Using the Internet to solicit customer design input in order to support mass customization through modular designs

Abstract

In the course of the last decade there has been a growing movement away from traditional product development and manufacturing associated with mass production to entirely new processes required to support Mass Customization. Mass customization is both a product development and manufacturing process that is being mandated by increasingly heterogeneous customer needs. It requires very flexible designs, and manufacturing and delivery processes that reduce the economic order quantities to a single customer order. It also requires a means to identify the elements of the product that should be customization capable. This thesis seeks to define Mass Customization, its relationship to the automotive industry, and its increasing importance in turbulent markets. It also considers two key enablers required to effectively implement Mass Customization: product modularity and customer preference measurement through the use of innovative Internet applications and tools. A significant focus of this thesis is to investigate the use of Mass Customization methodologies and of Internet based preference measurement methods for product design (e.g. conjoint analysis) to facilitate the timely incorporation of customer preference information further upstream in the PD process. An Internet based Conjoint Study, Kano Models and Trade-off Analysis was designed to determine customer preference for customizing certain attributes and their willingness to trade-off customization against delivery speed. Data illustrating the possible customer responses shows how the conjoint analysis results can be analyzed to aid product development teams in making the necessary design tradeoffs by understanding the customer preferences and associated homo/heterogeneity of the population. In addition a framework for understanding manufacturing complexity was developed. It proposes a way to understand the providing the attribute. A Value/Cost map was created to assist teams in making necessary tradeoffs regarding where to customize and where to standardize from a development and operational perspective. Also, an original approach for identifying the complexity related to product and process design was developed and proposed. Through this framework, development teams can more readily assess the true effect of product options on product combinations and discrete decisions related to complexity. Finally, a Customer vs. Product map was developed to help teams understand and implement the various methods of Mass Customization proposed by both Pine and Andersen. This thesis focuses how to implement Mass Customization by simultaneously incorporating engineering, marketing and management views. Designing for customization using modular product design and managing product development with complete customer preference data, points the way to successful Mass Customization, satisfied customers and profitable operations.