Determining product platform elements for mass customisation

This paper addresses the issue of how to determine the physical elements of a product which should be included in the product platform, called the product platform elements, for mass customisation. Two types of indices, namely, the similarity index and the sensitivity index, are proposed to determine the product platform elements from the mass and the customisation perspectives, respectively. The physical elements with a large similarity index and a small sensitivity index are selected as the product platform elements. The proposed methodology is demonstrated via a case study. The product platform developed in the proposed methodology should be useful in accommodating various customer tastes while maintaining the cost efficiency of mass production.

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