Design for mass customization: Product variety vs. process variety

Mass customization (MC) has become a reality and cannot be neglected as one of the leading strategies in satisfying customers and assuring companies survival in today's markets. MC can be offered either via product variability or process variability. How this is achieved using both approaches is the main core of this article. After an overview of related works, the influence of design variability on the overall generated value of the product is studied via a metric approach. A case study of the shoe industry is also presented, based on the experience of a European project called Dorothy.