Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition [Hardcover]

B. Joseph Pine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1992

The mass production of standardized goods was the source of America's economic strength for generations and became the model for successful industries. Today, that model is a major cause of the nation's declining competitiveness. As Joe Pine makes clear, innovative companies are embracing a new paradigm of management - mass customization - that allows them to create greater variety and customization in their products and services at competitive prices, or better. He explains mass customization in its historical context, demonstrates why mass production cannot work in turbulent industries, and outlines how new forms of competition have led to greater variety and customization. Based upon academic and field research, his work is a thoughtful analysis and commentary on when and how managers in both service and manufacturing industries can make the transition to mass customization. He details the strategies, methods, and organizational transformations required to develop, produce, market, and deliver individually customized goods and services, and shows managers how to analyze their own industries to determine if they should shift to mass customization.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brings to the fore the discussion on how companies will meet the future needs of their customers and, ultimately, survive in intensely competitive markets." -- Information Week --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

Winner of the 1995 Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing Research. Named a best business book of the year by the Financial Times, Named a best business book of the year by Library Journal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press; 1 edition (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875843727
• ISBN-13: 978-0875843728
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #683,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

B. Joseph Pine II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. He is cofounder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings.

In his speaking and teaching activities, Mr. Pine has addressed both the World Economic Forum and TED, and is a Visiting Scholar with the MIT Design Lab. He has also taught at Penn State, Duke Corporate Education, the University of Minnesota, UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management, and the Harvard Design School. He serves on the editorial boards of Strategy & Leadership and Strategic Direction and is a Senior Fellow with both the Design Futures Council and the European Centre for the Experience Economy, which he co-founded. For more, see www.StrategicHorizons.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He gets it., November 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition (Hardcover)

What a refreshing book that is inendated with facts and research, yet the concepts have implementable steps to move your organization into the personalization future. Indeed this author "gets it" when it comes to the individualized services and products that every company should adopt.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic for Internet Entrepreneurs, August 13, 2005

By 

Simit Patel "ActoNetwork.com" (New York City, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition (Paperback)

Fantastic! The fact that this book was written in 1993 is particularly astounding, as its ideas are still cutting edge today. Internet entrepreneurs need to read, re-read, and workshop this book, as it is particularly useful from both a practical and conceptual standpoint in helping companies realize how their business models need to change once they begin to participate in markets where supply is infinite -- an issue that strikes at the core of e-commerce.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars useful but a bit oudated, November 5, 2001

By 

Janet Lau (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition (Paperback)

After reading the book, I found a clearer picture about mass customization. Mass customization is now widely used by many businesses, but we may not know how it operates!
In this book, it tells you how you should change your business operation to mass customization step by step, also tell you 5 methods to customize your products or services. And these 5 methods are useful and practicable for designing how the business enter the market.
The stucture of the book is clear, give a full description on the development of the operation, from mass production to mass customization , and the pros and cons of those two operations, followed with the detail explanation on mass customization.
However, I think it's a bit outdated because all the things around us are mass customized and we do not have to decide whether we should change to customized operation or not, but to decide the degree of the customization.