Flexibility and Reconfigurability for Mass Customization

Abstract

In the 21 st century, companies are going to operate in a dynamic and challenging environment that requires new approaches to manufacturing. Mass customization is a general trend that is more and more widespread, being felt as the productive paradigm for the future. On the manufacturing point of view, much work must be done to develop adequate manufacturing systems meeting the new requirements, since traditional solutions (both transfer lines and flexible manufacturing systems) don’t seem to be able to face the demands of mass customization. However, not only manufacturing area is involved in this evolution but also managerial and organizational aspects. For these reasons this chapter discusses the relation between the mass customization paradigm and the evolution of manufacturing systems. Several mass customization oriented paradigms are compared with a hypothetic, desirable evolution in market organization, providing an analytical approach to flexibility and reconfigurability as possible means of facing today’s competitive demands.