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Environmental Impacts of Utilizing Mass Customization

Cracking the Code of Mass Customization

Fabrizio Salvador, Pablo Martin de Holan and Frank Piller
MIT Sloan Management Review
April 2009

The concept of mass customization makes sense. But mass customization has been trickier to implement than first anticipated, and many companies soured on the approach after a number of high-profile flops, including Levi Strauss & Co.’s failed attempt at manufacturing custom jeans. Now, executives tend to think of mass customization as a...

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Environmental Impacts of Utilizing Mass Customization

Beyond the Configurator: an architectural design recommendation engine

Kent Larson and Daniel Smithwick
Working Paper
December 2010

In this paper we present the first phase of the Home Genome Project which takes steps towards building a database from which an algorithm can support design recommendations to consumers for an interior residential apartment layout. Following a brief overview of current recommendation systems found in consumer search, entertainment, and shopping platforms, we present four key elements of the initial phase.

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Environmental Impacts of Utilizing Mass Customization

Environmental Impacts of Utilizing Mass Customization

Ryan Chin and Daniel Smithwick
Mass Customization and Personalization World Conference
2009

Working within the product life-cycle framework including the manufacturing, distribution, and customer experience, this paper raises the question: Are mass customized products more sustainable than mass produced products.  Chin and Smithwick use men's dress shirts as a case study to study the environmental impacts of mass customized products.

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  • Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value on the Digital Frontier
  • Handbook of Research in Mass Customization and Personalization
  • Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want
  • The Experience Economy
  • The Customer Centric Enterprise: Advances in Mass Customization and Personalization

Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value on the Digital Frontier

Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value on the Digital Frontier

Joseph Pine, Kim Korn, and James Gilmore
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
August, 2011

Digital technology offers limitless opportunities—you really can create anything you want—but real-world experiences have a richness that virtual ones do not. So how can you use the best of both? How do you make sense of such infinite possibility? What kinds of experiences can you create? Which ones should you offer?

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Handbook of Research in Mass Customization and PersonalizationHandbook of Research in Mass Customization and Personalization

ed. by Frank Piller & Mitchell Tseng
World Scientific Publishing
December, 2009

The research and practical experience collected in this book presents the latest thinking on how to make mass customization work. More than 50 authors from academia and management debate on what is viable now, what did not work in the past, and what lurks just below the radar in mass customization, personalization, and related fields.

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AuthenticityAuthenticity: What Consumers Really Want

James Gilmore & B. Joseph Pine II
Harvard Business School Press
September, 2007

Fake. Contrived. Disingenuous. Phony. Inauthentic. Do your customers use any of those words to describe what you sell or how you sell it? That is exactly how more and more consumers view what companies offer them.

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ExperienceThe Experience Economy

B. Joseph Pine II & James Gilmore
Harvard Business Press
July, 2011

The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage offers a creative, highly original, and yet eminently practical strategy for companies to depict and stage the experiences that will greatly increase the economic value of what they offer. The Experience Economy draws from a rich and varied mix of examples that showcase businesses creating personal experiences for both consumers and businesses.

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The Customer Centric Enterprise: Advances in Mass Customization and PersonalizationThe Customer Centric Enterprise: Advances in Mass Customization and Personalization

ed. by Mitchell Tseng and Frank Piller
Springer Press
August, 2003

Companies are being forced to react to the growing individualization of demand. At the same time, cost management remains of paramount importance due to the competitive pressure in global markets. Thus, making enterprises more customer centric efficiently is a top management priority in most industries. Mass customization and personalization are key strategies to meet this challenge.

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Mass Customization

  • Open Service Innovation: BOSCH Launches OI Community Dedicated to Auto Mechanic Services
    Bosch, one of the world's leading suppliers for (professional and personal) electronics and tools, has taken another interesting...
  • Executive Training: The Customer Centric Organization - three perspectives to profit from the fact that all people are different
    Today I would like to inform you all about an intensive workshop that my colleagues Fabrizio Salvador and...
  • Participate at Idea Contest: Brining the Walking Frame (Rollator) into the Future
    Our German readers can find a German version of this post here. Mobility is one of the key...

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About the SCG

The MIT Smart Customization Group is an MIT-Industry collaboration devoted to improving the ability of companies to efficiently customize products, services, and experiences in various industries and for diverse customer groups. This industry interest group aggregates the key players in the area of mass customization and strives to become a vital community of practice in this field.

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