Mass Customization Research Articles

Development of a Web-Based e-Portal for Freeform Surfaced Lens Design and Manufacturing and Its Implementation Perspectives

In modern freeform surfaced optics manufacturing, ultraprecision machining through single-point diamond turning (SPDT) plays a crucial role due to its ability to meet the high accuracy demands of optical design and stringent surface quality requirements of the final optic. The process involves meticulous steps, including optic surface modeling and analysis, optic design, machining toolpath generation, and manufacturing. This paper presents an integrated approach to customized precision design and the manufacturing of freeform surfaced varifocal lenses through a web-based e-portal. The approach implements an e-portal-driven manufacturing system that seamlessly integrates lens design, modeling and analysis, toolpath generation for ultraprecision machining, mass personalized customization, and service delivery. The e-portal is specifically designed to meet the stringent demands of personalized mass customization, and to offer a highly interactive and transparent experience for the lens users. By using Shiny and R-script programming for platform development and combining COMSOL Multiphysics for the ray tracing simulation, the e-portal leverages open-source technologies to provide manufacturing service agility, responsiveness, and accessibility. Furthermore, the integration of R-script and Shiny programming allows for advanced interactive information processing, which also enables the e-portal-driven manufacturing system to be well suited for personalized complex products such as freeform surfaced lenses.

Smart manufacturing paradigms in the context of industry 4.0: Bibliometric analysis

Following each industrial revolution, spanning from Industry 1.0 to Industry 4.0, a distinct manufacturing paradigm has consistently emerged. In the current manufacturing environment and consumer-driven markets, Mass Customization and Mass Personalization are the newer smart manufacturing paradigms. Those novel approaches are designed to offer customers personalized products and services, all while preserving the efficiency of Mass Production. Within this framework, a bibliometric analysis was conducted in order to review and analyse the existing literature. The main findings reveal numerous parallels and differences between Mass Customization and Mass Personalization, especially in aspects such as scope, customer involvement, product variety and flexibility. Simultaneously, there are various limitations revolving around data availability and product uncertainty. Those smart manufacturing paradigms are studied within the context of Industry 4.0, and thus our study also focus on the impact and challenges of this fourth industrial revolution on Mass Customization and Mass Personalization.

Exploring Architectural Units Through Robotic 3D Concrete Printing of Space-Filling Geometries

The integration of 3D concrete printing (3DCP) into architectural design and production offers a solution to challenges in the construction industry. This technology presents benefits such as mass customization, waste reduction, and support for complex designs. However, its adoption in construction faces various limitations, including technical, logistical, and legal barriers. This study provides insights relevant to architecture, engineering, and construction practices, guiding future developments in the field. The methodology involves fabricating closed architectural units using 3DCP, emphasizing space-filling geometries and ensuring structural strength. Across three production trials, iterative improvements were made, revealing challenges and insights into design optimization and fabrication techniques. Prioritizing controlled filling of the unit’s internal volume ensures portability and ease of assembly. Leveraging 3D robotic concrete printing technology enables precise fabrication of closed units with controlled voids, enhancing speed and accuracy in production. Experimentation with varying unit sizes and internal support mechanisms, such as sand infill and central supports, enhances performance and viability, addressing geometric capabilities and fabrication efficiency. Among these strategies, sand filling has emerged as an effective solution for internal support as it reduces unit weight, simplifies fabrication, and maintains structural integrity. This approach highlights the potential of lightweight and adaptable modular constructions in the use of 3DCP technologies for architectural applications.

A comparative study on mechanical properties of PLA, PETG, and carbon fiber prepared by fused deposition modeling

3D printing technology is a highly promising fast prototyping method. It is a technology that is rapidly being utilized for mass customization and manufacture of open-source designs in industries such as agriculture, healthcare, automobile, locomotive, aviation, and others. FDM is an additive manufacturing (AM) technology that creates a 3D physical object directly from a computer-assisted design (CAD) model by layering the feedstock, which is polymer filament material ejected through a nozzle. The test samples were made using Olivetti S2 3D printer and according to standard testing sizes like ASTM D638, ASTM D790, and ASTM D256. Mechanical properties: Three distinct materials, polylactic acid (PLA), carbon fiber-reinforced PLA, and carbon fiber-reinforced polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) are evaluated through tensile test, flexural test, and impact test by varying the process parameters such as feed rate and infill pattern. PLA is a popular biodegradable biopolymer known for its high biocompatibility and sustainability. PETG material is a kind of chemical utilized in a variety of industrial processes due to its great durability, impact strength, and outstanding formability. It is preferred over various filaments because of its superior layer adherence and odorlessness. Carbon fiber-reinforced filament enhances structural components by providing high modulus, good surface finish, dimensional stability, and lightweight properties. This study revealed that at lower print speeds tensile strength in PLA has increased, especially with line infill parallel to the load. Conversely, at higher speeds weakened PETG-CF with triangular infill. PLA also showed superior flexural properties at lower speeds with line infill.

Evaluating Logistics Systems in the Context of Mass Customization Based on Goal Expectation

Given the complexity and uncertainty of logistics systems in a mass customization environment, decision-making teams often rely on linguistic phrases rather than quantifiable evaluation indices when selecting an evaluation system. This paper proposes a logistics system evaluation method based on index goal expectation. First, linguistic phrases are processed through an integration method to derive standardized weight vectors. Next, the decision-making team establishes the expected compliance degree for each alternative, which is processed using an axiomatic design to calculate the final evaluation index for each option. The options are then ranked based on these indices to identify the most appropriate logistics system. Applying this method to a company’s logistics system selection demonstrates its effectiveness and feasibility.

Determination Method for Index Weights of Logistics Information Systems in a Mass Customization Environment

To address the challenge of representing key index weights of logistics information systems in a mass customization environment using multi-granularity mixed semantic phrases, a method for determining index weights based on complex semantic information is proposed. First, an integrated method processes the multi-granularity mixed semantic variables to obtain initial index weights. Second, the probability of uncertain semantic information is calculated to determine the correction coefficient for key indicators of logistics information systems. Finally, the initial index weights and correction coefficients are synthesized to derive the final index weights. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method are demonstrated using the selection of a logistics information system for a computer company as a case study.

Production control with Reinforcement Learning for a matrix-structured production system

With increasing product complexities in mass customisation in the automotive industry, the downsides of conventional production concepts like flow production get more pronounced. Their inability to deal with cycle time losses adequately opens up possibilities for new concepts like matrix-structured production (MSP). Due to the immanent dynamics of matrix-structured production, control concept like takt binding or control stands are no longer sufficient to achieve near-optimal performance. The application of Reinforcement Learning (RL) to solve this problem emerged in the recent years. In particular, routing and dispatching tasks have been solved by applying RL. As both tasks influence each other's performance, a combined RL approach is developed. Therefore, a car body construction is simulated to test different modelled Markov processes, algorithms, and rewards. The new approach is validated against common heuristics regarding logistic performance and relevant metrics for operating autonomous guided vehicle fleets. For this, RL systems are designed and compared. The combined approach of production control in terms of dispatching jobs and routing autonomous guided vehicles achieved equivalent performance to heuristics. Still, it excelled in fleet operation metrics, like reduced live or deadlocks.

A Flexible Mold for Facade Panel Fabrication

Architectural surface panelling often requires fabricating molds for panels, a process that can be cost-inefficient and material-wasteful when using traditional methods such as CNC milling. In this paper, we introduce a novel solution to generating molds for efficiently fabricating architectural panels. At the core of our method is a machine that utilizes a deflatable membrane as a flexible mold. By adjusting the deflation level and boundary element positions, the membrane can be reconfigured into various shapes, allowing for mass customization with significantly lower overhead costs. We devise an efficient algorithm that works in sync with our flexible mold machine that optimizes the placement of customizable boundary element positions, ensuring the fabricated panel matches the geometry of a given input shape: (1) Using a quadratic Weingarten surface arising from a natural assumption on the membrane's stress, we can approximate the initial placement of the boundary element from the input shape's geometry; (2) we solve the inverse problem with a simulator-in-the-loop optimizer by searching for the optimal placement of boundary curves with sensitivity analysis. We validate our approach by fabricating baseline panels and a facade with a wide range of curvature profiles, providing a detailed numerical analysis on simulation and fabrication, demonstrating significant advantages in cost and flexibility.

A Reconfigurable Architecture for Industrial Control Systems: Overview and Challenges

The closed architecture and stand-alone operation model of traditional industrial control systems limit their ability to leverage ubiquitous infrastructure resources for more flexible and intelligent development. This restriction hinders their ability to rapidly, economically, and sustainably respond to mass customization demands. Existing proposals for open and networked architectures have failed to break the vicious cycle of closed architectures and stand-alone operation models because they do not address the core issue: the tight coupling among the control, infrastructure, and actuator domains. This paper proposes a reconfigurable architecture that decouples these domains, structuring the control system across three planes: control, infrastructure, and actuator. The computer numerical control (CNC) system serves as a primary example to illustrate this reconfigurable architecture. After reviewing open and networked architectures and discussing the characteristics of this reconfigurable architecture, this paper identifies three key challenges: deterministic control functionality, the decoupling of control modules from infrastructures, and the management of control modules, infrastructures, and actuators. Each challenge is examined in detail, and potential solutions are proposed based on emerging technologies.

The industrialization of additive manufacturing

AbstractOur world is constantly facing a wide variety of social challenges — currently, issues such as climate change, security, demographic change, and resource conservation are of significant importance and show an acute need for action. Among other things, disruptive technologies are needed to tackle such problems. Additive manufacturing (AM) is regarded as the ‘game changer/paradigm shift’ technology for the digital, automated production of the future — as the key enabler of ‘Production 2.0’. This sustainable and resilient technology enables new paths to innovative solutions across all industries through a high degree of individualization (mass customization) and great design freedom (‘manufacture for design’ instead of ‘design for manufacture‘). For example, internally cooled turbine blades for H2‐capable gas turbines, lightweight structures for more efficient aircraft or patient‐specific implants are only made possible by AM. In this way, AM makes an important contribution to solving the social challenges mentioned above now it is necessary to transfer this technology to board industrial use.

Developing a BIM-enabled robotic manufacturing framework to facilitate mass customization of prefabricated buildings

Industrialized construction has been accepted as an effective production method for building project stakeholders to improve installation quality. Recent advancements in industrialized construction have focused on parametric designs for manufacturing and assembly to ensure accurate information flows and workflows across different project stages, however, they have not adequately addressed the challenges in mass customization of building projects to meet the diverse needs of communities. This study develops a technological framework based on Building Information Modeling (BIM) processes for mass customization of prefabricated buildings, which consists of parametric design and robotic manufacturing (RM) information flows to improve design flexibility and manufacturing precision. A proof of concept case study of a single-family house built with Light Gauge Steel (LGS) wall frames was conducted to demonstrate the usability of the proposed framework. Findings show that the BIM-RM framework not only helps bridge the technological interoperability gap between BIM and RM programs but also contributes to improved scalability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of design-to-manufacturing processes in construction projects.

3D Printing with Self-Healing Materials and Applications

3D printing also called as the additive manufacturing. It is revolutionizing various industries by enabling the production of complex objects directly from digital models. This technology offers significant advantages over traditional manufacturing methods. Especially in reducing material waste and increased design flexibility. The range of 3D printing application contains healthcare to aerospace, reflecting its growing importance in modern society. Recently, 3D printing advancements have introduced in self-healing (SH) materials, it saved limitations related to the durability and repairability of printed objects. SH materials are categorized into external and internal systems. External SH materials use embedded healing agents that repair damage through chemical reactions, while internal systems rely on dynamic bonding within the material itself. This innovation not only extends the functional life of 3D printed items but also supports trends in mass customization and sustainability. This paper explores the mechanisms, types, and applications of SH materials in 3D printing, and mainly focus on their potential to enhance product longevity and functionality across medical, construction, and consumer goods sectors.

Research on Collaborative Strategy of Supply Chain Management under the Background of NIKE Mass Customization

Abstract: With the continuous advancement of technology and the popularization of the Internet, consumers' demand for personalized products is increasingly high. Traditional production modes have been unable to meet consumers' demands for product uniqueness and personalized experiences, which requires manufacturing enterprises to shift towards mass customization modes with unique advantages in production efficiency and cost control. Taking Nike as an example, this paper analyzes its supply chain problems based on its financial report. It then explores Nike's mass customization process using C2M and 3D printing, as well as information collaboration methods in the supply chain. Additionally, the paper analyzes AR-based virtual fitting technology and evaluates Nike's internal matrix organizational structure for customization and collaboration. From the perspectives of Nike's technology level and internal organizational structure, this paper analyzes the supply chain management and information collaboration process in its mass customization process, aiming to provide references for related manufacturing industries in enterprise operation and technology application during the mass customization process.

3D digital technology in upcycling apparel design: the creation of a modular redesign system and designer perspectives

ABSTRACT Despite advancements in sustainable apparel design, upcycling practices still face challenges limiting creativity and efficiency. This study develops a Modular Redesign System (MRS) using 3D digital technology to improve the upcycling process. The MRS was created with CLO3D and Aftereffects, producing ten redesign samples and demonstration videos. In-depth interviews with South Korean upcycling apparel designers were conducted to assess the system’s perceived effectiveness and explore key issues in upcycling design. The MRS involves four stages: Selection, Virtualisation, Virtual Ideation, and Construction and Fitting. Findings highlight the MRS’s ability to enhance ideation, reduce material waste, and save time and costs, offering practical solutions to current challenges in apparel redesign. The MRS also shows potential for mass customisation, serving as an effective communication tool for personalised upcycling services. This study bridges a gap in the literature by integrating 3D virtual simulation with modular design to advance sustainable and efficient upcycling practices.

Process-structure–property study of 3D-printed continuous fiber reinforced composites

3D-printed fiber-reinforced composites hold many advantages compared to conventional composites in terms of individualization, mass customization, design freedom, and tailoring the composite geometry to load-bearing specifications. Among candidate continuous fibers for reinforcement, basalt fibers (BFs) serve as an eco-friendly alternative with excellent physical and thermal properties. However, the applicability of continuous BFs to be used for 3D-printed polymer composites was rarely addressed in existing literature. Especially, the effects of impregnation density during manufacturing and the influence of local fiber distribution on the fracture behavior of BF-reinforced composites remain unclear. In this study, a solution coating process was employed as a fiber pre-treatment to improve the packing density of BF in a polylactide (PLA) matrix. The effects of the resulting fiber volume fraction (8–31 %) and the local fiber distribution on the tensile fracture mechanisms of 3D printed BF/PLA samples are thoroughly analyzed using three-dimensional X-ray tomography. It was found that at a concentration of 3 wt%, the coating solution uniformly dispersed optimally between the fibers, resulting in improved impregnation densities of the BF in the PLA matrix. Thus, the resulting composite exhibited a tensile strength of 175 MPa and a Young’s modulus of 6.2 GPa, respectively. A standard linear solid (SLS) model is used for property prediction within a composite design framework to be applied to 3D-printed BF/PLA structures. The model is validated with experimental data from tensile tests. The obtained results demonstrate the applicability of eco-friendly BF/PLA composites for 3D printing of industrial high-performance applications with an individualized property profile.

Time-to-Adapt ([formula omitted])

Manufacturing operations rely heavily on external sources and supply chain (SC) networks, making them susceptible to material and operational risks. In response, manufacturers are investigating innovative strategies to enhance their adaptability and strengthen the resilience and viability of their value-creation systems. This shift has prompted an increased focus on integrating inherent adaptability while maintaining profitability and efficiency. Although indicators such as Time-to-Recover (TTR) and Time-to-Survive (TTS) are commonly employed to assess SC capabilities, the literature suggests that scholars and practitioners give less consideration to the internal factors of Mass Customization (MC) manufacturers and their influence on mitigating SC disruptions, particularly the Time-to-Adapt (TTA) indicator in manufacturing. This study utilizes a case study approach, complemented by a mathematical model, to analyze the role of TTA as a key internal controllable indicator within MC manufacturers and as an external controllable indicator for suppliers. The findings indicate that manufacturers can employ the TTA indicator to measure the adaptation period and enhance their adaptive capabilities. Moreover, it enables manufacturers to optimize profits by selecting viable production options in response to resource shortages.

Strategies Management for Mass Customization in the Apparel Industry: Case of Market Demand and Risk in China

With the development and adjustment of the industrial structure, the manufacturing industry, especially the transformation and upgrading of the apparel industry, is crucial for Chinas high-quality economic development. This paper studies the strategies of cooperation, consumer demand response, and risk identification and control in the mass customization market of the Chinese apparel industry. Firstly, it explores the co-creation strategies among enterprises in mass customization, analyzing cases of efficient resource allocation and cooperation in excellent apparel companies. Secondly, from the consumer behavior perspective, it studies how companies meet personalized needs through combined online and offline marketing models and brand positioning strategies. Finally, analyzing the supply chain, consumers, and internal aspects of enterprises, the risk factors in the mass customization market are identified, and corresponding pre-control measures are proposed. This study aims to provide management suggestions for apparel enterprises in the wave of mass customization, helping small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face market challenges and improve operational efficiency and market competitiveness.

A mass customization framework and reclassification method for lower garments in E-commerce

A mass customization framework and reclassification method for lower garments in E-commerce

Mass customization using hybrid manufacturing and smart assembly: An optimal configuration and platform design approach

Hybrid Manufacturing (HM) and smart assembly stand as pivotal pillars in advanced smart manufacturing systems, offering manufacturers highly efficient and adaptable solutions for manufacturing. This paper delves into the configuration of a production line that integrates HM and assembly stages, each comprising multiple cells, with each cell housing one or more parallel stations. The objective is to manufacture a family of final assemblies, leveraging the platform concept to defer mass customization to later stages and thereby minimize processing costs. A mathematical programming model is proposed to identify the optimal configuration for such production lines, considering constraints such as an allowable capital cost and machine availabilities. In addition, the precedence, inclusion, and seclusion restrictions imposed on the part family are considered. The proposed mathematical programming model aims to delineate which HM features are processed in the part platform cell versus those processed in the mass customization (part variants) cells. Simultaneously, the model determines the components (variants from the HM stage) of final assemblies processed in the assembly platform cell, as well as components assembled or disassembled in the final assembly cells. Furthermore, the model seeks to determine the required number of stations in each cell to meet periodic demand. The overall objective of the model is to minimize the capital and the processing cost. A detailed case study illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed configuration approach and mathematical model. The proposed model is solvable in a few seconds by using commercial solvers.

Production-oriented approach for optimal mass-customisation of floor panel layouts in cross-laminated timber (CLT) buildings

PurposeThis study aims to develop a production-oriented approach for optimal mass-customisation of floor panel layouts in cross-laminated timber (CLT) buildings. The study enables meeting building clients’ unique floor plan requirements at an optimal cost and simultaneously enhances manufacturers’ profit by minimising material and manufacturing process waste.Design/methodology/approachThe present research uses a hybrid approach consisting of field data collection, mathematical modelling, development of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) and scenario analysis. Field data includes engineered timber production information, design data and building code requirements. The study adopts the Flexible Demand Assignment (FDA) technique to formulate a mathematical model for optimising the design of mass timber buildings and employs GA to identify optimal production solutions. Scenario analysis is performed to validate model outputs.FindingsThe proposed model successfully determines the load-bearing wall placement and building spans and specifications of floor panels that result in optimal production efficiency and the desired architectural layout. The results indicate that buildings made of a single category of thickness of panels but customised in various lengths to suit building layout are the most profitable scenario for CLT manufacturers and are a cost-effective option for clients.Originality/valueThe originality of the present study lies in its mathematical and model-driven approach towards implementing mass customisation in multi-storey buildings. The proposed model has been developed and validated based on a comprehensive set of real-world data and constraints.