A production that makes mass customized goods almost always requires a modularized production. Example: To make customized chocolate bars, you must define the modules, such as 4 base chocolates and 100 toppings in the case of chocri. But not only the inputs are modules, the process has to be divided into modules as well. To define those process modules correctly is imperative for a successful mass customized business. For example, at chocri different modules could have been the size of the chocolate bar, the shape of the chocolate bar, we could have offered 100 base chocolates and four toppings, or customized packagings every time. There are endless possibilities to define those modules, and they might change over time (at chocri, we introduced a fourth base chocolate after two years, which of course caused an explosion of the possible chocolate bars you can make on the website).

As Pine and Gilmore write in their introduction to Markets of One:

“Modular capabilities are much more difficult to design than integrated products. … establishing such capabilities requires some down-and-dirty dealing with various operational details of one’s business.”

I couldn’t agree more, and this particularly applies to scaling up the business. As more and more orders come in, you have to be able to deal with the complexity inherent in a module based production. Take chocri for example: The people who make our chocolate bars have to be trained to know every topping, how to put on the chocolate bar in relation to other toppings (so that it tastes and looks good). Once a new topping enters our list (e.g. our topping of the month), the production team needs to adjust, to learn vocabulary (for our international orders). When we have a theme Valentine’s Day packaging, they need to look for those orders that chose it. The more chocolate bars we make, the more people we need to make the chocolate bars, the higher the complexity in ensuring that every chocolate bar that leaves is made perfectly.

I think that the “down-and-dirty dealing with various operational details” requires you as a mass customizer to have your production in-house. Or at least that your supplier is as invested in its success as you are yourself. The added complexity in mass customization production cannot be handled by everyone, especially not by those who are used to mass production processes. 

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