Flight Catering: An Investigation of the Adoption of Mass Customisation

Mass customisation (MC) is a well-established paradigm in many sectors of industry. The reason for this study was that flight catering appeared to be the first sector of the hospitality industry to be adopting MC. There was a prima facie case that it was introducing many of the features of mass customised products and services — agile manufacturing, lean production, just-in-time inventory, modularity, and flexible labour practices. In particular, the specific MC mode (MacCarthy, Brabazon, & Bramham, 2003) adopted by this industry is identified as ‘flexible resource call-off MC’ and is established as a model of the operational process with the flight catering industry. The research concludes that although most elements of mass customisation are evident in flight catering, the MC paradigm has not been fully adopted.