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!

Technology is something great. But at times, after a long day’s challenging work, tied to computers, emails, cell phones etc. you might want to disconnect for a while. Sit back in your favorite chair and relax with a good book of your choosing. Not just any book, though. Your book. Your very own personal novel (or thriller, children’s book….) in which you are the main character, a book personalized to read as if it had been written just for you.

PersonalNovel has been a pioneering company to turn this dream into physical reality, coming to you in the form of a nicely printed book, customized through an online editor to match the main character to your persona - or anybody else you would like to read about.

Most impressing is PersonalNovels dedication to get also small details correct, and their innovative business model turning a simple product into a new value preposition.

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

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The WP6 value-adding services has started with T6.1, to translate main Consumer Requirements into well-defined Service Requirements.

Starting from the collection of outcomes of other tasks e.g. results achieved in WP1 and identified validation scenarios described in D1.3., T6.1 performed an integrated in-depth analysis and evaluation of target group requirements according to the context of use, data to be monitored, identified sensor, and considering the scenarios defined.

Figure 1 shows the overall idea and concept for value added services. It shows the how user-data collected by a master unit, and is forwarded to the Data Integration Platform (DIP), where the data is safely stored in central databases and made reusable for external applications.

Of the 9 integrated solutions defined in the validation scenarios (WP1), only 4 are possible to develop, which have been evaluated and prioritised. Based on these, the following test cases were analysed:

• Heart rate: Heart rate monitoring for elderly sportsmen
• Fall detection for elderly sportsmen
• Respiratory rate monitoring for elderly workers
• Blood oxygenation monitoring for diabetic workers
• Plantar pressure monitoring for obese workers

The foreseen system architecture (Figure 1) uses a smart-phone as master unit. All selected services will use this master unit both to transmit/receive data to DIP and to directly offer services to the user through new developed applications.

Our fellow mass customization researcher Golboo Pourabdollahian is conducting a study on MC and sustainability. For this study Golboo is asking for your help:

“Dear colleagues,

May I ask for your kind support for my PhD research?

My research focuses on the fact that how we can make mass customization more sustainable in footwear industry. In this regard I am collecting data to map possible impacts of different Mass Customization enablers on environmental sustainability at the example of the footwear industry.

Therefore I kindly ask you to evaluate a number of relationships between MC enablers and outcomes by responding to a brief survey. You can reach the survey easily by clicking on the following link: goo.gl/so8yY

The survey will take about 10-12 minutes of your time.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]

Thanks a lot for your support!”

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!

“The computer is personal again”. Right, this marketing slogan was not Dell’s but rather part of HP’s great campaign in 2006. Yet, it would also have been very fitting for the former, one of the pioneers in online PC mass customization. The dell concept to offer computers, individually assembled to the customer’s choices and needs, all through a (mostly) convenient online backend and delivered within a few days (plus good aftersales service) was mind-boggling innovative at its time. The PC did no longer have to be one that vendors pre-assembled en mass, one that was ok in general but always had one or two components that just did not work for you. Now it could be your PC, a truly Personal Computer.

Over 25 years after Dell’s debut on the technology market, the MC500 took a look on how their mass customization concept had evolved over time and where it stands today, compared to a number of competititors incomparable to those of decades ago. More about Dell’s history at their homepage.

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

MyWear Newsletter April2013

The iTechtStyle Forum focused in stimulating networking among players from the technical and fashion textiles and clothing and also between those and other players belonging to complementary application sectors, always following a spirit of bringing together ideas, potential investors and stakeholders.

The iTechtStyle Forum put all efforts in order to “Make it happen” by helping new business ideas, new projects and new concepts to find its way to market. The ultimate objective was to contribute to the shaping of a brand new textile & clothing industry generation, powered by innovative and high added value products and services. Read the rest of this entry →

In February, we posted the open letter of our colleague Frank Piller with the sad fact that his group could not organize and host this year’s MCPC conference due to capacity constraints. Many of you have inquired about alternative ways to keep the MCPC alive. Today we are glad to announce that the Mass Customization Research Group at Aalborg University has commited to host the conference in 2014.

Please find some extracts from their announcement letter below, including a call to feedback for everybody interested in actively participating in the shaping of this conference.

Read the rest of this entry →

From 8th to 12th of April 2013, famous trade show HannoverMesse will take place in Hannover, Germany. Are you going to be there? Great! The KUMAC project will be there as well.

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will have a large exhibition stand in a prominent spot (hall 2, stand C24) and has invited the KUMAC project group to join them. We will present the latest findings from our research project KUMAC which is being funded by the BMBF.

The objective of the KUMAC project is to develop new methods for mass customization providers in the German retail market. These methods support an increase in productivity and value creation potential of these retailers.

At HannoverMesse we will simulate the prototype of an interactive value-creation process in mass customization, using KUMAC technology to demonstrate its potential to increase both effectiveness and efficiency. In detail we will show and expain:

• The Live-Help-System connecting online-offline configuration,
• The Tablet Configuation Software,
• 3D-Scanner and Softwaretools as well as
• RFID-Technology for mass customization.

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!

Feet are by far not as standardized as the shoe industry would like them to be. Neither is the individual customer’s taste in shape, color and details. Until a decade ago the only way to obtain shoes that do both fit perfectly and look exactly as one wants them to, was to take a rather pricy trip to the cobbler. Selve went new ways with their offer to tailor shoes, custom built to the client’s demands in individual size and look, shipped to your doorstep after a convenient visit at www.selve.net. (even if most customers prefer to visit their store in Munich or London for a personal consultation and foot scan).

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

For the last several years, APMS has been a major event and the official conference of the IFIP Working Group 5.7 on Advances in Production Management Systems, bringing together leading experts from academia, research and industry.

This year’s conference will offer a special session on Customization in service oriented manufacturing.

In a global and competitive context manufacturing, especially in developed economies, is submitted to great market pressures in order to stay competitive with manufacturing in developing economies, such as China and Brazil. To find a way out, they try to create more advanced products and services which are innovative and better fitting to customer needs. Adding services on products to support and differentiate their offering, it brings new challenges and opportunities for manufacturing. This session is Read the rest of this entry →

The image shown right was contributed by Henrik Søgaard (Ohmatex) to illustrate the activities of WP3: Textile Intrinsic communication layer of which Henrik Søgaard is WP-leader. The image depicts the half of a safety shoe (contributed by Base Protection) to which the stethoscope was added to illustrate one of the project goals of MY-WEAR; collecting real time data from the user and make this available to the physician, caretakers, family members and/or to the user himself.

The objective of WP3 is to design and develop an “intrinsic communications layer” using textile – based circuitry and designed connection points which can be manufactured as standard in work-wear, sports garments and shoes and which facilitates the connection of a wide range of sensors/systems for individual customer specific monitoring solutions.

Currently, development is on-going, specifically on the sensors, and on integration solutions. During a WP meeting end of February, initial sketches and ideas were presented, of which a few are presented below.

We are looking forward to seeing more of the activities and of the solutions explored.

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!

Founded in Massachusetts in 1908 and today a subsidiary of global producer of sport goods Nike, Converse allows consumers to create footwear with an absolutely distinctive style. Originally designed as basketball shoes (and still to day worn by some NBA superstars in their games), the converse sneaker was one of the early products in this category that can be customized by every consumer.

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

When dealing with research at any level, one of the main risks and challenges to be dealt with is to fit each little step ahead in a broader walk toward success and innovation.News is coming from Valencia where, last 27th and 28th February, the YourGoods event has been held at the Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia with the participation amongst the others of the MyWear project.

The YourGoods initiative is aimed at sharing the knowledge and experiences gained through different FP7 projects thus extending the scope of each single one on topics like:

• closing the gap between customer requirements and design and configuration of innovative products and services to ensure well-being as well as fashionable goods;
• identification of materials, components as well as industrial technologies to fulfil customers requirements in new flexible and adaptable production systems;
• setting up sustainable supply networks based on distributed and collaborative environments to ensure coordination of actors with different capabilities and competences.

This last event in Valencia, organized by IBV and ITIA-CNR, was a great opportunity for many good reasons. On the one hand, during the first day internal workshop, partners in the IMS-MTP Initiative benefited from networking their projects and finding complementarity research activities and industrial applications in the consumer goods area. On the other hand, the second day public event allowed to discuss the state-of-the-art technologies in design and management of collaborative manufacturing networks with the vast audience of companies and association from the addressed sectors (textile, apparel, footwear, etc.) who promptly joined.

With the participation of partners coming from all around Europe and also from the Mexican and Swiss region of the IMS, this two-day event can be considered a good starting point for a more shared and synergistic evolution of the research aimed to deliver the next generation products.

MyWear Newsletter March2013

The Customization 500 is the world’s most comprehensive benchmark study of online configuration and mass customization offerings. In a new series of weekly postings, we will introduce some of companies that our expert evaluators pointed out as best in class. The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly! We will try to introduce different industries among the following weeks.

Today: Custom Food Specialist my muesli.com

Today’s featured company is mass customization pioneer mymuesli.com. Established in 2007, the German company offers it’s customers to create their very own mix of cereals from 80+ ingredients. There is likely a fitting mixture for everybody in the about 566 quadrillion possible combinations. After a strong growth just from the beginning, company has been developing very well in the last years. Recently, they installed the world’s largest automatic muesli mixing machine.

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

The main goal of the workshop is to promote high-quality research in all technical areas related to configuration. If you would like to participate in this workshop, consider submission of a full paper of no more than 8 pages until May 3rd, 2013 (Abstract submission until April 12th, 2013). Position statements and problem instances can be submitted as short papers limited to 4 pages.

The topics of the workshop are:

At least one author of each accepted paper is required to register at the workshop and to present the paper. Best papers will be considered for publication in a special issue of AI Communications.

More information can be found here.

Dear MCPC community, I am really sorry to inform you that for personal and capacity reasons, we will be not able to organize and host the MCPC in 2013. Due to many commitments and responsibilities at the Technology and Innovation Management Group in Aachen, we can no longer invest in the MCPC as we did in the past. The same holds true also for the core team of people at MIT and HKUST that were instrumental in doing this.

Read the rest of this entry →

Have a look at these two calls for special issues regarding mass customization topics. For detailed information please follow the respective links to the journal web sites:

Read the rest of this entry →

In the new global market, competitiveness and economic growth rely greatly on the move toward innovative high performance industrial systems and agile networked enterprises through the creation and consolidation of non-hierarchical manufacturing networks of multi-national SMEs as opposed to networks based on powerful large-scale companies. Network performance can be significantly improved through more harmonious and equitable peer-to-peer inter-enterprise relationships, conforming decentralized and collaborative decision-making models.
One approach to configure non-hierarchical manufacturing networks as more flexible and agile is given by mass customization. Therefore, the book contains some interesting articles about how to integrate such networks in an enterprise in regard to MC as well as collects the latest research regarding non-hierarchical manufacturing networks and provides enterprises with valuable models, methods and guidelines to improve their competitiveness.

For more information, please visit the official page. The book is available via Wiley and Amazon.

Agenda_Milano MC Workshop

Next week, on February 5th & 6th, Milano Mass Customization Workshop 2013 will take place in Politecnico di Milano Management School (MIP). The workshop is a joint effort of Politecnico di Milano and RWTH University of Aachen. It provides a unique opportunity for researchers and practitioners interested in the field of mass customization, personalization and co-creation to attend interesting talks given by experts and exchange ideas about future of research and collaborations in this field.

The objective of the workshop is to provide the opportunity for attendees to get inspired by different research insights in the field of mass customization such as technologies for co-creation, service customization and Read the rest of this entry →

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By: Franco Cavani, Micaela Groppelli & Fred

The Technology and Innovation Management Group at RWTH Aachen University focuses on research in mass customization and personalization from the perspective of competitive strategy, the definition of solution spaces, and the design of toolkits for customer co-design. In this context, the TIM group is now asking for your help in an online survey on mass customization.

One of the research interests is to develop a better understanding of the strategic capabilities that form mass customization from a firm perspective. Therefore, the TIM group has now launched this survey to generate a better survey instrument to measure the strategic capabilities by generating a broad list of managerial activities.We kindly ask you to help them with a sorting exercise in form of an online survey, in which you are asked to assign 30 of these managerial activities to one of the strategic capabilities:

To participate in this survey, please follow this link: goo.gl/Zf0wf

The survey will take about 15-20 mins of your time. Thank you very much for your support!

Coming from Youbar’s founder Anthony Flynn and business journalist Emily Flynn Vencat, “Custom Nation: Why Customization Is the Future of Business and How to Profit From It” brings some high quality information and expert insights in the form of a well-written, convenient to read book.

Split into two parts the authors go in depth on the history and quirks of the customization market, their prediction for its future development and a lot of practical advice about how to start a successful customization venture, or roll out an expansion onto the customization market with your existing company.

For a detailed book review, please visit the official website. The book is available via Amazon Paperback and Amazon Kindle.

Seen on www.mass-customiation.de.

In December 2012 the Smart Customization Seminar, hosted by Smart Customization Group, MIT, took place in MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA. With the general topic on Micro | Macro | Customization, it has been a really broad range of experts giving insight and views on customization from the point of view of their respective field of profession or research. From internationally renowned scholars like Joseph Pine, Eric von Hippel or Alex Pentland to experts for (custom) architecture, food individualization or top-notch sports cars: This year’s lineup of speakers brought some centuries of combined experience into one room.Overall there was a great agreement that customization will continue to and play an even more major role in implicit and explicit design of our all’s common living space, especially in large cities, and the way we interact, produce, buy and consume.

One highlight of the seminar was when Marco Mattiacci, CEO of Ferrari North America, presented what could be called the glass ceiling of automotive individualization: A Ferrari 599XX EVO, in red, of course Read the rest of this entry →

The MCPC conference series is a biennial conference on Mass Customization and Personalization. In recent years, the conference has tried to link the field of MCPC with other strategies of customer-driven value creation such as open innovation, co-creation or user innovation.

Please save the date: the MCPC conference 2013 will take place from October 13th - October 15th 2013 at the MIT in Boston, USA. Further information on MCPC 2013 will be provided soon.

You can download this year’s Smart Customization Seminar’s agenda here!

For up-to-date information and registration please also head to SCG at MIT
and follow our conference twitter hashtag, #SCG12!

The objective of the KUMAC project is to develop new methods for mass customization providers in the German retail market, which support an increase in productivity and value creation potential of these retailers.

At the half-time conference last week in Aachen, some very interesting first results could be presented to the funding parties, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

In collaboration with industry partners three very concrete applications to enhance interaction between retail companies and customers could be demonstrated to the project consortium:

Read the rest of this entry →

A special session on: Decision Tools for Enterprise Resilience

Download this information as PDF:

A resilient enterprise has the capability to respond rapidly to unforeseen disruptions. It is the ability to bounce back and, in fact, to bounce forward with speed, determination and precision. Enterprise Resilience is the next phase in the evolution of traditional, place-centric enterprise structures to highly virtualized and customer-centric structures.
A resilient enterprise effectively aligns its strategy, operations, management systems, governance structure, and decision-support capabilities so that it can uncover and adjust to continually changing risks, endure disruptions to its primary earnings drivers, and create advantages over less adaptive competitors.

Read the rest of this entry →