Question

What types of consumer goods or services are ideal for mass production & which are more ideal for mass customization? Name a time when you have customized a product or service based on your desired specifications.

Answer 1

Consumer goods and services that offer a standardized value to the consumer, owing to its standardized features are considered under mass production. For example: Cadbury Dairy Milk offers its standard value to the consumers, owing to its standard taste and texture. No customization is needed in this regards like a customer wants the Cadbury bar having just 4 squares, another wants 10 squares and so on.

Consumer goods and services that offer a standardized value to the consumer, owing to its customized features are considered under mass customization. For example: Furniture usually falls under this category. People often want their furniture to match the theme of their living room, so they opt for customization.

In daily life, we cater to product and service customization, quite a lot of times. A simple example is about coffee. My friend and I went to a barista for spending time. There we ordered coffee with cookies. However both of us told the waiter, specifications for respective cup of coffee. While my friend needed a strong coffee with just 2 spoons of milk and no sugar, I wanted my favorite cappuccino. So, the waiter had to serve customized coffee to both of us.