The mass customization model presents a challenge to the production planning process in the automobile industry. Mass customization implies that the customers can select order and receive a specially configured product to satisfy their specific requirements.
The goal of mass customization is to produce a high quality product with the shortest 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 to CNC equipment.
In the future, many companies will go from a make-to-stock to a mass customization business model. For instance, General Motors plans to transform from a make-to –stock company to a mass customization company to reduce the costs of parts and unsold cars. Some of the important strategies required for mass customization are:
•Supply chain management
•Internet
Supply chain management:
A typical supply chain management in the automobile industry is formed by thousands of companies related with the raw materials supply, the part of production, the sub-assembly, the final assembly and the distribution. For example, the Hyundai supply chain has approximately 400 first tire suppliers, 2,500 second tier suppliers and an unknown number of third or superior tier suppliers.
One of the problems in the automobile industry is the simultaneous combination of a large-volume-production requirement with a large variety of small-lot, make-to-order requirement involving a big number of suppliers.
Internet:
As in other industries, the internet revolution has had different impacts on the automobile industry. Four primary areas where automobile manufacturers are applying internet technologies are
1.Procurement and supply chain
2.Integrating Internet services into vehicles, such as web and e-mail access
3.Sales, marketing and distribution systems
4.To attract online customers
The internet facilitates e-procurement across the auto 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 automakers 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 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 customers’ preferences and demand levels, which in turn lead to better inventory management and production planning.
