Current developments at
the Center for Manufacturing...
Mass Customization:
Networking Minicells

How can manufacturers customize products for a variety of individual customers without raising prices and lengthening delivery times? Dr. Fazleena Badurdeen presented a paper proposing an answer at the recent CIRP/ISMS in Liverpool. CIRP abbreviates the French name of the organization known in English as The International Academy for Production Engineering, a group with over 550 members from 40 industrialized countries. The group’s aim is to be a world leader in research on advanced manufacturing technologies.

Dr. Badurdeen and her graduate researcher, Smitha Thuramalla from UK Mechanical Engineering, focus on mass customization, a recent strategy adopted by manufacturers wanting to attract and satisfy the modern customer who often will demand more customized choices yet still expect the moderate prices associated with mass production rather than the premium prices normally required for a custom-made item, whether it be a running shoe or an SUV.

Clearly this new kind of manufacturing presents a number of challenges for product design, customer relations management and manufacturing. Dr. Badurdeen’s work tackles the major hurdle for those implementing mass customization – designing and operating a manufacturing system that is sufficiently flexible to turn out customized products at low cost with short lead times. She proposes the use of what she calls “minicells.” By now cellular manufacturing, an aspect of lean manufacturing, is familiar enough; instead of running batches of parts through different processes, a product family is made in a cell from start to finish, thereby allowing more flexibility in how many of which product can be made in a day’s production run. Minicells, each based on a family of options (options being alternatives available for different product features), provide an even more flexible production method, she argues. Her research demonstrates how minicells can provide all the desired customer options with reduced flow time and without increasing machine requirements or makespan (completion time for the jobs).

To learn more visit email Dr. Fazleena Badurdeen or phone her at 859.257.6262, ext. 436.

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