ZEMCH 2019 International Conference Proceedings April.2020 | Page 460
1. Introduction
There is an increasing demand for dwellings that effectively meet customers’ individual needs, as
standardized products often lead to dwellers dissatisfaction [1‐4]. Increasing the attractiveness of new
dwellings requires the development of specific approaches focused on the ability to satisfy the current
and future customer’s needs [5]. Delivering customer value is a combination of understanding exactly
what is the valued by customers [6], and devising products that fulfill customer’s requirements.
Although this seems to be critical for the successful delivery of construction projects, there are major
limitations in current project delivery practices [7].
Mass customisation (MC) is a strategy for providing products that fulfill specific requirements of
different customers without a substantial increase in cost and delivery time [8]. In different sectors,
companies have been able to offer a wide range of product options with competitive prices, similar to
mass production [9]. MC integrates the customers into value generation processes by defining,
configuring, matching, or modifying individual solutions from of a list of options and pre‐defined
components [10]. It requires the consideration of complex issues such as the definition of attributes on
which customers wish to differentiate their products, how the customers interact with the organization,
and whether the organization has the capability to offer a set of product alternatives efficiently and
profitably [11].
During the customisation process, the interface between customers and company is crucial and
tends to have an important impact on the level of satisfaction [12]. One of the possible interfaces
between a company and its customers is the choice menu [13], a key element for the implementation of
MC [12]. CM has already been used in several sectors, being strongly related to the translation of
customers’ needs and expectations into product specifications [14]. Its definition is based on the
solution space defined by the company, showing customisable attributes of the product and their
options available for customers to choose from, defined as customisation units. The solution space
defines the set of attributes of a product that are customisable, grouping one or more customisation
units [15]. CM limits what can or cannot be customised, as well as incorporates the scope of the
customisation strategy [15].
Many organizations have not conceived their processes to cope with the degree of clients’
involvement required in a CM, demanding a re‐structuring of their entire manufacturing, sales, and
delivery systems [16]. Even though CM is the main interface of the customisation strategy, it should be
considered as an outcome of the whole system, being necessary to understand what is behind the
options that are offered, through an overall look across the production system’s capabilities.
Slywortzky [16] identified barriers to the adoption of CMs, such as the high degree of clients’
involvement, the lack of a highly responsive supply chains, and the lack of a critical mass of clients able
to use them. According to Franke and Piller [12], CM is a relevant research topic, and can potentially
contribute to the understanding of success and failure of MC applications. Fogliatto and Silveira [17]
suggest that most research on CM has been limited to the development of models, theoretical
frameworks, and web‐based systems, but very few propositions have been tested in real‐world
situations. In summary, companies should better understand how to design, manage and implement
CMs in order to fully benefit from its potential as an enabler for customer‐producer interaction and a
key source of information about customers’ requirements [17‐19].
The aim of this paper is to propose a set of guidelines for the development of CMs for companies
that deliver residential building projects, starting from the definition of the solution space until
customers make decisions through a CM. It is based on an empirical study, carried out in a Brazilian
company that develop and build customised residential building projects for the upper‐middle class
market. In this study, the company implemented some changes in the customisation process by
aligning decision‐making related to customisation, with the ways product alternatives are presented to
customers, and constraints imposed by different sectors involved in this process.
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ZEMCH 2019 International Conference l Seoul, Korea