E-CUSTOM · A Web-based Collaboration System for Mass Customization

Mass production no longer seems suitable for today’s market and is being replaced by mass customization. The need for satisfying the individual customers’ requirements is now stronger than ever. Customers require that the product they buy fulfils their personal requirements in an individualised manner. New technologies can now make it possible to prepare unique designs of products, manufacture these products and communicate on a mass basis. The first objective of the proposed research is to engage customers in the design and development of personalised products from the initial product design up to the after market segment. A web-based system can now tailor information or products to the customer. Specifically, potential customers will be given the opportunity to modify a set of characteristics, including the choice of materials as well as the modification of the standard geometry and appearance specifications of parts belonging to a carefully chosen, personalisation-enabling, series of components of different models and variants. The second main objective is to reach an efficient level of decentralized manufacturing. The project aims to develop tools that will support the manufacturing and/or assembly of selected parts outside the central manufacturing site. Depending on the selected customization options certain manufacturing processes will be possible to be carried out by the material/parts suppliers or by the local distributors and/or service providers in a coordinated manner. Additionally, the project aims to measure the environmental footprint of the possible solutions in order to be considered when deciding on the most appropriate manufacturing solution (where, how, who and when). In order to facilitate this process, a multi-layer data exchange infrastructure will be built in order to ensure interoperability between all users.