Curriculum - Advantages of mass customization

Societal advantages
Advantages of mass customization are immediate. If the manufacturing model were the change on a large scale, the positive effects would literally change the world. Shifting a product’s advantage from a low cost/cheap labor item to an individual personalized process will change the way consumers interact with the goods they use. Consumers who engage in design-driven custom products will have a personal investment in their purchase, creating value beyond low cost.

Environmental advantages
Because a product has a specific end user and purpose, the production of excess items would become obsolete. Transportation of these excess items would cease to be necessary. In addition, only the resources that are needed for a specific product would be consumed, reducing the consumption of raw materials for the creation of goods that have no specific future. A localized proximity of manufacturing near consumers will lower production lead-times, reduce transportation costs and related harmful emissions. Mass Customization manufacturing can be adaptive to market fluctuations, by reducing risk and equity investments in excess inventory and labor processes. The need to constantly grow a manufacturing base and produce more products in order to be profitable is as antiquated a business model, as mass manufacturing is a production model.

How mass customization will change the retail model?
Mass customization empowers single individuals to interact with, and create objects for their own local community. As the need for a product arises, more options are available. A single individual can create their own design, they may partner with a designer, or they can browse a library of other available products. And lastly, a consumer can still shop for pre-made objects and attempt to find something to suit their needs.
Design Democracy ‘08
Context Furniture hopes the DD08 website will facilitate a direct relationship between consumers, designers and fabricators; a network community where designs can be quoted and engineered, assistance offered when needed and where individuals can find local manufacturers and fabricators through vendor listings. Enterprising the individual grants access to create low cost one-off items, designers are in an advantageous position to take ownership of their designs. In this model, the designer can buy and sell their products directly to client if they so choose. If others like the design, they may whish to customize it or purchase it, and the designer will receive a design royalty fee based on the cost of the object.