Systematic Consideration of Value Chains with Respect to the Timing of Individualization

Abstract Increasing variety of customer requirements and product variants lead to extended complexity in development and manufacturing. Especially the management of development and manufacturing with respect to customer specific and individualized products becomes more and more challenging. However, the issue of customer specific and individualized products is often reduced to the strategy of mass customization. The complexity of this topic requires a holistic approach in order to structure and analyze individualization along the entire value chain. Only if such an understanding is created, the issue of individualization can be addressed adequately to meet the increasing flexibility requirements and growing complexity. For this reason, a systematic classification has to be developed to understand the characteristics of and the options for individualization as well as to enable its applicability. Nevertheless, existing approaches are often incomplete and superficial. Furthermore, many terms in the context of individualization are neither defined nor used consistently. Consequently, the aim of this work is to create an overarching systematization that closes the gaps in existing approaches and provides unambiguous terms. Furthermore, this approach should holistically visualize individualization and illustrate its impact to the core value chains in manufacturing industries.