From common to custom: the case for make-to-order

摘要

A widget’s a widget. Whether that perception is reality in the case of our company’s products, it’s fair to say that commoditization is now common. The last frontier of product differentiation is service, and that’s becoming the new specialty of warehousing and distribution. Mass customization is the perfect case in point. The ability to offer customized products with short lead times is getting to be a huge area of competitive differentiation among suppliers to both the industrial and retail worlds. Retail soft goods provided some of the earliest examples of mass customization, or postponement. In the 1980s, Beneton was one of those pioneers. Rather than knitting sweaters in different colors and storing separate SKUs, they would knit sweaters in neutral colors and dye the completed garment to meet current market demand. When coupled with a real-time reporting system from retailers, response to color demand could be instantaneous and obsolete inventory could be reduced.