Impact of supply chain strategy on mass customisation implementation and effectiveness: evidence from China

Abstract

Currently, designing a supply chain for mass customisation (MC) has become an issue that intrigued both the academia and industrial practitioners. In this study, we examine the fit between supply chain strategy and MC practices and its impact on firm performance. We first develop supply chain configurations using cluster analysis and find that the whole sample can be divided into four groups (leagile, lean, agile, and traditional). We then link the supply chain strategies with MC practices (elicitation, process flexibility technology, and logistics). Our results show that the impact of MC practices on operational performance is moderated by supply chain strategy configurations and that these practices are most beneficial in the leagile group. Our results hence suggest that MC practices require a leagile supply chain structure and underscore the importance of aligning the supply chain strategy with a distinctive set of processes and technologies for MC adoption.