Mass Customisation: issues of application for the food industry

Richard Mcintosh (1) , Jason Matthews (2) , Glen Mullineux (1) , Tony John Medland (1)

1 University of Bath [Bath]
2 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

The strategy of mass customisation is being increasingly adopted as companies seek to exploit market trends for greater product variety and individualisation. The implications of changing to mass customisation practice are considerable, where traditional contradictions of high volume and extensive product variety require to be reconciled. The literature discusses the need for an integrated approach to mass customisation across all business functions if micro-segmentation of markets is to be profitably pursued, and the current paper investigates extending the paradigm of mass customisation into the hitherto poorly represented sector of food processing. Product design and manufacturing system design for mass customisation are reviewed and contrasted with good practice in more traditional mass customisation industries.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Richard Mcintosh, Jason Matthews, Glen Mullineux, Tony John Medland. Mass Customisation: issues of application for the food industry. International Journal of Production Research, 2009, 48 (06), pp.1557-1574. ⟨10.1080/00207540802577938⟩. ⟨hal-00548943⟩