A number of product configuration system suppliers will be exhibiting at the SolidWorks World 2007 Conference, being held from February 4 through February 7, 2007 in New Orleans, USA. The ninth annual SolidWorks World Conference brings together designers, engineers, managers, and partners to discuss ideas, trends, and the technology shaping the future of mechanical design. [...]

There have been a few recent articles from various sources regarding the U.S. auto industry, which provide an interesting basis for a discussion about the role of mass customization in the future of the automotive sector. In Industry Week, a recent feature by Yorgos Papatheodorou and Michelle Harris, which primarily dealt with the geographical spread [...]

The Idaho Statesman carries an article about Tom Falash, who opened a wine store in Boise, Idaho, USA. This is not a regular wine store. It lets customers make their own wine for less than US$10 per bottle. The process works as follows: Customers can taste wines before choosing which one to make. Falash takes [...]

The New Scientist magazine website carries a feature on the Fab@Home project being developed by Cornell University.  The Fab@Home project involves the creation of a cheap self-assembly device capable of fabricating 3D objects.  The researchers, Hod Lipson and PhD student Evan Malone, hope the machine could kick start a revolution in home fabrication – by [...]

This ‘article’ recently appeared on satirical website The Onion: SANDUSKY, OH—Area resident Pamela Meyers was delighted to receive yet another thoughtful CD recommendation from Amazon.com Friday, confirming that the online retail giant has a more thorough, individualized, and nuanced understanding of Meyers’ taste than the man who occasionally claims to love her, husband Dean Meyers. [...]

A number of interesting conferences dealing with mass customization and related topics will take place in 2007, and I thought it might be a good idea to summarise what is happening during the year ahead. The first event of interest is a German language-only event MC2007 Salzburg (Mass Customization Tagung für Deutschland, Österreich und die [...]

In TheManufacturer.com, there is an interesting guest editorial by Harald Kofler, president of a company called American High Performance Seals. He speaks about the growing ease with which businesses can purchase customised industrial components at much lower prices than might be expected.  Articles by an executive of a company can often be categorised as ‘Advertorial’, [...]

+ Dash Navigation Inc. has made a deal with search engine Yahoo! that allows Dash Express users to search Yahoo! Local for nearby products, services or businesses from their cars. Dash Navigation is located Mountain View, Calif. and is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Sequoia Capital, and Skymoon Ventures. The company says that [...]

The IEEE has begun work on a standard to create a comprehensive personalized health informatics system.  The working group creating this standard will hold a workshop in London, UK, on 24 and 25 January 2007 to form an action plan for developing the standard. The meeting, the IEEE 2407 Personalized Health Informatics Workshop, will be [...]

Frank Piller has published his interview with B. Joseph Pine, the first person to set out in detail the concept of mass customization.  Pine’s book, Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition, was a landmark that challenged the conventional wisdom of mass production. You can read Frank Piller’s interview with B. Joseph Pine here.

From Ross Dawson’s blog, Trends in the Living Networks, comes a posting about the amazing Trend Map for 2007 and beyond. Nowandnext.com and Future Exploration Network have collaborated in producing a map of major trends for 2007 and beyond, across ten segments: society & culture, government & politics, media & communications, science & technology, food [...]

Business and innovation website Springwise has compiled ‘Top 10 Business Ideas in 2006′ under various categories. These lists are an interesting review of the best and most innovative business ideas of the year, but some are of particular interest to this website due to their association with mass customization, outside innovation, crowdsourcing and so on. [...]