Mass Customization- A Viable Future

M. F. TECH NIFT, New Delhi 2011- STUDY REPORT ON MASS CUSTOMIZATION

MASS CUSTOMIZATION :: A VIABLE FUTURE

Stan Davis, a famous business visionary, prominent author, consultant and public speaker, coined the phrase

of mass customization in 1987.

The transformation:

New Products

Mass Production

Process

Low Cost, Consistent

Quality, Standardized

Products

Homogenous Markets Stable Demands

Long Product Life Cycles

Long Product Development

Cycles

Craft Era Mass Production Era Mass Customization Era

Mass customization has emerged as a practice that combines the best of the craft era & the best of the mass

production era. Even as the mass production paradigm continues to dominate, a new paradigm, mass

customization, is emerging and will continue to grow in a parallel path.

Old Paradigm- Mass Production


What brought mass customization into the picture..??

Service expectations of customers have increased enormously.

Customers are keen & willing to pay 50-100% more for customized & personalized products &

services.

Customers today demand far more variety than what is being offered to them.

Nobody wants to look like anybody else. Customers want to establish their own individuality.

Products were required to be individualized & adapted to different tastes at an affordable price.

Customers demand quick delivery of the products & services ordered by them (within 3-4 days).

Mass customization bestowed customer satisfaction which was beyond the expectation of the

customers.

Certain segments of the market (niche markets) that have not been served well could be captured

with mass customization.

Mass customization is the perfect way to bridge the gap between cost pressures and customer-specific requirements.

New Products

Mass Customization

Process

Low Cost, High Quality,

Customized Products

Heterogenous Markets

Demand Fragmentation

Short Product Life Cycles

Short Product Development

Cycles

New Paradigm- Mass Customization


Successful pursuit of Mass Customization requires 3 essential conditions:

1. Understanding the peculiar needs/ wants/ demands of individual customers

2. Ability to offer what the customers need/ want/ demand, ideally without cost, time or quality

penalties.

3. Ability to support each customer in identifying his or her own solution while minimizing the choice

complexity for the customers.

Mass customization is a means to provide goods and services that best serve individual customers personal

needs with near mass production efficiency. To apply this apparently simple statement in practice however is

quite complex. As a business paradigm, mass customization provides an attractive business proposition to add

value by directly addressing customer needs and in the mean time utilizing resources efficiently without

incurring excessive cost. This is particularly significant at a time where competition is no longer just based on

price and conformance of dimensional quality.

A change to mass customization affects every aspect of a business, from marketing, order entry, pre-, during-

& post- production control, supply chain management, warehousing, dispatch, distribution, total supply chain

logistics package, etc.

Mass customization regards heterogeneities of demand among different customers not as a threat, but as a

new opportunity for profits.

A basic flow of the mass customization process could be given as follows:

It starts with a segment of the market that has not been served well. Certain types of products are

needed to fulfill this market gap.

Companies then design not a single product, but a platform that can be configured to address the

requirements of this potential market

The marketing department will then come up with a campaign to communicate the unique

differentiation of the products that have been perceived as market needs.

The sales department interacts with customers to translate customers' needs with machine

specification and to configure a product that fits well with the customers' requirements and can be

delivered when the customers need it. At the same time, and often more importantly, the total cost

has to be within the budgets available to the customer.

Next, production and distribution have to figure out a way to produce and to manage the logistics for

the necessary components and assemblies and to complete machinery efficiently. However,

uniqueness of components often translates into set up time and additional cost. This may run against

the required budget limitation and lead time. To address these challenges, techniques like flexible

scheduling, modularity, commonality and others are applied to counterbalance the additional cost.

In a final step, often years after product modularity and flexible processes in manufacturing and

logistics have been established, the firm starts to increase the efficiency of the customer interaction

process when taking the order. A product configuration system is introduced to better communicate

to customers what is available and to match customer requirements with existing solutions of the

manufacturer.


Marketing approach in Mass Customization:

Mass customization means the production of goods and services for a (relatively) large market, which meet

exactly the needs of each individual customer with regard to certain product characteristics (differentiation

option), at costs roughly corresponding to those of standard mass-produced goods (cost option). The

information collected during the process of individualization serves to build up a lasting individual relationship

with each customer (relationship option).

If the market demand for customization is not large enough, and if consumers are not willing to pay for the

extra benefits of customization by meeting their individual desires and wishes, then all investments in

research and implementation of mass customization will be sunk costs. In this regard, three research

questions seem of particular importance:

Do consumers want customized products and services anyway?

What dimension and what extent of customization do consumers want in which market segments?

Are consumers willing to pay a premium for customization?

In an empirical study, by Franke and von Hippel (2003) shows that users in fact have very unique needs, leaving many displeased with standard goods. Users claimed that they were willing to pay a considerable premium for improvements which satisfy their individual needs. Current practice in market segmentation generally leads to high levels of total variance, left over as in-segment variation (over 50 per cent on average). The reason for this dissatisfaction can be seen in the missing capability of mass or variant manufacturing to respond to individual needs regarding the desired ideal product of individual customers.


Customers experience difficulties when buying outsize apparel. More than 70 per cent of formal wear

bought from the rack is altered after the purchase at the customers expense! 65 per cent of the

interviewees expressed a strong need for customization in regard to custom fit (measurements) for

suits and formal dresses. Fit is the most important issue, followed by quality and design. Deficits in

matching fit and style (aesthetic design) were identified especially in the up-market smart segment.

The Outsize (1998) & Zitex (1999) studies concluded that the variety of clothes and shoes provided

today is not sufficient to fulfill the heterogeneous needs of customers.

There seem to be large differences in consumers attitudes depending on gender and the country of

origin. An empirical study showed that some customers were totally fascinated & admired the

concept of customization whereas some totally rejected the same and found the concept to be rather

complicated. Fashion conscious customers, who were interested in trendsetting rather than following

standards set by others, were keener into the concept of customization & personalization. The study

also showed that women were more interested into customization than men, since, most men

brought apparels or footwear only when they actually needed them. Additionally, women encounter

comparatively more difficulties in regard to fit and comfort. Thus customized goods for women

became a larger & promising market.

Manufactures aimed at differentiation by customization should try to make the act of customization

as a fashion item (Piller and Ihl 2002), which meant, big fashion brands will have an advantage in

introducing customization as a point of differentiation in fashion. There is an enormous market

potential for customization that is not covered by existing offers yet. As an opinion, even one tenth of

these volumes would justify major investments in an otherwise very mature and price competitive

market with very little real innovation.

Customization has to be customized, too. Mass customization is characterized by a fixed solution

space, meaning that the customization options are restricted and not unlimited as in the case of

traditional craft customization. Setting the right extent of a mass customization offering is of

paramount importance & can be carried out on 3 levels:

Style (aesthetic design): modifications aiming at sensual or optical senses, i.e. selecting

colors, styles, applications, cuts or flavors.

Fit and comfort (measurements): customization based on the fit of a product with the

dimensions of the recipient, i.e. tailoring a product according to a body measurement or the

dimensions of a room or other physical object. This is the traditional starting point for

customization (tailoring).

Functionality: customizing option in regard to functionality or interfaces of the product, i.e.

selecting breathability, closures, wear-ability, ethical parameters etc. of an offering.

Functionality is often overseen when mass customization is addressed.

The cost option of mass customization demands that options or adjustments are only offered for those product features where customization is valued by the users. Critical reasons for customer dissatisfaction could be on the lines of design, fit & price-quality ratio. An empirical study, by EUROShoE, showed that, for both men and women, fit was most important, followed by design and functionality. Personal style and fit can be improved significantly by customization. Standardized products can never give the amount of satisfaction that their customized counterparts can.


One of the most challenging questions of mass customization is if, and to what extent, consumers are willing to pay a premium for customization. For customers, the decision to buy customized products is basically the result of a simple economic equation (Franke and Piller 2003): if the (expected) returns exceed the (expected) costs, the likelihood that customers employ mass customization will increase. Costs of mass customization for consumers are: (1) the premium a customer has to pay for the

individualized product compared to a standard offering; and (2) the drawbacks of the customers

active participation at (integration into) value creation during the configuration process increase in

mass confusion, i.e. purchasing complexity, uncertainty, co-design risk, etc.

Majority of the customers desire to pay 20-30% more on the standard price of the product, whereas a

few are even ready to pay about 50-100% more for a customized product with exceptional quality &

which is delivered within a time period of 3-4 days. The willingness to pay also differs between

topographies. For e.g. Italians are willing to pay more than the other European countries, for a

customized quality product. WTP also depends upon the type of market targeted. The high fashion

(luxury) market has more WTP as compared to the average up-market. WTP also depends upon the

degree of customization offered by a particular company. For e.g. Adidas allows customers not only

to choose between various colors, and to put a name on the shoe, but also to customize the shoes

with regard to comfort, fit and functionality, can charge a 50% premium, on the other hand, its

competitor Nike, offering just style customization with its ID programme, can ask only premiums of

10 per cent.

However, there is a possibility of price customization by allowing customers to adjust their own price by selecting differently priced options for one product feature. Levin et al. (2002) compared the price effects of customization to how price customization is performed. They find for various consumer products that a subtractive option-framing method is superior (i.e. leads to higher average prices) compared to an additive-framing. Subtractive option-framing means that consumers start with a fully loaded product and delete options, while additive option-framing means to start with a base model and add options. The data by Levin et al. (2002) shows that subtracting leads to a higher price (WTP). This provides an indication of the additional value of offering customization not only on the product level, but also on the option level, and how to skin this value.

Mass customization has a huge & promising market altogether. Even if mass customization is not becoming the dominating system, these are not just niche markets, but promising market segments, totally uncovered today. Especially female consumers seem to be willing to invest in customization, so that they do not have to compromise between fit and style any longer. Challenges:

Most consumers have an imagination about customization, but no experience with it. Surveys concerning consumer purchasing behavior of standard goods face numerous biases due to the survey situation, and these biases are exponential in the case of customized goods.

Customers should be well aware of their body type & should measure their body in the most accurate way (as per the given instructions by the manufacturer) in order to avoid confusion & dissatisfaction in terms of fit & comfort.

Customers need to pay the suppliers in advance for the product they cant see till its delivered to their doorstep.

Only data gained from observing consumers in real purchasing situations will provide evidence on the real market for mass customization. Thus, more pilot studies and test markets for mass customization are needed.


First steps are focus group discussions and experiments in market research labs, where the participants can at least experience the purchasing and configuration process. In the end, it is very important to remember the words of Pine (1998: 14): Customers dont want choice. They want exactly, what they want. Customers are not buying individuality; they are purchasing a product or service that fits exactly to their needs and desires. Only few customers honor long configuration processes. Most users want to find their fitting solution as smooth and simple as possible. From a marketing perspective, mass customization means to offer its customers not any longer a product, but the capability to deliver an individual solution. The customer becomes a co-designer, using the firms capacity to create his own unique solution. Thus, the experience of the buying and configuration process gets predominant importance. Beyond all achievement and research on computer integrated manufacturing and flexible manufacturing systems enabling mass customization.

Few innovative concepts of marketing:

Ziami, a customizing brand based out of Germany (http://www.ziami.com/), has an approach based

on a multi-level marketing (or: pyramid). This means, all products are sold by independent sales

associates who purchase a 50 Euro starter package that enables them to become a custom shirt

seller. This package includes everything to sell Ziami shirts, like a "How to measure"-DVD, one sample

shirt, fabric samples, measuring tape, needles, 50 ordering flyers, 50 promotion flyers, a brochure

containing all the necessary information and the official license to sell Ziami clothes. Distribution

partners purchase a custom shirt for 22 Euro, and resell it for the suggested 29 Euro. In addition, they

are motivated to recruit further sales associates, as they will participate also on the margins

generated by those 2nd tier partners.

Another example is open-garments.eu where a user can share their design ideas online & market

them. Open-garments can be used as a medium of doing business. At first the user composes his/ her

garment selecting the fabric, color, print & shape. This customized garment can be purchased &

shared on the online platform of open-garments, where other users can admire & even purchase the

particular style. The designer can also opt to open his/ her own web-shop on the open-garments

platform & choose partners for production related activities. Thus, the open-garments movement

facilitates the user to configure, produce & share their ideas.
http://www.ziami.com/


Features of an Order System in a company doing Mass Customization:

Each product has a peculiar product ID. Customer can order a customized product in a similar way as

a standard one. Each order made by a customer has a peculiar order ID, which represents the no. &

types of products ordered by the customer in that particular order. In other words, once the

customized product is designed and made available to the customer, it is assigned a product number

and the customer places orders as if it were for any other product from the range.

A Made to Order (MTO) or Build to Order (BTO) is followed in lot sizes of one. This means, the

product is manufactured & customized from scratch or is form postponed, after the customer has

placed the order, as per the customers specifications.

The various stages of order processing in mass customization is listed out below:

Order taking co-ordination: this process manages the dialogue with the customer, receiving

and interpreting the customers wishes, coding them for verification by the customer,

finding a product solution for the customer and generating the details of the order.

Product development and design: this process handles the design for the customer.

Compliance with external and internal standards is within its scope.

Product validation and manufacturing engineering: this process is responsible for confirming

the manufacturability of the design and its translation into a set of manufacturing

procedures and rules. It will typically generate the bill of materials for the customized

products and provide guidelines on routing and processing instructions.

Order fulfillment management: this process manages the order fulfillment value adding

chain, including the supply chain. It interacts with the order co-ordination process, informing

it of when it can complete an order and schedules and controls the order fulfillment

activities.

Order fulfillment realization: this process encompasses the activities executed in the

manufacture of products, and includes supplier activities, internal manufacturing processes

and delivery activities.

Post order process: these are activities that (may) follow the completion of an order, such as

maintenance, warranty claims, technical guidance, etc.


Five fundamental modes, A to E, can be identified. They are named and described below:

Mode A: Catalogue MC- A customer order is fulfilled from a pre-engineered catalogue of variants, produced using standard order fulfillment processes. In this mode the engineering of products is not linked to orders, but completed before orders are received. Customers select from a pre-specified range and the products are manufactured by the order fulfillment activities that are in place. Likewise the order fulfillment activities are engineered ahead of an order being taken.

Mode B: Fixed resource design-per-order MC - A customer order is fulfilled by engineering a customer specific product, produced through standard order fulfillment processes. The customer places one order for the product and there is no expectation of repeat orders. In this mode there is some degree of product engineering for each order, unless a customers wishes happen to match a previous order in which case the product design is reused. Because the order fulfillment process is standard all designs must be suitable for the process. Therefore it is important the product development process is aware of the process capabilities.

Mode C: Flexible resource design-per-order MC- A customer order is fulfilled by engineering a customer specific product, and produced through modified order fulfillment processes. The customer places one order for the product and there is no expectation of repeat orders. In this mode products are engineered per order and the order fulfillment process may be modified per order. Mode D: Fixed resource call-off MC- A customized product is designed for a customer, to be manufactured via standard order fulfillment processes in anticipation of repeat orders. At the prompting of a customer a product is designed that can be manufactured through the standard order fulfillment process, and the customer can order the product at any time. Mode E: Flexible resource call-off MC-This mode is the same as Mode D except that the order fulfillment activities are modifiable. A customer order is fulfilled by engineering a customer specific product, and produced through modified order fulfillment processes. There is an expectation of repeat orders.


Product configuration systems are considered to be important enablers of the mass-customization

strategy. They are the most successful applications of e-technologies and artificial intelligence in e-business,

particularly in customer interaction. Product configuration systems support the acquisition of the customers

requirements while automating the order-taking process, and they allow customers to configure their

products by specifying their technical requirements.

Configurators can be implemented at the interface between a supplier and its customers over the Internet. Its

principle task is to support customers in the self-configuration of their products according to individual

requirements. For example, customers can be provided with the possibility to alter a basic product and also to

graphically visualize the effects of these changes (e.g., http:// www.customatix.com/).

Configurators support the configuration process that requires one to accurately understand the customers

needs and to create a complete description of a product variant that meets those needs. Given a set of

customer requirements and a product family description, the task of configuration is to find a valid and

completely specified product structure among the alternatives that the generic structure describes (Sabin &

Weigel, 1998). Configurators support the configuration task, which is defined as the process of designing a

product using a set of predefined components while taking into account a set of restrictions on how the

components can be combined.

The front end system of the product configurator interacts with the customer in order to elicit his needs.

Customers can also visualize their choices and change them according to their requirements. The back end

system of the configurator contains the product logic and does not tolerate inconsistencies between parts or

modules, which ensures that the product ordered by the customer is able to be manufactured. Forza/Salvador

(2002) pointed out those errors during order acquisition that can be considerably reduced with the

introduction of product configuration systems. Product variant prices as well as delivery point in times can be

also automatically calculated. Thereby, sales personals can be enormously reduced because of the direct

interaction between customers and supplier.

The integration of the configuration system with e.g. the product data management (PDM) system and the

ERP system provides additional advantages. Product documentation with respect to involved parts or modules

and routings can be automatically and efficiently generated. Product configuration systems generally do not

attribute a different part number to each product variant. This would induce an explosion of data because of

the possible variety of customers orders. Therefore, configurators use a generic product structure that

enables one to efficiently represent product data by avoiding redundancies (Tseng/Jiao, 2001).
http://www.customatix.com/


CRM Strategies by Prof. Frank Piller

Concept of Direct Interaction:

Companies can only predict what their customers will do in the future if they keep a record of past

behavior and know how to translate this information into knowledge about customers.

To survive in todays marketplace, a company cannot afford to choose between low costs on the one

hand, and high quality, innovative technology, quick delivery, or high variety on the other. A hybrid

strategic approach is needed, teaming high quality or the latest technology with a strong cost position.

Direct interaction with each customer leads to successful & effective Customer Relationship Management

(CRM).

Learning relationships are basis for expanding knowledge about customers. Companies that gather and

compare information about individual customers are in a better position to address their sales market in a

targeted and efficient way. This is also turns out to be a valuable & effective market research knowledge

that is similar to panel data but without the usual effects of panel surveys, because of unfiltered access to

data on market trends and customers needs.

Concept of user innovation or interactive value creation:

Another aspect of effective CRM is attaining customer feedbacks regarding a new product/ style launch or asking for the customers point of view regarding a particular product by offering selected customers with a free sample of the new product/ style. These customers are called bloggers or lead customers. They post their option regarding the product on their blogs which others users can view & comment on. An

Developing

Learning

Relationships


approach of this kind, called user innovation or interactive value creation, also helps in market research & marketing of the particular brand.

This is an important feature of co-design or co-creation which demands a continuous interaction between the employees of the manufacturer and the innovating users. Such users are motivated by various incentives (store credits or free samples of the new style), but not by (market) prices, salaries, or hierarchical commands. Interactive value creation means that users are involved in the full range of activities that bring a product to market.

In many consumer goods markets today, manufacturers are forced to create product assortments for increasingly small market niches, as these markets are the only source of growth that escapes heavy price competition. In this situation, new product development projects often require enormous investments and are highly risky. While new products or product variants have to be developed and introduced at a rapid pace, forecasting their exact specification and potential sales volumes is becoming more difficult than ever, as other producers are also creating niche products.

Newly launched products have shown notoriously high failure rates over the years, often reaching fifty percent or more. The primary reason for these flops has been found to be inaccurate understanding of user needs. In other words, many new product development projects are unsuccessful because of poor commercial prospects rather than technical problems. Researchers have found that timely and reliable information on customer preferences and requirements is the most critical information for successful product development.

In one of the cases, Threadless (http://pt.threadless.com/), a young Chicago-based fashion company that started up in 2000, the garment is produced only after a sufficient number of customers have expressed their explicit willingness to buy the design. If the commitment is missing, a potential design concept is dismissed. The Threadless business model exploits the commitment of users to screen, evaluate and score new designs as a powerful mechanism to reduce new product failures. To keep the competition interesting and encourage users to participate continuously, the number of designs at a given time has to be limited so that users dont get confused. The early user feedback has proven to be a very strong indicator of the success of a design in the competition and enables the company to increase the usability and experience for users who vote.

Concept of Collective Customer Commitment:

The process starts when an idea for a product is posted by an external designer who responds to an open call for participation. Second, reactions and evaluations of other consumers towards the posted idea are encouraged in internet forums and opinion polls. Based on the results of this process, the manufacturer investigates the possibility of commercialization of the most popular designs. If this evaluation is positive, the company decides on the minimum number of purchasers necessary to produce the item for a given sales price, covering its initial development and manufacturing costs (and the desired margin). The new product idea is then presented to the customer community, and interested customers are invited to express their commitment to the idea by voting for the design or even placing an order. Accordingly, only if the number of interested purchasers exceeds the minimum necessary lot size, investments in final product development are made and sales commence.

Motivating individual actors to make an appropriate contribution is an important management task. The significant problems of innovation are solved only if all participants realize a sufficient value from their participation. Manufacturers thus must incentivize customers and other users to transfer their innovative ideas. Rewards or recognitions are not given to everyone submitting an idea, but only for the best of these submissions.

Selection of promising ideas and their conversion into useful concepts is problematic and expensive. A well constructed contest can support these steps, if the rules of the contest demand not only an idea, but
http://pt.threadless.com/


ask submitters also for a first proof of feasibility, an evaluation of solution technologies enabling the idea, or even a corresponding manufacturing concept. In Threadless, designers use specific software that allows for an easy transfer of the chosen designs to manufacturing. The website also increases the specificity and transferability of design ideas by using the input and evaluations of other users to select between all ideas submitted. The product management of Threadless thus receives at the end of each contest not only a large number of design ideas, but also a short-list of promising design concepts selected by the customer target group, along with numerous comments and ideas about how to transfer the submitted designs into even better product concepts.

The elicitation stage has to be performed for every customer and every order, so sufficient information systems have to be available to cover the arising interaction costs of MC. In consumer markets this interaction often has to be carried out over the Internet. However, in the mi Adidas system a scanning process is involved, so a retail-based system is needed for the first pair of shoes. Re-orders can be placed easily via the Internet, saving money for the company, and time and effort for the consumer. One future option may be that customers using their shoes regularly for sports could even be able to subscribe to new pairs of their personalized shoes.

Open innovation or user driven innovation is now a policy based initiative supported by the government. The Danish government led the way followed by the Australian government & then the UK government. Substantial seed funding was taken up by several universities & dedicated professorships for user innovation are established in these universities. The project is so significant that it was listed in the Harvard Business Reviews list of Breakthrough ideas for 2007.

Two requirements for sustained CRM:

1. The first is an offering based entirely on the wishes and needs of the customer not simply on standard processes cosmetically personalized through irritating promotional letters. A sensible customer-company liaison begins with personal contact, continues with the creation of sales activities according to customer-specific specifications, and finishes with a learning relationship, whereby the provider is the student, not the teacher.

2. Second, high-quality processes must underpin these customer- specific services. Using new information and communication techniques effectively, is just as important as having well-trained, motivated staff to interact with customers. The aim is to create an atmosphere conducive to customer integration and ensure that every communication between customer and company is a positive experience leaving the customer convinced that to remain loyal is more convenient than to turn to a competitor.

Challenges for implementing peer-production principle- Not Invented Here:

An important challenge of applying the peer-production principle and other ideas from open

innovation involves the difficulties of integrating ideas and solutions created at the firms periphery into the corporate context. Internal (proprietary) knowledge has to be connected with external generated knowledge. This process appears to one of the most challenging tasks for firms that want to utilize gains from open innovation.

The Not Invented Here (NIH) problem, ... the tendency of a project group of stable composition to believe that it possesses a monopoly of knowledge in its field, which leads it to reject new ideas from outsiders to the detriment of its performance.

The important warning: if the transfer of input from peripheral sources fails, investments in customer innovation platforms turn into additional costs.

Service organizations are facing familiar problems of innovation, including the need to develop new customer centric processes and products, cut costs, improve service through the application of IT, reengineer business processes, and put in place systems and a culture for sustainable innovation- service innovation.


Strategies used in Production Planning & Control:

Form Postponement, which means, processing a product through the production cycle to a certain

point after which, they can be processed further to bestow the desired customization. E.g. painting of

a car can be delayed in the manufacturing & distribution process in order to make it customized.

QRM (Quick Response Manufacturing) emphasizes the beneficial effect of reducing internal and

external lead times. Shorter lead times improve quality, reduce cost and eliminate non-value-added

waste within the organization while simultaneously increasing the organizations competitiveness and

market share by serving customers better and faster.

Agile Manufacturing allows the marketers, the designers and the production personnel to share a

common database of parts and products, to share data on production capacities and problems

particularly where small initial problems may have larger downstream effects. It is a general

proposition of manufacturing that the cost of correcting quality issues increases as the problem

moves downstream, so that it is cheaper to correct quality problems at the earliest possible point in

the process.

Flexible Manufacturing System allows the system to react in the case of changes, whether predicted

or unpredicted. FMS leads to Faster, Lower- cost/unit, Greater labor productivity, Greater machine

efficiency, Improved quality, Increased system reliability; Reduced parts inventories, Adaptability to

CAD/CAM operations. Shorter lead times. Though the implementation of FMS would initially turn out

be costly, it fully supports all kind of computer integrated & automated systems which are a

requirement of cost effective mass customization.

Made to Order (MTO) or Build to Order (BTO) is a demand driven production approach where a

product is scheduled and built in response to a confirmed order received for it from a final

customer. This reduces excessive inventory, hence reduces capital investment & reduces business

risks.

These are few of the concepts that are widely followed by the companies that are into mass customization,

although, the way in which these tools are implemented may differ from company to company.

Manufacturers in countries such as Mexico, China and Costa Rica, receive bits and pieces of orders every day

and construct the garments one at a time, boxing each individually and shipping them out daily to consumers'

households. With mass customization, the cost of the garment is higher, but the waste is dramatically

reduced. Producing only what is required or ordered. People will pay more for customized garments.

Combined together makes this a really profitable business for the retailer.

Less inventory is another reason made-to-order gurus are pushing mass customization. The costs to operate a

mass-customization initiative are definitely higher than a mass-produced one," says Pine. But the return on

investment is higher than in a mass-produced scenario, because money is lost through inventory and carrying

costs when retailers put products on sale.

Eliminating finished product stock can dramatically lower storage costs. Moreover, less surplus stock means

less depreciation when models become outdated. For example, in the fashion industry, a considerable E300

million (approximately U.S. $370 million) is wasted each year on unsold products and inaccurate planning. This

figure underscores the huge cost-saving potential of mass customization Sewing operator/ team creates one

garment at a time and moves onto the next (Make through or Modular System followed).

Flexible production based on the opportunities granted by todays robot automation is vital to turn ideas into

profitable goods. Delocalization & outsourcing has to be limited. Attention to individual customer need &


product quality; innovation in design & materials; flexibility of response to market demands and provision of

services rather than simply goods. The emphasis is shifting from price to value.

Supply chain management in Mass Customization

This strategy requires having specific processes in place to create the ability to deliver highly customized

products at the lowest total costs. The core of mass customization is the ability to increase product variety and

customization without increasing costs. The key to mass customization is to standardize early portions of the

production process and to postpone the task of differentiation until the last possible point in the supply chain

network.

Customer

Fills out sales order based on variety

of options and individual customer

specification.

Supplier

Fills and sends the order based on

time it needs to guarantee JIT

delivery

Shipping

Production

Product Design/Production

planning

Develops production plans

Creates material purchase order

Receiving

Verifying receipt of goods

Sales order

Materials

Purchase order

Production plan

Finished goods


Supply chain

The positioning of inventory and the location, number and structure of manufacturing and distribution

facilities must be designed to provide three capabilities:

1. Flexibility and responsiveness to customized orders

2. Cost-effective delivery of basic product to customization facilities

3. Flexibility and responsiveness to deliver finished goods quickly

The supply chain of the apparel factory is comprised of: (i) The fabric production plant; (ii) Trims and accessories supplier (iii) Apparel parts assembly section (iv) Other sequenced, JIT and daily delivery suppliers (v) The Consolidation Logistical Centre. The goal of mass customization is to produce a high quality product with the shortest order to delivery time and lower cost. Mass customization is accomplished by proactively developing product families around a modular product architecture, implementing a flow manufacturing to achieve one-batch-size capability, establishing a spontaneous supply chain around standard materials, creating agile systems to order process based on product configuration and building parametric CAD templates with automatic CAD/CAM linkages. In an ideal mass customization environment, the demand forecasting accuracy for the final products could improve and even eliminate the demand forecasting for the final assembly by accessing to data on consumer preferences expressed during order configuration. However, the uncertainty in demand continues existing for the suppliers along the supply chain that have to react in a spontaneous way to face the customer orders received. In logistical terms, a supplier can be considered like a station more inside the production chain. It is logical, therefore, to extend to the suppliers the same JIT philosophy that is applied internally.

Virtual Enterprise The objective of a virtual enterprise is to develop networks of partners with buyers and suppliers to make more effective the answer and the cost of the supply chain, and to add value to the supply chain. Combining the basic aptitudes of many companies inside the network, each virtual enterprise is more powerful and flexible than what it could be as an addition of the isolated members. Each one of the companies that belongs to the virtual enterprise is chosen by the excellence of their productive process. The integrated companies in a virtual enterprise develop processes instead of producing final products. When all those processes work united it is obtained in a successful way the final product. A series of strategies that define the characteristics of a virtual enterprise exists:- (i) Vertical Integration of a logistical network, to incorporate suppliers and buyers to the whole value chain; (ii) Co-manufacturing, not in fact guided to the operations but to the product design, production of essential components, application of technologies and holistic business generation; (iii) Reduction of the supplier basis to some, strongly integrated in the business, to reduce in a drastic way the costs; (iv) Creation of a common information system for the operations, order delivery and planning, design and realization of changes. (v)Outsourcing of the support and management processes to specialized companies.


In these companies the suppliers have passed of playing a conventional role to go beyond their performance like associate suppliers and to become nodes of character fully cooperative. In the first place, there is cooperation to design new products and technologies. The suppliers are integrated in the buyer's operations and a feeling of common destination exists. The supplier looks after the buyer and this looks after the supplier's capacity to take care of his company. This progressive way, the components of the buyer's product are based on the supplier's technology. Obviously, all these requirements are not easily accessible for any company type, and this is what will determine the applicability of the model. In spite of the advantages in terms of costs that the model of virtual enterprise bears for the linked companies, it also takes place for these a loss of independence that few companies are willing to assume. In all these situations it is difficult to determine where a company begins and it finishes the other one, since the members of a virtual enterprise are closely interrelated. In a virtual enterprise no company can offer for itself and in an independent way a final product for the consumer and to say 'I made it' since the final product is possible because of the intimate collaboration of several companies constituted as a extended virtual enterprise.

Internet

As in other industries, the Internet revolution has had a number of different impacts on the Apparel industry. There are four primary areas where apparel manufacturers are applying Internet technologies: (i) The procurement and supply chain operations; (ii) Integrating Internet services, such as web and email access; (iii) Sales, marketing and distribution systems; and (iv) To attract on line customers. The Internet facilitates e-procurement (applications for the purchase management via Internet that provide the automation of the supply process of products and services from the order until the payment) across the apparel industry. The low cost and high speed of this communication method is necessary for the mass customization strategy to be economically feasible and to tell the apparel makers what you want them to build. The advent of electronic commerce over the Internet has facilitated new relationships for connecting with new supply chain partners, thereby significantly increasing the quantity and quality of inter-organizational information flows. The authors demonstrate how the advent of web-based e-commerce technologies is altering the information flows between the traditional players in the supply chain. The direct channel between manufacturers and consumers is enabling mass customization, and is influencing the production planning process. As a consequence, producers get better signals regarding the consumers preferences and demand levels, which in turn leads to better inventory management and production planning.

Issues in Supply chain management for Mass Customization:

As customer involvement is so relevant in adopting a mass customization strategy, a firms communication

with customers becomes essential. Additionally suppliers also have an increasingly important role in the

success of mass customization because of high requirements towards features of outsourced modules, which

are used for customization..Unlike the traditional mass customization system company adopting this strategy

must be able efficiently produce, sort, ship, and deliver small quantities of highly differentiated products.

Therefore, Supply chain management is an essential piece of further progress of mass customization. It is

argued that supply chain management encompasses other mass customization enablers which can also exist

at the single facility level (i. e. supply chain may involve multiple plants using advanced manufacturing

technologies).Obviously, efficiency of supply chain management is highly dependent upon capabilities of

communication infrastructure.


Differences between Supply chain management in the mass customization framework and the mass

production framework can be illustrated by flow of information and entities, respectively. Figures below

illustrate the information flow and the roles that the customers and the supplier play throughout the supply

chain. Most function in mass production systems are centralized. Inventory and production levels are

internally determined based on the sales forecast .Customers are not involved directly in design or production

planning and therefore do not have much contact with the firm. Inventory levels are replenished inside the

firms warehouse when the amount of material gets below a certain predetermined safety stock. Since the

firm can order replenishment before inventory fully depletes, quick and direct communication and distribution

links between the firm and the supplier are not vital. Once production is complete, the finished product is

stored in a finished goods warehouse, waiting for customers order.

With the mass customization strategy, on the other hand, many of the important functions are decentralized.

Production is directly based on customer specifications, making it essential for the firm to have an efficient

means of dialogue with the customer. Because maintaining low inventory level is one of the primary strategy

with mass customizers, they must be able to procure materials from suppliers almost instantly. This need for

high coordination makes it very important to have quick and direct link with the suppliers

Implementation of mass customization and supporting supply chain management functions cover a wide

spectrum of problems and problems solving approaches which are identified and described throughout the

rest of the book. Some of the common systematic approaches to mass customization briefly introduced here

are

(i) Concurrent engineering,

(ii) Time based manufacturing

(iii) Postponement.

Any of these approaches address specific stages of supply chain management for mass customization.

Concurrent engineering addresses problems of joint product and process design with participation of

manufacturers, customers, and suppliers. This synergy between design and manufacturing allows for easy

manufacturing of products at a low product development costs.

In order to support product customization, product family architecture fulfills customers needs by configuring

and modifying well established modules and components. Designing product families for mass customization

involves identifying and capturing commonality among product design and manufacturing process and then

using this commonality to develop versatile product platforms.

Time based manufacturing addresses the critical problem of providing lead time as short as possible. Time is

treated as the strategic variable for establishing mass customization. This approach focuses on time

compression techniques to enhance responsiveness to customer needs. Its main objective is to reduce end to

end time to achieve quick responsiveness.

Postponement mainly pertains to organization of distribution in the mass customization framework although

it is so closely related to customer involvement and manufacturing issues. Postponement applied in the

distribution channel allows for the closer alignment with the customer and more rapid delivery.


Importance of Technologies & Automations in Mass Customization:

Information Technology & automations play a key role in mass customization in creating the linkage between

customers preference & the ability of a manufacturing team to construct products based on those

preferences. The increasing use of the Internet and improvements in order-taking technology has made the

apparel industry ripe for mass customization.

Everyone likes to focus on the sizing software and the Web site, but a big chunk of success is the back-end

piece where the manufacturing problems are solvedLands' End is not just a fancy Web site and clever sizing

software. The whole thing is about order tracking, manufacturing systems and putting barcodes on every

single garment, so that the garments status can be tracked at any desired point of time.

Better customer satisfaction leads to better customer retention. Giving a sufficient amount of options to the

consumer, in an uncomplicated manner, (a properly dimensioned solution space) is a given requirement.

An ideal MC process should hold a certain artificial intelligence that anticipates and understands what the

customer will most likely want. That in turn relies heavily on the already addressed need to collect the data

from previous customer interaction in order to create a learning system. The easier and faster (time is money,

in the end!) the process is the more likely it will be for your target group to accept your interaction proposal

and help you to achieve your goal: customer satisfaction and market share.

It is the manufacturers job to use the information received during the customer interaction effectively and

profitably. This is a continuous process which helps the supplier to understand his/ her customer better, every

time the customer makes a purchase or raises a query regarding any of the products, & hence enables him/

her to react effectively, which ultimately leads to increased customer loyalty & retention.

Technology used to quickly modify mass market product one at a time is called as mass customization & agile

manufacturing. This involves maximizing customer satisfaction & minimizing inventory cost in a cost effective

manner that maximizes the firms profitability. Mass customization requires automation in at least 3 processes

mentioned below:

1. Body Measurement

2. Pattern Design

3. Fabric Cutting


3D Body Scanners & Body Imaging

To achieve the perfect fit is one of the prime objectives of mass customization; this requires accurate

measurements of the customers body.

Need:

Anthropometric data on which Ready-to-Wear (RTW) sizing system was based has become

outdated.

50% of the women surveyed are unable to find well fitted garments addressed to the current

sizing system.

3D body scanning technology is being viewed as a significant bridge between craftsmanship and

computer-aided design technologies.

Introduction to Body Scanning:

Barriers that restricted the effective implementation & use of 3D body scanners earlier-

High priced

Body scanning systems were not effectively integrated with CAD systems & did not provide

design functions at the customers end in order to customize the design or fit of the particular

product. Thus, customers had to rely on the designers for the same, which bounded the

personalization process.

Incapability of 2D pattern transformation into 3D garments led to the examination of the

garment design & style on the grounds of fit & fall only after garment was actually constructed.

Non-interactive approach restrained creativity

Henceforth, a need for an affordable system that could facilitate body scanning, body modeling & design

virtual garments in an integrated manner rose up.

Characteristics & Working of the new & developed Body Scanning System:

Rapid, non-contact scanning of whole or partial body to obtain the size information

Creates customized body forms as a model for apparel design

Required size & fit can be manipulated & evaluated

Comprises of- a) Computer b) Circuit box & c) 5x8x8 (W*L*H) ft3

Dark booth

Performs triangulation measurement with the help of laser line projectors (that are safe for

naked eyes), CCD (Couple Charged Device- that detects the displacement of light on the body of

the subject) cameras & the control box.

All scanning and measuring commands are sent from the PC through the parallel port to the

control box, which drives the scanning units to proper positions, turns on the laser projectors,

and then triggers the cameras to grab images. The scanning units may stop 5-6 times to ensure

the whole body to be scanned.

A 3D body image is processed from merged scan lines

Range information is represented by the degree of brightness of each pixel on the body.


Body Measurement:

The front & back 3D images are combined to give the full body form

Dimension of the body can be measured on this 3D body form

Key measurements are associated to certain landmarks of the body(shoulder, bust, waist, crotch,

etc)

3 major steps to extract body dimensions from the 3D body form-

a) Locate body landmarks (neck, waist, bust, crotch, etc)

b) Process data using fitting techniques (convert b-spline curves to smooth curves)

c) Compute measurements ( circumference, distance, angle, etc)

More the control points, more is the fitting accuracy for b-spline to smooth curves

Body Modeling:

Generate a body form on the computer screen with the help of key

measurements from a pre-scanned body

Serves as a personalized model for style manipulation & fit adjustment

Allows the user/ designer to freely rotate & zoom the body form/ dress

form for viewing & measuring the body shape

Body needs to be divided into no. of relatively simple sub surfaces (e.g.

the upper torso can be divide into 7 sections- neck, shoulder, chest, waist,

abdomen, etc)

The 3D body form is developed from these various patches


Virtual Garment:

Virtual garment can be created by following the shape of the 3D body form & taking a desirable

ease to ensure the required personal fit.

The software provides the user a tool with which he/ she can cut through the garment & the

body form in horizontal & vertical directions in order to check & change the ease at any position

by specifying the dimension of the required added space.

Structure lines (seam lines, grain lines & outlines) can also be added

After the designing part, the garment can be virtually taken off the body form & flattened into 2D

patterns (unwrapping) for further modifications in an apparel CAD system.

Integration:

Manipulation of body sizes & shapes of the scanned data for 3D visualization is made possible by

means of integration of the 3D body scanners & the apparel CAD systems

Its crucial to the process of linking the scanned data to CAD patterns (compatibility between

systems should be ensured for automatic generation & manipulation of patterns

Systems are web enabled, hence direct data transfer from the scanners over the local network or

over the web into existing CAD applications is possible

Allows 2D pattern alteration to 3D garment generation

Data recorded is in the form of (x,y,z) co-ordinate system & is stored in ASCII file system

3D Body Scanning

3D Body Modeling

Measurement Extraction & O/P File Creation

2D Pattern Alteration Methods & Marker Generation

2D to 3D Garment Generation


XML (Extensible Markup Language):

Covers the missing link between 3D body scanners & 2D body alterations

Promotes efficient data exchange between 3D body scanners & CAD systems

A standard method based on XML file system of apparel CAD pattern is provided, that can fulfill

the need for pattern data exchange

Bidirectional transmission of data between the 3D body scan system & an apparel CAD system

Common definitions or signs of body landmarks to describe pattern generation methods & 3D to

2D transformation.

The scanners can record data in rdb, bin and ord files and is compatible with others such as VMRL,

ASCII, Excel and IGES. It is also able to automatically load, save data files and export measurement to CAD

systems; therefore exporting 3D data for pattern making, garment draping simulation and 3D body

tracking is possible.

Types of 3D Body Scanners available:

Laser scanning: these scanners work on the basis of a light-plane and triangulation method. A

laser is used as a light source and a technology called CCD (couple charged device) scans the field

of view. The CCD detects the displacement of the light on a body. Body scanners based on laser

technology are able to scan about 60,000 points per second.

Structured or White Light scanning: body scanners with structured light technology work with

projectors. They project a series of white-light stripes on to the subject and are captured via

cameras. The 3D shape of the body is described through the curve of the stripes over the subject.

Studies have shown that during the scanning sequence light projection systems are faster than

laser based systems. But for measurement extraction, these types of scanners sustain a bit more

time (Istook and Hwang, 2001).

Human Solutions (formally TechMath): Human Solutions 3D body scanner (eg. Vitus Smart XXL)

is based on laser technology. Using 8 sensor heads and an optical triangulation process, it

acquires approximately 140 body dimensions in a 3D image of the body, in 12 seconds. Data can

be exported in ASCII, OBJ, STL and DXF formats (Human Solutions, 2009).

Cyberware (Digisize): these whole body 3D scanners (eg. Model WBX) extract over 100

measurements of the body in 17 seconds. 4 scan heads collect 3D measurements every 2 mm

from head to toe to create an accurate 3D data set. The scanning process captures an array of

digitized points represented by x, y, and z coordinates for shape. 3D rendering tools allow the

operator to view the 3D scan data immediately on completion of the scan (Cyberware, 2009).

Wicks and Wilson (TriForm/ TriBody): these body scanners use white light to capture the 3D

scan data in approximately 12 seconds via 8 camera views. Stripes of safe white light are used to

capture the 3D shape of a person. The harmless light contains no invisible rays, lasers or other

radiation. Resulting images are analysed automatically by the TriBody software and processed to

produce a 3D point cloud model containing approximately 1.5 million 3D co-ordinates (x,y,z).

Resulting 3D scans can be saved in different output formats (Wilks and Wilson, 2009).

Telmat (SYMCAD): Telmats turbo flash/3D System for Measuring and Creating Anthropometric

Database (SYMCAD) utilises structured light. A set of white light stripes is projected onto the

subject for data capture. Its new ST (Special Tracking) version applies 3D digitising to its data

capture for accuracy due to errors with natural body sway movements and underwear

reflectance (Telmat Industrie, 2009).


[TC] Body Measurement System: *TC+s Nx16 body scanner system is a 3D measuring system

that utilises optical lenses that produce a digital copy of surface geometry of the body. Based on

white light technology and Phase Mapping Profilometry (PMP), it scans the whole body in

approximately 8 seconds (*TC+, 2009). Similar to Telmats SYMCAD, it uses light sources to

project structured lines / patterns and cameras to capture the image. It also produces

approximately 140 body measurements with a 3D body model via point cloud data form.

Advantages of using a 3D Body Scanner & an Integrated CAD System:

Accurate clothing fit

Data generated can be used for the creation of dress-forms (body-forms), mannequins & avatars

(for online shopping)

Data generated can be used for creating size charts through anthropometric study, which, by

traditional methods would turn out to be a time taking, tedious & costly process.

Facilitates mass customization

Drives away the confusion between customers regarding various size charts by different buyers

Enables virtual model fit trials that enhances online shopping experience

Fundamental for production & fabric consumption

Significant bridge between craftsmanship & CAD technologies

3D body scanning can facilitate a customized fit for any no. or type of people

Captures an accurate 3D representation of a garment in relationship to the body, minimizing

visual distractions

Measurements obtained are reproducible & are more precise than those obtained through

traditional methods

Quick, non-contact, accurate & efficient way of measuring a subject

Eliminates likelihood of invalid, unreliable & subjective measurement procedures & vague

judgment of posture

Foundation for specified batch & individual pattern construction

Scanned data from a particular body scanner can be exchanged within other systems, thus

increasing flexibility

No challenges regarding land-marking, as in case of traditional method (crotch position, etc)

An end to standardization as customers now demand choice variety & unique (personalized)

products

Reduces lead time thus making the entire mass customization process faster, more effective,

flawless & thus satisfying the customers beyond expectations

Shifts the focus of mass production to mass customization with individualized sizing & design

features with competitive pricing & fast turnarounds.

Challenges:

Formulation of a recruitment strategy in order to recruit volunteers for body scanning by offering

them incentives in order to encourage participation

Subjects are required to wear only undergarments in case of some scanners

Image based problems, since theres a requirement of the subject to be still. Abrupt breathing

also affects the accuracy of the body image generation

Shadows casts (due to hair) is another problem, in case of light controlled scanners

In case of White Light Scanners, color mismatched undergarments may pose a problem


Single Ply Cutting:

Traditionally, multi or high-ply cutters cost about $250,000. This amount is normally out of the reach of

small to medium size companies because they do not have the sales volume and financing for such a

cutter. Companies undergoing mass customization dont work with big lot sizes. There is a lot of variation

in the styles & the fabrics used. Thus, multi-ply cutting or cutting of huge lays of fabric is not required &

isnt feasible. This brought in the concept of single ply cutters which could facilitate unit garment

production as per the customizations regarding the fit, design & quality of the garment.

At one time, single-ply cutters were only used for special cutting requirements, such as leather goods. It is

impractical to cut more than one animal skin at a time. However, single ply cutters have become a prime

requirement for the manufacturers executing mass customization. Various companies supply single ply

cutters. Few of them are Lectras Topspin, Bullmer Unocut, Gerbers DCS 1500, Eastman, Aristo, Kuris

Wastema & Investronica.

Single-ply cutters offer many benefits to small or medium companies:

1. The relatively low cost ($50 60,000) of the single-ply cutter versus the cost of high-ply cutters

($250,000). The high-end single-ply cutter could cost up to $150,000 if all the features were ncluded.

2. Niche Markets such as the furniture industry which deals with engineered prints. Single-ply cutters

are used so that the engineered prints will meet the expectation of the consumer.

3. Many small companies have a need for a low volume of pieces that range over a variety of sizes. For

example, a company may need to cut 2 pieces of size 8, 3 of size 10, and so on. Single-ply or low-ply

cutting is more effective in such a scenario.

4. Single-ply cutters are extremely useful for producing samples or product prototypes that are used to

obtain early market feedback.

5. Single-ply cutters are accurate and reliable and do not have expensive blades. Old blades can be

discarded and economically replaced with new blades.

6. Single-ply cutters support the concept of mass customization - defined as the mass production of

individually customized goods and services. Today many consumers are unhappy with the fit of the

clothing they buy and are willing to pay a premium for customized apparel. According to one consumer

survey, 36% of consumers are willing to pay up to 15% more for customized products. Most consumers do

not order large quantities of these items at one time, but they may order one or two identical items.

Single-ply cutters are ideal in this environment.

7. Single-ply cutting allows manufacturers to produce a variety of high-quality, customized goods while

reducing excess inventory and costs.


Fast & convenient Single Ply Fabric Feeders are also made available by Gerber Technology to ensure the

proper feeding of the single ply fabric to be cut. The Gerber Niebuhr Single-Ply Fabric Feeding device is

used in conjunction with conveyorized, automated cutting. It features Gerber Niebuhr's electronically

controlled cradle feed to accurately feed fabric onto the cutting surface with little or no tension. It allows

single-ply cutting to run continuously or intermittently until the fabric roll is exhausted.

These can be effectively used by mass customizers to cut many styles and fabrics. Built low to the floor

and featuring an optional motorized cradle tilt device, the feeder makes roll loading easy and quick.

Accurate edge control is assured under difficult conditions by the high-quality infrared edge control

device. The Single-Ply Feeder can be moved to the production line quickly on its own locking wheels. If the

cutter is required to move to other tables with conventional spreading, the Single-Ply Feeder can be

quickly moved aside to provide maximum floor space.

Image courtesy: Gerber Technology

Single Ply Cutters by Gerber Technology DCS 1500 DCS 2500

Single Ply Cutters by Gerber Technology


Digital Printing:

Digital printing has become very attractive as a method for decorating textiles. The primary reason is the requirement of 1 to 1 yards of individualized fabric for individual orders. Because of the efficiencies it brings to the production process, textile inkjet printing not only reduces costs normally incurred with screen printing, but also drastically improves lead times and opens up worlds of design possibilities. Once digital inks were produced from textile dyestuffs, many textile printers began to see other advantages over graphic inks. The dyestuffs could be fixed exactly as they would be if rotary printed. This provided a finished fabric with commercial fastness properties. The digitally-printed goods had excellent resistance to laundering and sunlight, and the colors would not crock or rub off onto other fabrics. The process is not as complicated as many believe, as long as you follow a few guidelines. Informed selection of fabric, ink and equipment can greatly simplify the process and allow the printer to produce a superior product. Selection of Ink: Currently, there are four types of dyestuffs available for commercial use as digital inks. Each type is capable of printing on a particular type (or types) of fiber. They are:

a) Fiber Reactive Inks Cotton, linen, silk, rayon and many other plant-derived fibers including jute and hemp can all be printed with fiber-reactive inks. The colors are very bright and the light fastness is appropriate for apparel and home furnishings. Because the dye in the ink chemically reacts with the fiber, it actually becomes part of the fiber, giving excellent wash fastness. Fiber reactive inks require the use of fabric that is pretreated for printing with them. Such fabric is commercially available today from a wide variety of sources. Once printed, the fabric must be steamed and washed, which is much simpler than many printers realize.

b) Acid Inks Nylon, silk, wool and leather can all be printed with acid inks. As with fiber reactive inks, acid inks give very bright colors and have overall better light fastness than fiber reactives, making them appropriate for outdoor flags. Acid dyes also react with the fibers giving very good wash fastness. As with reactive inks, the fabric must be pretreated with materials to facilitate their fixation and again, this pretreated fabric is widely available commercially. Also, as with reactives, post-processing of materials printed with acid ink involves steaming and washing the fabric (with the exception of leather).

c) Disperse Inks Disperse inks in almost all cases are limited to being used on polyester. The colors can be bright, but in general are not quite as bright as those of the acid and reactive inks. Disperse dyes sublime, or become a gas when heated to very high temperatures. Once they become gaseous, they are absorbed by the polyester fibers. The dye condenses and becomes physically trapped inside, thus giving very good resistance to laundering.

d) Pigment Inks At first glance, pigment inks seem to be the best choice for printing textiles. They tend to have excellent light fastness and can be used on all fibers. Fixation is very simple, involving only heat or UV curing. However, pigment inks must contain a resin to glue the pigments onto the fiber. The addition of this resin limits the amount of pigment that can be included in the ink. Therefore, a pigment ink that contains a high level of color typically has less resin, and thus has lower wash fastness. Pigment inks with good wash fastness typically have less color in them. Because many of these resins cure, like glue, when heated, they cannot be used with thermal (bubble jet) printers.


For acid and reactive inks, a steamer and washer will be necessary to fix the dyes and subsequently

wash off any excess dye.

Fixation: Pigment Pigments are the simplest to process and involve only curing in an oven. Typically, ink manufacturers recommend a cure at 325-350 F for 30-90 seconds. Some print shops use their transfer presses to accomplish this task. Disperse For disperse-transfer or dye sublimation, paper is printed and subsequently transferred in a press to polyester at 380-410 F for 30-90 seconds. For direct- printed disperse inks, the fabric is cured or thermosoled at 380-410 F and, depending on the fabric, is subsequently washed and dried to remove excess unfixed dye. Reactive Reactive-printed fabrics are steamed to fix the dyes. In non-pressurized or atmospheric steamers where the material is not rolled up, the fabric is steamed for 8-10 minutes at 212-214F. The time required for reactive dye fixation in pressurized steamers varies from manufacturer to manufacturer but is typically in the 20-30 minute range. Once reactive dyes have been steamed, the fabric must be washed. Because of the amount of unfixed color that is removed in the washing process, its generally recommend that reactive prints be washed in two or more cycles, starting with a cold rinse and followed by progressively hotter washes. By doing the washing in steps, a limited amount of unfixed color is removed in each cycle, thus reducing the chance of back-staining the fabric with loose dye. In some washing units, there are multiple washing troughs, allowing multiple cycles to be performed in one pass through the unit. Drying the fabric can be performed with many types of machinery, from dedicated textile drying units to transfer presses. Many print shops use residential tumble dryers. Acid As with reactive dyes, acid dyes are steamed in the fixation step. The temperatures are the same but the times are roughly doubled, to about 20 minutes in atmospheric steamers (40 minutes for heavy materials and green/turquoise shades) and about 4060 minutes in pressurized steamers. The washing procedure for acid dye-printed fabrics is essentially identical to reactive-printed fabrics, starting with cold rinsing followed by successively hotter washes. The Process: Because of the fabrics inherent flexibility, which varies from warp to weft & around the bias, it is difficult to guide under the digital printer heads. Stork Textile Printing Group of the Netherlands showed the first system to the industry in 1995 and has since been followed by many digital printers like Digital Graphics, Konica, etc. The actual method of printing, though, is only one of the technical difficulties. The ability to print a wide color gamut while controlling color density needs to be considered & different dyes types are required for different fabrics. These inks must not drastically affect the feel & drape of the fabric; they must be light fast, stand up to constant friction, retain color vibrancy and, when used in production environment rather than sampling, must be washable and/ or dry cleanable. To speed up the printing process, Rimslow Pvt. Ltd., in Australia, has introduced Steamex, a steaming unit that allows users of inkjet textile printers to cure the printed fabric immediately after the printing process is completed. Before any printing is carried out, however, designs must be developed in a digital format that can be read by the printers, and this requires cooperation between the design software companies, the ink manufacturers & the printing machine developers.


Integration between 3D scanners, CAD Systems, Digital Printing and Single Ply Feeding & Cutting:

There has been and will be much speculation as to where new applications of digital printing will be found in the future. Recent improvements in automatic marker making & single ply cutting could make digital printing & cutting a synchronized operation. The single ply would be printed to a pre-defined pattern &marker, so that the fabric used in the garment is printed, thus saving time & ink wastage. Fabric would then move to the cutting area where it is cut as a single ply. The next step would be addressing checks, stripes & motif matching. Instead of laying the pattern pieces into the marker to match, patterns could be printed onto the product pieces to match. This would enable the tightest plain fabric marker to be used. The layout of the checks, stripes & motifs would be automatically positioned on the pattern pieces (rather than the other way round) and printed resulting inconsiderable fabric saving & hence cost. Taking this idea further, the customer could select where any part of the design should lie on the finished fabric. In one scenario, a customer walks into a clothing boutique one afternoon to buy a new spring dress. The customer dons a form-fitting bathing suit and steps into a booth where her exact measurements are taken by a digital scanner. She then selects the style of the dress she prefers, then her favorite material, then the pattern, even the colors of the individual flowers in the pattern. Within 24 hours the fabric has been digitally printed and digitally cut and sewn and the dress is ready for pickup the next day in exactly her size, favorite pattern, and favorite colors. This concept of mass customization is already a reality presented by TC2, a not-for-profit organization based in Cary, North Carolina involved in promoting the advancement of technology in the sewn goods industry. Artists and designers are now working on designs at home or in branch offices. Their finished designs are downloaded directly to digital print machines in print shops or even in their customers offices. Custom digitally printed silk ties are now being offered for prices that the average consumer can afford. Low cost digital T-shirt printers are now available that can print custom designs quickly and efficiently. The applications for digital fabric printing are endless. With the low cost, fast turnaround and unlimited flexibility, it has begun to take over large portions of the print-for pay market and with advancements in software, hardware, and chemical technology being made every day, the old way of printing may be going the way of the dinosaur.

Image courtesy: Gerber Technology


Virtual Modeling for an Interactive Online Shopping Experience:

The new-age customers are keener towards purchasing products online on account of their tight work

schedule which doesnt permit them the time for going to a nearby shopping mall & undergo the tiring

shopping process. Customers are looking beyond traditional retail venues for shopping alternatives &

customized products.

Advantages of Virtual Fitting:

Virtual fit & modeling allows the customer start be at the top of the value chain thus satisfying

their demand for choice & individuality.

Provides sustainable competitiveness to the retailer

It facilitates high level of interactivity, hassle free, time saving, pre-purchase visual assessment of

garments

It aims on providing an optional fit & provides a revolutionary online shopping experience

Reduces costs due to fit trial sessions undertaken by exorbitant live models

Increased accuracy of targeted fit that results in reduced sample making

Avoids the task of travelling for numerous fitting sessions for the customers

Size recommendation function helps consumers to identify the right size of clothing

Thus aims at improving customer satisfaction & hence reduces returns due to poor fit

Types of Virtual Dressing Rooms:

1. Video Virtual Dressing Rooms

2. Robotic Virtual Dressing Rooms

3. Motion Detector Virtual Dressing Rooms

4. Web Cam Virtual Dressing Rooms

Online retailers can choose to offer amongst the following virtual dressing rooms:

www.myvirtualmodel.com

www.ezface.com

www.dailymakeover.com

www.servive.com

http://fits.me/

www.myshape.com

www.couturious.com

www.ic3d.com

Statistics first: only 9% of clothing is sold on internet. In comparison 50% of computers are sold online; 40% of

books are sold online. Apparel is one the most difficult categories to be sold on internet.

Overall apparel retail is growing some 3% a year, the share sold on internet is growing much more rapidly. The

figures vary, but some high estimates have put the online clothing at 35% share by 2018.

E-commerce benefits retailers more than 9%
http://www.myvirtualmodel.com/http://www.ezface.com/http://www.dailymakeover.com/http://www.servive.com/http://fits.me/http://www.myshape.com/http://www.couturious.com/http://www.ic3d.com/


Buying clothes on internet lacks two distinct features: touch and try. Until these two have been solved, the

online apparel retail follows organic growth pattern, with dramatic growth to follow after the technology steps

up.

Importance of solving these features can be seen from looking at return rates and the reason of returns. The

average reason of return because the color did not match what was seen on screen is less than 5%. The reason

that the fabric was unexpected is around 10-15% reasons of returns. And the poor fit is the reason of returns a

whopping 50-70%.

Building tools to help people shop, deepens their relationships with the retailers. It takes some of the

uncertainty out of the shopping experience when shopping remotely and it gives the customer a level of

confidence.

Technologies aspiring to help apparel internet sales:

Styling advice (akin to a sales assistant suggesting: "if you like this shirt, you should consider these

pants): Couturious.com;

Augmented reality: RichRelevance and incredibly cool Fittingbox; (Fashionista)

Size recommendation: myshape.com

Return services (return shipping is still the most common way to tackle the poor fit): Newgistics;

Visual Size Guide which lets customer see which sizes fit them best: www.Fits.me

Virtual model generation as per the customer measurements & choices regarding ethnicity, hair style,

etc: www.servive.com
http://www.couturious.com/http://www.itvt.com/story/6084/zugara-richrelevance-launch-augmented-reality-driven-social-shopping-application-tobicomhttp://www.fittingbox.com/http://www.myshape.com/http://www.newgistics.com/http://www.fits.me/http://www.servive.com/


Benefits of Mass Customization:

Differentiation through individuality

New ways to cut costs- through direct interactions with the customers & avoiding excess inventory

(raw material & finished goods).

Postponement/negative cash flow

Increase in flexibi

Mass Customization- A Viable Future

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Transcript of Mass Customization- A Viable Future