The MyWear project will be presented at the ICE 2014 conference during a workshop entitled: Embedded sensors, smart and innovative services for personalised products.

Join us for the workshop on Monday 23 June, from 14.00 to 15.30. The full ICE Conference takes place on 23-24-25 June 2014, in Bergamo, an inspiring town in the middle of Lombardy Region, in Northern Italy.

A short description of the workshop scope:
Today consumer goods like clothing, footwear, sportswear have the untapped potential to escape from being traditional products by mean of innovative services like sensing the status of customer well-being, functional materials etc to offer safe and healthy conditions for applications like work and sport. This paper session aims to discuss innovative approaches to make Smart product concepts into reality. For example, how to turn rigid electronic parts into stretchy, smart clothing material. How to interact with services and technology through clothing. Can we go beyond swiping a hand across a coat sleeves to adjust the volume of a connected music player? What are the services to be created upon the data collected through integrated sensor technology, for the public in general but specifically for elderly, obese, diabetics and disabled? To what extent does new generation of green, safe, healthy and smart work wear and sport wear products need to be customised to individual needs?

Full program is in development. We will post it when available.

The results of the KUMAC-Project were presented on the 10th of April 2014 at the “Aachen Innovation Plattform” which was dedicated this year to the theme “The Maker Economy”. More information is available here (KUMAC & AIP) or www.aip-conference.de.

ADDFactor project aims at developing an innovative customised shoe manufacturing framework based on the creation of small-local-agile manufacturing units – mini-factories - enabling the distribution at local (mini-factory@retailer) and district scale (mini-factory@area) of technologically advanced fabrication operations. Customization of the shoe is addressed considering functional, bio-medical and safety-wellness related aspects (prevent injuries restoring optimal motion); so as to guarantee comfortable, performing, safe and healthy products for different applications (e.g. orthopedic, sport and leisure, fashion) and different consumers.

Such a framework will include the development and exploitation of new digital tools, industrial technologies for customer data acquisition and elaboration as well as for customised footwear products/components manufacturing to provide instant realization and personalisation services locally (i.e. in retail environments or close to retails such as an utilization site at district level).

At the MCPC-Conference 2014 in Aalborg, we presented results from a study in the context of the KUMAC project. Findings reveal that a more clear structure of the service encounter of a mass customization company helps to increase service productivity. Please see all results of the study in the conference proceedings.
More information is available on the website of MCPC.
Flyer zur International Conference on Mass Customization, Personalization and Co-Creation

Chair: Prof. Luca Canetta
Co-chair: Rosanna Fornasiero

Short description: Today consumer goods like clothing, footwear, sportwear have the untapped potential to escape from being traditional products by mean of innovative services like sensing the status of customer well-being, functional materiasl etc to offer safe and healthy conditions for applications like work and sport . This paper session aims to discuss innovative approaches to make Smart product concepts into reality. For example, how to turn rigid electronic parts into stretchy, smart clothing material. How to interact with services and technology through clothing. Can we go beyond swiping a hand across a coat sleeves to adjust the volume of a connected music player? What are the services to be created upon the data collected through integrated sensor technology, for the public in general but specifically for elderly, obese, diabetics and disabled? To what extent does new generation of green, safe, healthy and smart work wear and sport wear products need to be customised to individual needs?

The session specifically welcomed contributions on:
• Wearable sensors and technologies
• People-driven social innovation
• Innovative methods and tools for product/service design/engineering
• Sustainable and eco-friendly smart products and services
• Human-centered design and manufacturing technologies
• Business models and new supply chains for consumer goods products
• Technology and Business Transformation
• Sustainable mass customisation strategies

The workshop is supported and leaded by members of the IMS MTP Initiative YourGoods. The IMS-MTP initiative YourGoods has been created to foster the collaboration among various FP7 projects (CoReNet, Fashion-able, MyWear and Prosumer.net) and partners from Europe, Mexico, USA, Switzerland and Korea. The aim of the MTP YourGoods is to extend the scope of each single project sharing common research themes around Consumer Goods industry applications.

Submissions for this workshop, please send before 10 February an extended abstract to Prof. Luca Canetta or myself.

Now KUMAC also received considerable recognition in Australia. At the International Conference for Innovation Research “6th ISPIM Innovation Symposium” project manager Claudia Theilmann from the Fraunhofer IFF Magdeburg was honored for her excellent presentation of KUMAC results with the prestigious “OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD”. At the congress, which was held from 8th to 11th of December 2013 in Melbourne (Australia), Mrs Theilmann could convince 250 experts from over 25 countries, with her presentation.

For further information visit also http://pt-ad.pt-dlr.de/de/1407.php and http://symposium.ispim.org/index.php.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Customized T-Shirts are nothing new to the mass customization enthusiast, indeed, there are more than 100 online vendors in this category. But at the same time, t-shirts are one of the most well-known individualized products and certainly one of those that will always have their fans and buyers. Customized shirts are usually affordable and useful in a variety of situations.

One competitior on this crowded market is Choice Shirts. Their slogan “wear what you think” is pretty much program for them as they give you the tools to create a shirt with more or less any motive you could want to wear.

A simple yet solid configurator lets you chose from either a large variety of cliparts, a custom text or your own uploaded image - or a combination thereof. Whatever print you choose will be applied on the shirt you selct from different models of shirts and shipped to your doorstep. Alternatively, if your creativity does not serve you just today, the company also has a huge variety of pre-configured shirts for many different themes.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

The MyWear project on customised green, safe and healthy consumer products has achieved an important intermediate deadline; it has designed and implemented the Data Integration Platform (DIP). Download the MyWear_IntegrationPlatform flyer to have a brief overview.

The DIP offers the following functionalities:

• Collect data from the scanning
• Monitor systems
• Store the data according to the human body data model and represent it in terms of: a) formats required by adaptive production systems and processes, and b) functionalities for customer-centric sensors-enabled value-adding services

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In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Images are conserved memories and hence best shared with those who shared the documented moments, too. And while just uploading your pictures to facebook would probably do, why not take it one step further and surprise your friends and loved ones with some personalized books, cards, decorations and other kinds of gifts, individualized with the best photos from your celebrations (or last holiday).

The German company photobox offers a wide range of individualizable products, from classical photo books, cups, puzzles and stickers to cellphone and tablet covers, calendars, magnets, the unavoidable mousepad, and a lot of others. This is one of the most crowded and largest categories in BtoC mass customization on the web in general.

Their website and configurator appears pretty modern and seems to work fine so if you are looking for something to thank your holiday party host for a wonderful evening, this might be for you.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Personalized fashion is a great way to express yourself. It’s also very well suited to add a touch of “I really though about it” to any gift you give. And especially for children it’s a good opportunity to break out of the usual spiderman-look.

Amongst others, German online-customizer Beaniebee has exactly that approach covered for you. Offering fairly easy personalization of everything from t-shirts for kids and adults, ties, sweathsirts, bags, even teddy bears.

Their easy to use configurator lets you place both custom text and images on your product of choice, however - and this is where I find the process to be lacking - the amount of images that they offer is relatively limited. There are some theme groups like animals, seasons and so on but each one has a fairly small number of actual images, and the ones availible are often not too creative.

Of course, you can upload your own photo to place on your child’s new t-shirt. But from a technical point of view, their configuration space could have contained a little more diversity.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Here is another mass customization venture targeting the younger ones amongst us. The Candy producer Jelly Belly Candy Company does not only offer their little sweets in stores anymore but also provides owners of a sweet tooth with an online configurator to get a mix of their favorite Bellys in a personalized gift box. (Mars’ M&Ms had the same idea many years ago, but now even allow people to customize the candy itself).

While the box can be designed using a number of templates and individualized by addition of personal images and text, it is unfortunate that the company does only offer three choices of candy-mix: Customers have to choose between a 20-flavor-mix or an entire package filled with either one or two of their favorite flavors. I could see people wanting to mix more than two sorts of candy to get their ideal taste, while not really needing as many as 20.

For me, this is another example of a large brand going into mass customization with a rather simple conceptthat will not provide much harm or complexity, but also will not really capture the full potential of customization. Still, our expert evaluators in the MC500 study liked the site: easy, little complexity, anda fund product full of childhood memories.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

About every little girl (and quite some little boys) dream about one day being on the cover of a major magazine, be it as the new Hollywood star or rock legend. Unfortunately for most of them it will remain a dream as there can only be so many superstars.

For those who still would like to have a magazine cover in a frame on their wall, featuring their very own face next to some impressive headlines, yourcover will have you, for sure, covered.

By means of a simple configuration process you can pick one of many professionally looking templates, grouped by occasions, and then customize it to your needs in terms of personal images and text. At the end of the process you can decide to either download the cover or have it printed and shipped to you.

While this may not be a life saving mission critical service to offer, I think it’s a fun idea and a good example of how personalized media could look in the future. Even if you might not be on the cover of every issue.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

Good news from our collegues at Aalborg University. Preparations for the MCPC 2014 Conference are going along and now you can start submitting your paper to the organizers, using the official submission system via Springer.

So, if you have some interesting research to contribute that fits into the conference’s call for papers, please feel free to follow this link and become part of the next MCPC event. Deadline for full paper submissions is September 15th 2013.

Best of luck and looking forward to meet you in Aalborg!

Please remember the submission deadline for the special session proposal at September 1st, 2013. Also MCPC 2014 is now available via different social media channels. Have a look at the following groups and join your favorite one:

• LinkedIn - group name MCPC 2014
• Facebook - group name MCPC 2014
• Google+ - group name MCPC 2014
• Twitter - hashtag #mcpc2014

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Today: A picture says more than a thousand words…

That old saying is actually quite true and despite smartphones and internet, many people still have the framed image of their beloved ones on their desk, or their children’s picture in their wallet.

If you tend to find that boring, or if you are looking for a nice present to give to someone you care about, Personello might have you covered. Their portfolio consists of a large variety of products, from mugs over chocolate wrap and snow globes to note paper and even beer bottles. All of these can be customized by printing an uploaded picture of your chosing onto them.

The application of this is certainly not limited to family gifts: Imagine celebrating your next big match victory at the soccer club with beer bottles featuring a shot of the deciding goal! They do also offer your image etched into glas plates, replacing the good old framed window with something a bit more modern. And if you tend to have long working hours like myself, maybe the illuminated pedestal is something worth looking into for you.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Today: Custom monsters, fairy-teeth, splatopuses, moggins - you name it, they have it

Stuffed plush toys are a good application for mass customization. They are meant to be our children’s best friends and hence should not just come off the rack. Companies like Build-a-Bear have pioneered this field and now you can order fluffy friends that go beyond bears in shape and form.

CurlyQ Cuties, despite their slightly user-unfriendly company name (try telling somebody about their url…), is sporting a nice portfolio of plush toys you do not see every day. Custom monsters of all kinds, fairy-teeth for those unlucky enough to be at the age of losing their (first) teeth or what they call splatopus: Their product line is certainly a bit special, yet the little creatures look (mostly) friendly and are probably quite lovable for the younger ones.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

Our fellow mass customization researcher Deepita Shah is conducting a study on the experience of customizing clothes online. For this study Deepita is asking for your help: - See more at: http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/87409CKQVG

Please support Deepita’s research! Participation takes only about 5 minutes of your time!

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Today: The right plates to complement your customized food

There have been already some posts about food in the past. From mymuesli to chocri, personalized food is one of the large trends in mass customization. However, if you choose to individualize what you eat, you should be as picky about what you eat it from.

Alphabetplates offers exactly that, at least for the younger (or young at heart!) amongst us. Utilizing their simple yet efficient configurator your can personalize a number of really nice plates, placemats, lunchboxes and waterbottles. Depending on the chosen base model you can add your (child’s) name, an individually configurable face (you should try that one out!) and more details. Conclusion: a nice product line to spark the interest of the next generation of customization researchers.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Today’s company offers a good that could be described as the maximum in individualization: Art and jewelry, produced not so much by your personal choice but your unique genetic fingerprint, your DNA.

Myprivatecode offers a simple process to get you your piece of unique art/jewelry: Upon selecting the basic product you want to be individualized with your DNA imprint ( just like in a traditional configurator) you receive a simple to use kit which enables you to take a sample of your DNA. That is a quick, painless and harmless process.b After sending the sample back to the company they extract your DNA and refine your chosen product with different forms of displaying your individual code of life.

Even though one should never say never, I wonder how much more personal a product/gift could become.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

A watch can be a fairly important piece of jewlery, especially for a man who, in opposite to his female counterpart, can often not wear too many other decorative objects. An individual watch is hence a really nice addition to your individual style and sets your wrist appart from the standard (and is a great converstation starter at a party). This little bit of individualism can easily cost you upwards of a four-digit number of USD or Euro and is usually reserved for a select few.

However, if you do not mind your watch to lack the logo of a high-class premium brand, fewsome might be worth a look for you. On their website, a nice and even animated configurator lets you build your custom wristwatch by picking all the important parts like movement, case, ring, dials, hands and so on. Choice is plentiful and lets you pick both different designs and colors. The result is a pretty unique watch that you can even have engraved on its back cover.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

The MCPC 2014 is a multi-track conference featuring a combination of high profile keynotes with expert talks, panel discussions, paper sessions, workshops, receptions, and much more. While it is devoted to sharing and discussing the latest research in the field, the MCPC has a strong focus on real life applications. Since its beginning, there is an equal share of participants, practitioners and academics/researchers. This makes the MCPC truly unique among many conferences. It really strives to connect MCPC thought leaders, entrepreneurs, technology developers, and researchers with people applying these strategies in practice.

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In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Recently I posted about PC costomizer Dell as part of our MC500 Study. Today we are taking a look at one of Dell’s competitors in the segment of individualized computers, Mysn.de/Schenker Notebooks.

While I sometimes argue in my classes that customization is not longer a value proposition in the computer market, these comapnies show that the classic application of mass customization still has its market.

Like Dell, Mysn.de are offering variety of base laptops which you can then customize to your exact media-/ business-/ gaming-/ etc- needs. While their configurator is not exactly a graphical firework, it gets the job done well and lets your virtually assmeble the machine of your dreams (or your budget). I believe that exactly for these hardcore applications customization still has functional value.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Do you like to spend your time outdoors? Go hiking in the mountains, explore nature by boat or even climb on icy glaciers? In any case, if you are doing any kind of adventurous activity that involves sleeping under the stars (maybe with a thin tent between you and the actual stars) then you will probably need a sleeping bag.

Especially in snowy regions of the world your life (or good sleep, at least) might depend on having a sleeping bag that fits your exact needs. And while some manufacturers already offer some customization options, PHD Mountain Software takes things a step further by letting you configure about every aspect of the bag that I can imagine. So if I just sparked your interest in a holiday trip to the top of the Mont Blanc, maybe PHD has the right equipment for you.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Here in Germany, sunny days are sparse. They only occure on workdays and the sun usually hides behind thick rainy clouds the moment you leave the office. To keep your home free of dirt, doormats are the tool of choice. However, as the saying goes, “there is no second chance for the first impresson”. With this in mind - and especially if you get a lot of people to visit you frequently - you might want to fine-tune the first impression of your home by designing your very own custom doormat.

German MC-Company Mymat.de has you covered in this regard, with a wide variety of either pre-designed or personalized mats. Their simple yet efficient configurator lets you pick from a number of templated which you can then customize with your desired size, color, symbols and text and have it shipped to your doorstep - right where it belongs. So if you are considering moving to Germany or do have bad weather of your own, check out their website at www.mymat.de.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Today: Dress Yourself with the Latest Fashion, Decide What is “in Fashion” Yourself

Proper Cloth, founded in Delaware in 2008, offers a pretty complete customization experience when it comes to dress shirts, a fashion article which, as many of you will agree, tends to just not fit perfectly at some point or another. Proper Cloth’s promise is exactly that: a perfectly fitting shirt, tailored to your needs, based on a well-made configurator which offers assistance in finding out your individual measures in various ways. Additionally, Proper Cloth offer a variety of preconfigured shirt as well.

So, whether you need a new shirt to wear with your favorite suit or a stylish untucked one for leasure, a visit at www.propercloth.com might be worth it for you.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember: The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

Summer has finally arrived in Germany (somewhat) and as every year this means people are enthusiastic to spend some recreational time outdoors.

Riding a bicycle is fairly popular here as in a lot of other countries (in the Netherlands, roughly one third of all trips are made by bike… biking in the Netherlands even has its own wikipedia entry…) and so many two-wheeled vehicles in different states of maintenance are being dusted off these days.

However, as with all means of transportation, every now and then it’s time to replace your trusted-yet-old bike with something more modern (and fancy).

If this year’s summer happens to be the beginning of your old bike’s retirement, Mission Bicycle might be worth looking into for you. The California based company offers a simple-yet-convenient configurator which allows you to design the bike of your dreams from a large variety of availible parts. From the very basic frame to different handles, chains and even locks, most parts can be individualized in model and color. You can pick up your bike in their physical store in San Francisco, CA, or simply have it shipped to your doorstep in a multitude of countrys around the world. Including the Netherlands.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

MyWear Newsletter May2013

CeBIT is the world’s largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments. The key target groups are users from industry, the wholesale/retail sector, skilled trades, banks, the services sector, government agencies, science and all users passionate about technology. CeBIT offers an international platform for comparing notes on current industry trends, networking, and product presentations. More than 4,000 companies from 70 countries took part in CeBIT 2013, including numerous start-ups.

ROPARDO S.R.L. attended like exhibitor at CeBIT 2013 within Romanian Stand and presented the commercial services but also the research capabilities and services. Like an active partner in research projects, ROPARDO took full advantage about EEN-future match (international cooperative market by CeBIT lab and Enterprise Europe Network-EEN) in order to spread and disseminate the information about results from running projects.