Product Development and Customization

Mass customization research examines how firms can deliver products tailored to individual customer needs without sacrificing the cost efficiency of large-scale production, a tension that sits at the heart of modern manufacturing strategy. Central to this work is the idea that breaking a product into well-defined, interchangeable modules—analyzed through tools like the Design Structure Matrix—allows companies to manage enormous product variety while controlling how engineering changes ripple through a design. Supply chain timing strategies such as postponement, which defer product differentiation to the latest feasible point, have become critical levers for making this economically viable. Open questions persist around how deeply customers should be integrated into the design process, how to quantify the true economic value of customization, and how platform-based architectures can scale across increasingly complex, software-driven products.

Works

34,929

Total citations

366,038

Keywords

Mass CustomizationProduct ModularityDesign Structure MatrixComplex Product DevelopmentSupply Chain ManagementPlatform-Based Product Development