Title: Improving product configurators by means of a collaborative recommender system

Authors: Henrik Stormer

Addresses: Department of Informatics, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

Abstract: More and more companies are starting to offer individualised products and services to their customers. A customer can create his own product by choosing different product options. This process is, however, often problematic and confusing for new customers, as they typically need in-depth knowledge of the product they want to buy. This paper proposes the use of a collaborative recommender system to calculate the most common product options and recommend these options to a customer during the design process. The presented approach can be integrated into the existing product configurators.

Keywords: product configurators; recommender systems; collaborative filtering; product options; mass customisation; design process; product design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMASSC.2009.023381

International Journal of Mass Customisation, 2009 Vol.3 No.2, pp.165 - 178

Published online: 20 Feb 2009 *

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