virtualization of design and production a thesis - Bilkent University

Production facilities ‘must be able to keep pace with these changing
requirements’ (31). Considering the demands of the customers, conventional
means of mass production would possibly fail to fulfill these requirements. That
is why changing the course of manufacturing system seems inevitable.
3.4.2. From Mass Production to Mass Customization
Tseng and Jiao define mass customization as "producing goods and services to
meet individual customer's needs with near mass production efficiency" (Tseng,
685). Even this short definition is adequate to predict the strengths and
weaknesses of mass customization when we compare it to mass production.
However, this term may be seen as an extensive challenge to the mass production
and standardization ideals of the early industrial times since it refers to a broader
understanding rather than simple production. Mass customization covers design,
marketing and manufacturing of a company along with the central management
function. It is undoubtly assisted by the use of flexible computer-aided
manufacturing systems to produce custom output. Those systems combine the
low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual
customization. In his book called `Mass customization: the New Frontier in
Business Competition`, Pine II explains the motivation of the production firms
which welcome the new frontier of business as follows:
”They [firms] understand that not only can higher quality
yield lower costs, but so can greater variety. They have found
out that customers can no longer be lumped together in a
huge homogenous market, but are individuals whose
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