In the modern society, sustainability is a theme that nobody can ignore, and design is playing a remarkable role in this context; consequently, design for sustainability becomes a key concept in the process of product development. Mass Customization (MC) is a well developed topic for couple of decades, which is generally described as a positive strategy to improve marketing requirements in a large scale production. In order to satisfy the customers, companies are trying to provide larger product variety and more product differentiation that somehow results to over production and over inventory. In this context, “Mass customization equals sustainability: the amount of products which are not sold corresponds to such a huge batch of energy without any use at all (Sergio Dulio, 2009)” then became waste. Therefore, MC will possibly be an approach for sustainability, while design oriented customization will support sustainability from design perspective. The research pays close attention on MC case studies in automobile and furniture sectors as best practices, and then investigated into furniture sector aiming to recommend design guidelines and tools as sustainable solutions for MC product development. For future discussion, MC could potentially reach “sustainable business (J.Pine, 2009)” and sustainable product development processes.
Design oriented mass customizationfor sustainability. A sustainable approach for product development in the furniture sector
DESERTI, ALESSANDRO;
2010-01-01
Abstract
In the modern society, sustainability is a theme that nobody can ignore, and design is playing a remarkable role in this context; consequently, design for sustainability becomes a key concept in the process of product development. Mass Customization (MC) is a well developed topic for couple of decades, which is generally described as a positive strategy to improve marketing requirements in a large scale production. In order to satisfy the customers, companies are trying to provide larger product variety and more product differentiation that somehow results to over production and over inventory. In this context, “Mass customization equals sustainability: the amount of products which are not sold corresponds to such a huge batch of energy without any use at all (Sergio Dulio, 2009)” then became waste. Therefore, MC will possibly be an approach for sustainability, while design oriented customization will support sustainability from design perspective. The research pays close attention on MC case studies in automobile and furniture sectors as best practices, and then investigated into furniture sector aiming to recommend design guidelines and tools as sustainable solutions for MC product development. For future discussion, MC could potentially reach “sustainable business (J.Pine, 2009)” and sustainable product development processes.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
