Mass customization is a new business strategy that allows for a large variety of individually customized goods and services to be produced at mass production efficiency and costs. It involves customizing products for individual customers or niche markets using flexible production processes and postponing differentiation until late in the supply chain. Dell pioneered this approach in computers by assembling them according to each customer's exact specifications using a collaborative process, becoming a top maker of file servers globally.

1. MASS CUSTOMIZATION

2. WHAT IS MASS CUSTOMIZATION? New frontier in business competition for both manufacturing and service industries At its core is a tremendous increase in variety and customization without a corresponding increase in costs At its limit, it is the mass production of individually customized goods and services At its best, it provides strategic advantage and economic value Effectively postponing the task of differentiating a product for a specific customer until the latest possible point in the supply network

3. ADVANTAGES Mass customizers can customize products quickly for individual customers or for niche markets at better than mass production efficiency and speed. Using the same principles, mass customizers can Build-to-Order both customized products and standard products without forecasts, inventory, or purchasing delays.

4. NICHE MARKETS A relatively small and specialist, yet profitable, market Not mass marketed. Marketed to a smaller group of consumers who share a specific need/desire that is not a universal consumer expectation

5. A FEW SUCCESSFUL NICHE MARKETS

6. A FEW SUCCESSFUL NICHE MARKETS

7. A FEW SUCCESSFUL NICHE MARKETS

8. Dell assembles computers according to the specifications ordered by the customers Uses collaborative approach and assembles computers to customer's exact specifications A PIONEER IN MASS CUSTOMIZATION

9. Dell has recently become the number one maker of file servers in the U.S., as well as holding the number two position worldwide. The production process from order to delivery is managed electronically, which allows Dell to build servers very efficiently and their customers to know where their server is during each step of the process. A PIONEER IN MASS CUSTOMIZATION