Differentiation and Customer Decoupling Points: Key Value Enablers for Mass Customization

Mass customization draws a twofold benefit: cost reduction, inherited from mass production techniques, and good response to customers’ requirements, inherited from customization. Two main decisions, relevant to design and manufacturing, are required for proper implementation of mass customization. Firstly, product features should be split between standard and customizable ones. This will position the differentiation points. Secondly, processes should be split between Make-to-Stock and Make-to-order. This will position the customer-order decoupling point. The impact of these 2 criteria on enterprise and customer value will be evaluated through the creation of a generic causal diagram. Following, a real case study on ALPINA industries is simulated and analyzed. The computational results highlight the joint impact of the two decisions on the overall performance. Hence, the results advocate that these two levers should then be considered, simultaneously, when implementing mass customization.