Recently I wrote about the difficulties that the U.S. auto industry finds itself in, due to its over-reliance on the build for inventory business model, as well as dependency on SUV sales for profitability. At the end of that posting, I asked the question as to what might happen if there was a disruptive change [...]

The Discover magazine website has an article about Behrokh Khoshnevis, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California, who has made a ‘contour crafter’.  This machine is a type of digital wall builder, where a robotically controlled nozzle squeezes a ribbon of concrete. When the nozzle completes a circuit, it tops the previous ribbon [...]

Webpronews.com staff writer Mike Sachoff reports on customized music provider Orpheus, which allows media producers to create customized music that will fit the specific needs of their projects. It uses a web-based software engine that allows the user to create custom music cues tailored their specific needs. According to the article: “Users can control the [...]

The Harvard Business Review has published its list of ‘Breakthrough Ideas for 2007‘. Included on the list is ‘An Emerging Hotbed of User-Centered Innovation’, which is described by Eric Von Hippel, who first described the ‘Lead User’ concept twenty years ago. Von Hippel notes that: “In an array of industries, producer-centered innovation is being eclipsed [...]

The latest edition of academic publication ‘International Journal of Manufacturing Technology’ is a special issue on e-Manufacturing and Mass Customization. The issue is guest-edited by Dr. Pingyu Jiang, of the State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, part of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong University in China. In his editorial, Dr. Jiang [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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. [...]

Xerox Corporation and its newly acquired subsidiary XMPie have teamed up with print industry trade publication Graphic Arts Monthly, to digitally produce customized colour covers for its December issue, currently on its way to more than 70,000 subscribers of the magazine. The personalized cover features outer space-themed artwork with the subscriber’s first name written in [...]

Three-dimensional imaging company Direct Dimensions was provided with an interesting opportunity to demonstrate their technology recently. While attending NextFest 2006 in New York City, talk show host Kelly Ripa stopped by to visit the Direct Dimensions booth and participated in the 3D face scanning process being offered as a demonstration of new technology. The data [...]

Andrew Kantor, a columnist for USA Today, notes that the falling price of technology has allowed mass customization and personalization to become established across a wide variety of industries. Kantor notes that the lowering of technology costs has made personalized everyday products far more affordable that would have been the case a few years ago. [...]