Summary: As Joseph Pine makes clear, the most innovative companies are rapidly embracing a new paradigm of management - mass customization - that allows them the freedom to create greater variety and individuality in their products and services at desirable prices. New ways of managing, together with new technology, enable savvy businesses to provide each customer with the attractive "tailor-made" benefits of the pre-industrial craft system at the low costs of modern mass production. Companies that have discovered and successfully implemented mass customization are swiftly outpacing their competitors in gaining new customers and achieving higher margins. Among the firms that are leading their industries to this new frontier are McGraw-Hill, which can deliver custom-made classroom textbooks in quantities under 100 copies; Motorola, which can manufacture any one of 29 million variations of pagers within twenty minutes after receipt of order; and TWA Getaway Vacations, which offers custom-designed tours at the same price that others charge for standardized group tour packages. Pine explains mass customization in its historical context. He reviews the history of production in America, demonstrates why mass production cannot work in industries experiencing upheaval, and outlines how new forms of competition have led to greater variety and customization. Based upon academic and field research, his work is a thoughtful analysis and commentary on when and how managers in both service and manufacturing industries can make the crucial transition to mass customization. He details the strategies, methods, and organizational transformations required to develop, produce, market, and deliver individually customized goods.
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