Logistics management of late product individualisation – application in the automotive industry
by L. Schulze, M. Gerasch, S. Mansky, L. Li
International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation (IJLEG), Vol. 1, No. 3/4, 2008

Abstract: Global markets and the increasing demand of customers for individual products lead to a steady rise of product variants. Especially high quality goods on highly competitive markets like automobiles must meet customer's demands. The opportunity to configure a car according to ones' preferences leads to an unmanageable number of variants. Manufacturers' strategies to handle this problem reduce the offered component-combinations, but barely succeed in reducing the production-complexity. The approach of the late product individualisation (LPI) meets this problem. The complexity of the production is reduced without limiting the customer's choice to a small number of variants. The production process is relieved from customisation activities while these operations are relocated to further processes of the supply chain. The approach of LPI will be described and how it causes new challenges for the supply chain. Analytic instruments are presented which help to detect reasonable components of a product that should be individualised.

Online publication date: Thu, 12-Feb-2009

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