Opportunities and Challenges of Furniture Manufacturers Implementing Mass Customization

Torsten Lihra, Urs Buehlmann and Robert Beauregard
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Torsten Lihra: Forintek Canada Corp., Canada
Urs Buehlmann: Virginia Tech, USA
Robert Beauregard: Faculté de Foresterie et de Géomatique, Université Laval, Canada

Chapter 48 in Handbook of Research in Mass Customization and Personalization:(In 2 Volumes), 2009, pp 965-976 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: AbstractGlobalization and other inherent factors have created challenges to the North American furniture industry. Imports from low production cost countries did increase greatly over the last five years. At the same time, the U.S. and Canadian furniture manufacturers lost market shares. Mass customization (MC) of furniture products is considered to be a potential strategy to regain competitiveness for North American manufacturers. This study sheds light on North American furniture manufacturers' perception of MC, its potential and challenges to implement it. A survey of furniture manufacturers in Canada, the USA and Germany showed that developing modularity and agility, integrating the supply chain and pursuing a competitive cost structure are critical elements of a furniture customization system. Manufacturer perceived that having end users designing products the true limit of MC. Assisting end users through the personalization process and suggesting a limited number of pre-packaged options should be the favored approach.

Keywords: Mass Customization; Personalization; Engineer-to-Order; Open Innovation; User Co-Creation; Modularity; Platform Design; Customer Centricity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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