eight dimensions of quality", Harvard Business Review, 65 (6) 101-109

Kolarik, J.W. (1995) Creating quality: concepts, systems, strategies and tools. New York: McGraw-Hill