Customer Reviews

Build-to-Order & Mass Customization; The Ultimate Supply Chain Management and Lean Manufacturing Strategy for Low-Cost On-Demand Production without Forecasts or Inventory

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mass customization is a goal of almost every manufacturing organization. It is especially difficult to find in one book the essential tools, methods and concepts which will enable an organization to migrate towards a build-to-order or mass customization system. This book provide practical advice regarding product rationalization, design standardization and other tools, methods and concepts which any organization will find immediately useful in expanding its operational flexibility.

If you are a manager in something related with production, or just interested in Mass Customization, this book is for you. It brings a new aproach to the usual concepts, and may change your point of view about supply chain management or product design.
I really consider it's worth the trouble reading it

This is a very practical, "must-have" book--in contrast to the earlier "wouldn't-it-be-nice" writings that focus on the mass customization or build-to-order paradigm shift. This excellent book shows how to implement mass customization including the prerequisites, like product line rationalization and standardization, that greatly simplify supply chains and operations and thus make it easier to implement mass customization. The chapter on outsourcing is the most thorough treatment out there -- reading this would save many companies from costly mistakes that inhibit flexibility and thwart mass customization.

Five chapters on supply chain management show how to simplify supply chains to the point where parts and materials can be pulled into production on-demand to support on-demand production. Intricate perspective plant drawings show the flow of parts and information for the mass customization of fabricated or electronic products. The two chapters on total cost and how to quantify it are something all companies need, especially mass customizers. The book concludes with a chapter on implementation and another that presents the business case for mass customization.

The 520 page book is comprehensive, but busy executives can get up to speed quickly by reading the executive summary which summarizes the whole book. It is easy to read with hundreds of side-bars which highlight key points. It makes a fantastic reference book with hundreds of headings and a huge index.

This is an excellent "how-to" book with practical and detailed insights. The only complaint are the numerous typos that kept on breaking the flow of the reading...about one per page just in the Introductory chapter. However, unlike most strategy books, this book not only tackles "what to do" but more importantly "how to do it". Great book except for the typos.

The transition towards Build-to-order is a challenge thay many industries face today. Offering customized products in increasingly demanding and dynamic markets renders current forecast-driven strategies more and more ineffective. The current incentive crisis in the auto industry marks a case in point.

Unfortunately this book falls short of capturing the complexity of this transition, which is not helped by the general lack of emprical evidence. I would have expected a comprehensive discussion of the organisational changes needed to make the transition, but instead the book seems to feature the author's personal opinion based on a few limited cases only. Overall a rather disappointing title.

This is a great book for anyone trying to learn the fundamentals of why mass production should be stopped. Also defines why outsourcing is not an ideal business practice in today's economy. Great read!

This book is clearly written by someone who went through multiple implementations of build-to-order and mass customization strategies. The book contains both a nice executive summary for busy managers and detailed step-by-step instructions for these who implement these strategies. The materials are nicely supported by numerous citations for further reading as well as by practical examples. Having taught this material in the MBA programs at Wharton and INSEAD business schools, I found that all suggestions and recommendations are consistent with operations management theory (even though the book does not talk about theory, for theory see Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management. Bravo, excellent coverage of the important topic!