Mass Customization & Open Innovation News

Nominate the mass customization speaker you always wanted to hear !

We are planning with the MIT Smart Customization Group a focused business confernece on Mass Customization at MIT on Nov. 10 and 11, 2008 (the Annual MIT Smart Customization Group Seminar 2008), and I thought it is a good idea to practice what I preach in my lectures and ask YOU about nominations for business speakers and MC companies we should invite to present.

This should help me to overcome the "local search bias" -- just thinking on old friends and companies known to me. But with the field of MC developing so fast, I cannot follow track -- so if you have a good idea, let me know!

Whom would you love to hear?

We are seeking managers from large companies and start-ups DOING mass customization in a larger scale. I know there are the usual suspects like Michael Dell, but any NEW or not so known person you would love to hear on such an event?

Post nominations in the comments or send me an e-mail to piller@iimcp.org ! Thanks a lot!

PS: More information about the event will be posted soon. This is a focused business seminar targeting managers from companies doing mass customization. The next general MCPC conference for a wide audience will take in October 2009 in Helsinki, Finland.

Conference Report: The International Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization in Central Europe (MCP-CE 2008)

Guest article written by Robert Freund, Chairman of the Scientific Committee

The main goal of the MCP-CE conference series is to bring Mass Customization and Open Innovation closer to companies and scientists in Central Europe. The previous two conferences were held in Rzeszow (Poland) successfully organized by the University of Information Technology and Management (UITM), giving the fundaments and research directions in this part of Europe.

Host of the MCP-CE 2008 (June, 3-6, 2008, Palic – Novi Sad – Serbia) was the University of Novi Sad (Serbia), Faculty of Technical Sciences, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management. The conference was held in Palic, the most beautiful part of the municipal region of Subotica. The conference can be considered a good success with contributions by more of 50 participants coming from 12 countries.

On Tuesday evening the conference started with an informal meeting at Villa Lago. On Wednesday, we had a plenary session and in the afternoon two parallel sessions with 26 papers and 22 presentations (Program). The Dinner at a wine castle offered the perfect environment for discussions and networking. Thursday morning we had a workshop on Mass Customization and Open Innovation in Tourism with very good discussions. On the afternoon all participants were invited by the University of Novi Sad to visit the Faculty of Technical Sciences.

We believe that the MCP-CE 2008 conference was successful, because it offered a perfect platform to exchanging ideas, discussing research resultsm and to network. If you are interested in the conference proceedings, please contact Zoran Anisic (Chairman of the Organizing Committee): azoran@vts.su.ac.yu.

The next MCP-CE will be hold in 2010, probably again in Novi Sad.

You find the full program of the 2008 conference and many more, including plenty of pictures, on the conference web site.

Conference on Open Innovation and the Importance of External Information for the Innovation Process at Zeppelin University

JULY 11, 2008, 2-6pm, Friedrichshafen

Zeppelin University is the rising star among the new private German universities, and they reinforce their status by organizing their first Innovation Symposion around the topic of open innovation.

I am privileged to be invited to open the event with a keynote, but three managers from leading companies will demonstrate how they apply open / user innovation in practice. And in a workshop with all participants, we want to explore how you can profit from an internet based platform for open innovation for your company.

The event is in German language, and so is all other information as well:

 
Das Symposium für Innovation

Das Symposium für Innovation der Zeppelin Universität Friedrichshafen möchte Unternehmer und Entscheider aus dem Innovationsbereich mittelständischer und großer Unternehmen aus der Bodensee-Region und darüber hinaus zusammenbringen, um über dieses bedeutende Thema zu diskutieren.

Anregende Praxis-Beispiele und Vorträge ausgewiesener Experten auf dem Gebiet des Innovationsmanagements verdeutlichen Ihnen die Bedeutung offener Innovation auch für Ihr Unternehmen. Nutzen Sie das Symposium für Innovation, um sich mit Unternehmensvertretern aus Ihrer Branche und anderen Branchen in einem offenen Rahmen auszutauschen und neue Kontakte zu knüpfen.

Zunehmende Bedeutung externen Wissens und offener Innovation

Das erfolgreiche Management von Innovationen stellt heute eine zentrale Herausforderung für Unternehmen dar, um langfristig erfolgreich zu sein. Die zunehmende Bedeutung von Wissen als grundlegender Ressource von Innovationen macht hierbei die Integration externen Wissens (beispielsweise von Kunden, Zulieferern, Universitäten, etc.) zu einem häufig wettbewerbsentscheidenden Faktor für ein erfolgreiches Unternehmen. Das Management offener Innovationsprozesse in Innovationsnetzwerken und anderen Kooperationsformen vermag somit einen bedeutenden Beitrag als Quelle neuer Innovationen für die Entwicklung von am Markt erfolgreichen Produkten zu leisten.

Aus dem Programm:

• „Die Hilti AG und die Einbeziehung von Kunden in den Innovationsprozess“, Elke Baessler, Corporate Innovation Manager, Hilti AG, Liechtenstein
• „Open Innovation in der Automobil-Industrie: Das Network of Automotive Excellence und der Innovations-Wettbewerb 2008“, Herbert Köpplinger, ewf institute, München, Leiter der Initiative Network of Automotive Excellence, eines firmenübergreifenden Zusammenschlusses von Unternehmen aus der Automobil- und Automobilzulieferer-Industrie
• „Outside In: Kundenintegration als Erfolgsfaktor im OEM-Geschäft“, Alexander Lang, Director Marketing & Innovation, Webasto AG, München

Workshop: „Anforderungen von Unternehmen aus der Praxis an eine internetbasierte Plattform für den Einsatz von Open Innovation im Unternehmen“

Download des Programm-Flyers mit allen Informationen als PDF.

Mehr Informationen und Registrierung (60,- Euro Teilnahmegebühr) hier.

Mass Customization in Clothing & Fashion: Annual Conference of the European Technology Platform

Thursday May 29th 2008, 9.30 – 14.30 in Brussels, Belgium.
Pre-Conference on May 28th, 9.20 - 17.00 h

EURATEX, the European Association of the Textile Industries, is running its third conference on mass customization in the textile and clothing industry. It is the main European networking meeting for this sector and presents an excellent opportunity to connect with industry, technology providers, and EU policy makers.

More than 200 participants from industry, academia, public authorities and the media attended last year’s Technology Platform conference and the organizers expect at least a similar attendance this year.

A range of industry speakers are scheduled to describe their own experiences and business cases in the field of Mass Customization. The European Commission will present its policies and programs to support more Research & Innovation in the industrial sector in general and the textile and clothing sector in particular.

This event will be preceded on May 28th by a full-day pre-conference which provides an overview of recent mass customization related projects funded by the EU.

For the full program and more information, please download this PDF.

Attendance of the conference including lunch and cocktail is free of charge. Registrations are handled on a first come, first served basis.

A registration form is here, and more information on accommodation in the conference hotel can be found here.

Contact for organizational & logistical questions
Paulette De Wilde, Euratex (Ph : +32-2-285.48.83, paulette.de.wilde@euratex.org)

Pre-Announcement: The 2009 World Conference on Mass Customization & Personalization Will Take Place in Helsinki, Finland

The 2007 conference just is over, and I am still not done with all follow-up duties, but the next MCPC already is in the making:

Safe the following dates in your agenda!

The 2009 World Conference on Mass Customization & Personalization

Conference Theme:

Conference Place: Helsinki, Finland
Date: 4-7 Oct 2009 (!) (not 2008!)

Production methods are ready to offer personalized mass customization. The next challenge is to develop means to matchmaking products & services with specific customer demands in a satisfactory way.

The World Conference on Mass Customization & Personalization (MCPC) is the primary event in this domain. Bridging between academic research and management practice, the conference provides an interactive platform to learn about mass customization strategies and to discuss the latest technologies and enablers.

In Oct 2009, the conference will be in Helsinki with an interdisciplinary focus on the new advancements in the field of manufacturing, marketing and communication. The second part will be a business seminar addressing opportunities to bring mass customization and personalization to practice, with a focus on communication and marketing.

An innovative MassMatchMaking platform will enable all participants to experience a matchmaking flow from conference pre-launch to the actual conference and beyond. A highly interactive website will enable pre-matchmaking before conference, used in workshops, sessions, roundtables and dinner tables during the conference.

Stay tuned with MCPC 2009 newsletter and be part of the MassMatchMaking platform launch.

Conference Schedule:

Papers & Speaking proposals will be due on JAN 9th 2009 A call for papers is coming up soon.

Pre-workshop | 4 Oct 2009
Conference | 5-6 Oct 2009
Business seminar | 7 Oct 2009

Conference Organizers:

Helsinki School of Economics
Helsinki University of Technology
Tampere University
Tampere University of Technology
University of Art and Design, Helsinki

For all further information, check at www.mcpc2009.com frequently.

Last minute: Executive Class at IE - Building the Customer-Centric Organization: Mass Customization, Open Open/User Innovation, and Relationship Marketing

IE Business School is the best business school worldwide in executive education open programs, according to the 2006 ranking published by The Economist. Now they finally offer a program on mass customization, user innovation, and one-to-one marketing:

Building the Customer-Centric Organization:
Outperform your competition in profitability

Madrid, 2, 3 and 4 of April, 2008
Instituto Impresa Business School, Executive Education

Facilitators:
- Fabrizio Salvador, Frank Piller, and Martin Boehm

PDF Information Brochure: http://www.execed.ie.edu

Sorry for the last min. announcement, but I forgot to post this before. Perhaps you still can make it to Madrid next week!

Customer-centricity is increasingly becoming the key source of competitive advantage in today’s globalizing marketplace. Heightened competition is forcing business leaders to recognize that the new foundation for profitability is establishing loyal, long-term customer relationships; to conceive themselves not as a group of products, services, territories, or functions, but as a portfolio of customers; to know how profitable each of their customers or customer segments are, and to understand why; to continuously innovate in order to improve their customer value propositions. A company’s ability to find, grow, and retain their clientele has increasingly become the key to success.

The challenge arises when trying to manage the organizational complexity that surfaces when trying to implement a truly customer-centric strategy. Organizations must align all aspects of their business with the target customer value proposition. In order to be successful in implementing a sound customer-centric strategy, everyone in the company needs to make decisions consistent with this strategy.

The program features several stimulating modules that address numerous issues of concern.

Strategic capabilities for customer-centricity

Building a customer-centric organization is appealing but also difficult, because it takes profound changes in virtually all the value-adding processes of a firm. Yet the payoff is potentially enormous. This module examines the fundamental capabilities that a company has to develop in order to become more customer-centric and a true mass customizer, giving the 30,000 feet view of the scope and content of the organizational changes associated to customer-centricity. Special attention will be devoted to the issues associated to connecting customer, front-end and back-end of the firm for fast and efficient adaptation to customers’ needs.

Putting the customer at the center of the innovation process

A key challenge in new product and service development (NPSD) is to match new designs to customer preferences. The growing heterogeneity of demand, the advent of “long tail markets”, exploding product and service complexities, and the rise of the creative consumer are making this task more difficult than ever. This module will explore new strategies to navigate NPSD more efficiently by utilizing the firm's periphery for innovation.

Focusing on the relation with each individual customer

Focusing and delivering on what a customer values provides competitive advantage in today’s business arena. No matter what the sector is, each company needs to focus on the customer’s point of view not only to improve the customer’s experience, but also to increase the customer’s contribution to the business. This module will explore how to determine the value of an individual customer for your business and how to retain high value customers. Retaining customers can primarily be achieved by either increasing a customer’s cost of leaving your business or by delighting the customer with superior service. This program will explore how to increase a customer’s switching cost and how to delight and satisfy customers.

IE Business School is a leading international business school oriented at providing top-level training for executives. The recognized prestige of our teaching faculty, the degree of excellence of our academic programs and a clear international focus are the keys behind a learning model that has ranked IE Business School among the best business schools in the world (IE Business School is the best business school worldwide in executive education open programmes, according to the 2006 ranking published by The Economist).

In recognition of the high quality and academic rigour of our programs, Instituto de Empresa is accredited by EQUIS (European Quality Improvement Systems), AACBS International (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) and AMBA (Association of MBAs).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION and registration, please contact:

Olga del Ama
International Executive Programs Manager

Tel.: +34 91 782 1715
E-mail: olga.del.Ama@ie.edu
www.execed.ie.edu/internationalprograms

Registration also online here.

Conference on Open Innovation in Munich on April 24, 2008

The MÜNCHNER KREIS is a prestigious non-profit supranational association working at the interface of public policy, science, business, and the media on issues of technology, societal and business impacts, and regulation of information and communications technologies. The MÜNCHNER KREIS organizes discussion groups, member conferences, symposia, and congresses.

On April 24, it organizes a rather large conference on open innovation in the telecommunication industries in Munich:
Leadership by Open Innovation in the Telecoms, IT and Media Industries
April 24, 2008, Haus der Bayerischen Wirtschaft, Munich

From the conference announcement:

The telecommunications, IT and media industries are simultaneously facing the challenges of globalization (in emerging markets such as China), convergence (through IP networks) and new value chains (through increased customer involvement and competition). Innovation will be the key to lead in these industries. The important question is: How should firms innovate?

Innovation cycles are shorter and costs are increasing. Could Bertelsmann have created a Google without having a garage in Silicon Valley? Will Kodak and Fuji be the leaders of the digital photos and videos? Will Apple take over EMI? How should firms use inventions of their R&D departments, which do not fit into their current business models? How should firms share, save or protect intellectual property? Is Digital Rights Management advantageous or is a free market model better? Should a mobile operator focus on customers or become a utility company to transport bits and bytes?

Perhaps “Open Innovation” is the magic word to answer these challenges and provide a model for innovation in these industries. Open means on the one hand the involvement of customers, users and clients in the innovation process and on the other hand the opening of the innovation process and sharing of intellectual property with third parties and even competitors. The conference is mainly focusing on the latter aspect, but a few speakers, including myself, will also address the former aspect of user innovation.

Open innovation as a methodology has an impact on business models, on corporate culture, on communication processes with users/suppliers, and on the architecture of the value chain. What do firms need to lead in their markets? Certainly they will need the right innovative products/services, the right business model, the right management and team, and the adequate financial backing. But more and more smart people are living and working outside their corporate borders. Will Open Innovation motivate people to team up, to create and to be passionate across borders or will it lead to strengthen competitors? There are no black and white answers to these questions.

The conference "Leadership by Open Innovation in the Telecoms, IT and Media Industries" will examine and discuss the importance of innovation for the commercial success of new inventions including technology, marketing, business models or a mix of all three.

For more information and registration, have a look in this PDF file (the conference will be in English and German with Simultaneous Translation of German-English language).

Mass Customization in the Construction Industry: Industry Tour Visits Custom Home Manufacturers in Japan

This sounds like the best of all worlds: "Zero-Energy" and "mass customization" in one home. I met Dr Masa Noguchi, a scholar at the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art on the MCPC 2007 conference, where he was presenting at in the "Mass Customization & Architecture" track.

Masa is doing plenty of research on mass customization of homes, and coming from Japan, he has access to the manufacturers of the leading nation when it comes to the industrial fabrication of highly customized homes (pre fabs 2.0).

His institute is offering a unique field trip ("the mission") to see mass customization in this industry in practice during the

PV ZERO-ENERGY MASS CUSTOM HOME MISSION TO JAPAN 2007, 10-12 September, 2008.

From the announcement:

"The PV Zero-Energy Mass Custom Home Mission to Japan 2008 is aimed at offering industry professionals, academics and government officers opportunities to visit not only the state-of-the-art production facilities of five leading housing manufacturers in Japan, but also the sales center where a number of model homes are displayed allowing potential home buyers to examine the quality.

The mission also extends its visit to an existing solar community that consists of 100 prefabricated homes that are usually equipped with solar photo voltaic power generating systems. During the 1960s and 1970s, Japanese housing manufacturers focused solely on the mass production of their products, resulting in a supply of virtually identical, rather monotonous houses.

Due to the inferior image associated with the low-quality appearance of these mass produced houses, the public immediately rejected industrialized homes. Since then, the manufacturers have placed greater emphasis on improving housing quality, and thereby customer satisfaction, such that Japanese housing manufacturers today enjoy a reputation for providing reasonably-priced quality housing that, while still mass-produced, is customized—i.e. mass customization.

Japanese housing manufacturers are successful in commercializing their industrialized houses that are often equipped with a PV system, as a standard feature rather than options. In fact, between 1994 and 2003, the number of domestic PV installations in Japan drastically increased from 539 to 52,863 houses. Although the country has been experiencing the negative fluctuation of housing starts over the last few years, the PV housing manufacturers express their confidence in the increase of their sales for years to come.

The mission corresponds with the global market needs and demands for housing of today and tomorrow and helps the participants gain the knowledge of contemporary housing technologies being implemented for the commercialization of marketable and reproducible zero-energy houses.

For more information, please look in this PDF file with more information, or contact Dr Masa Noguchi, Mission Coordinator, at m.noguchi@gsa.ac.uk. Or go here for more information: http://www.masscustomhome.com.

Seminar in Sweden: Mass Customization & Innovation in Fashion Retaling

March 6, 2008

In case you fancy a spontaneous trip to Sweden, this may be a great seminar:

Producing goods and services to meet individual customer’s needs
Mass Customization & Innovation in Fashion Retailing

The Textile Innovation & Competence Center TIC at the Swedish School of Textiles generates, according to their own brochure, "new thoughts, models and methods of positive and sustainable growth. It´s all about designing methods, processes and products, about interdisciplinary education, resulting in a dynamic view of the world." Thus it makes a lot of sense that they organize a seminar on mass customization.

The seminar is free of charge but seating is limited. Registration and more information: http://www.hb.se/ths/ctf

Innovation Excellence - Conference in Vienna features open innovation and more

[This is a posting in German language as it refers to an event in German language -- continue in English below].

Einladung zum 5. Forum Innovation und Produktentwicklung am 10. April 2008 in Wien

"Innovation Excellence" – Erfolgsfaktoren zur Steigerung der Innovationskraft

Erfolgreiche Innovationen sind Voraussetzung für beständigen Unternehmenserfolg und sichern anhaltende Wettbewerbsvorteile. Die zunehmende Markt- und Technologiedynamik, der intensivierte internationale Wettbewerb sowie wachsende Kundenansprüche setzen Unternehmen verstärkt unter Druck.

Innovation zielt darauf ab, die Wettbewerbsposition zu verbessern und die Profitabilität zu sichern. Dazu müssen Kundenansprüche besser erfüllt werden, und das bei gleichzeitig geringeren Kosten. Innovationsmanagement ist eine komplexe Aufgabe, da es bei konsequenter Anwendung sämtliche Unternehmensbereiche betrifft. Vor diesem Hintergrund gewinnt "Innovation Excellence" als systematische und umfassende Gestaltung der Entstehung und Umsetzung von Innovationen zunehmend an Bedeutung.

"Innovation Excellence" ist dann nicht nur Garant für Unternehmenserfolg, sondern auch Hebel zu langfristigem Unternehmenswachstum und Profit. Um substantielle Marktanteile zu generieren und zu verteidigen, ist eine Orientierung an Benchmarks und Erfolgsfaktoren über die eigenen Branchengrenzen hinweg sowie der Austausch von Best Practice Erfahrungen empfehlenswert.

Typische Fragestellungen zu "Innovation Excellence"

> Wie innovativ ist mein Unternehmen? Wie kann dies bestimmt werden?
> Wie erfolgreich ist mein Unternehmen mit neuen Produkten und Prozessen?
> Wo steht mein Unternehmen im Vergleich zum Wettbewerb?
> Wo bestehen Verbesserungspotenziale bei Innovationsaktivitäten?
> Wie lassen sich Kompetenzen im Unternehmen erweitern?

Am 5. Forum berichten Experten aus Industrie, KMU, Forschung und Wissenschaft in 18 Vorträgen zu Modellen, Erfahrungen, Benchmarks und Erfolgsfaktoren für "Innovation Excellence".

Darunter:

· Prof. Sören Salomo, TU Denmark – Die österreichische Innovationselite

· Prof. Frank Piller, RWTH – Neue Strategien zur Steigerung der Entwicklungseffizienz

· Johannes Prinz, Frequentis – Launching Customer Prinzip – Innovation im Anlagenbau

· Roger M. Chevalier, Strategyn – Kundenbedürfnisse, die zu planbarer Innovation führen

· Hagen Strasser, Trumpf Maschinen – Erfolgsfaktoren in der Vorentwicklung als Innovationstreiber

Erstmals findet am 9. April 2008 die Vorabendveranstaltung "Innovation Lounge – Meet the Prof" statt. Nutzen Sie einen gemeinsamen Abend im kleinen Kreise mit international führenden Experten, Prof. Frank Piller und Prof. Sören Salomo, um Herausforderungen und Trends im Front End of Innovation zu diskutieren (begrenzte Teilnehmerzahl).

Anmeldungen bis 10. März 2008 erhalten den Frühbucherbonus von 10%.

Erfahren Sie Erfolgsfaktoren zur Steigerung der Innovationskraft – nützen Sie die Chance zum Erfahrungsaustausch und Wissenstransfer!

Programm und Anmeldung: http://www.pfi.or.at/forum

Invitation: European Conference on Sports and Innovation

Are you interested in the future of sports and mass customization in the sports goods industry? Then you should join this upcoming conference.

12 to 14 March 2008 in EINDHOVEN, Netherlands

The conference is an initiative by the European Action Project INNOSPORT.EU. In this project, a number of the core players of the European sports goods industry brainstormed in the last year how to create a better platform for this important industry. I was invited to join the advisory board of this project, as mass customization and user innovation are regarded as some of the key trends in this sector.

The results of this coordinated brainstorming will be presented on the conference. This also is THE KEY EVENT if you are interested in participating in European projects around this sector.

Topics to be discussed on the event:

Sport vision 2015: What social trends are there in relation to sport? What developments are taking place in health and safety aspects? What impact can sport have on the economy? Where are the opportunities for innovation? The Sport Vision 2015 which will be presented at the conference will provide some insight into these issues about trends, needs, aspects and innovation opportunities. The programme also includes a number of workshop sessions and visits to field labs about football, sports promotion, gymnastics, swimming and horse-riding.

European platform: The European Sport Innovation Platform (ESIP) will be launched at the conference. This is a proactive networking platform at European level for high-tech companies, knowledge institutes and government, with the aim of joining forces in innovation and creating new opportunities as a result.

Free company presentation: We are pleased to offer you the opportunity to present your company free of charge during the conference. Please visit the website for more information.

International speakers who have already agreed to take part in the conference are Alberto S. Bichi – Secretary General FESI (Federation of the European Sporting Goods Industry), Antonello Marega – R&D Director of Tecnica, and Philippe Freychat – Vice-president Sporaltec and R&D Director of Decathlon.

Program and registration: For a detailed and up-to-date programme, please visit www.innosport.eu where you can also register for the conference.

Further contact: Marc van der Zande, TNO Science and Industry, marc.vanderzande@tno.nl

Design & Configuration of Complex Products -- Insights From DTU's Product Modeling Group, one of Europe's leading centers on the mass customization

Lars Hvam and his colleagues at Denmark's Technical University (DTU) in Copenhagen have built one of the world's leading research groups in the area of product configuration and modular product design. Their approach is that you not just should build a configurator or sales system for your existing products, but hat successful configuration and mass customization demands a dedicated modular product architecture that should be developed together with the configurator.

Their work is very much driven by industry input. Lars chairs a huge industry interest group with more than 40 company members, many of them world market leaders in customization. The group is one of the strongest pillars in our community of mass customization researchers, and you have two chances to interact with them in the next weeks -- and a new book is summarizing their recent research:

(1) Industry Meeting on "Product Modularization & Variety Reduction" on Jan 31, 2008 in Copenhagen.

The presentations at the meeting will include experiences from applying the principles of product modularization for managing and reducing the number of product variants at Rolls Royce Marine, Siemens and LEGO - see the agenda and register for the meeting at this link. All presentations will be held in English!

(2) PETO’08 Conference on Service customization

As reported before, Kasper Edwards and Lars Hvam from the Technical University of Denmark are hosting this European MC event in 2008. More information here.

(3) Product Customization - A New Book by Lars Hvam, Niels Henrik Mortensen, and Jesper Riis

From the abstract (I have not received the book yet, so this is just an announcement, not a review):

For the majority of industrial companies, customizing products and services is among the most critical means to deliver true customer value and achieve superior competitive advantage. The challenge is not to customize products and services in itself – but to do it in a profitable way. The implementation of a product configuration system is among the most powerful ways of achieving this in practice, offering a reduction of the lead time for products and quotations, faster and more qualified responses to customer inquiries, fewer transfers of responsibility and fewer specification mistakes, a reduction of the resources spent for the specification of customized products, and the possibility of optimizing the products according to customer demands.

This book presents an operational procedure for the design of product configuration systems in industrial companies, based on the experience gained from more than 40 product configuration projects in companies providing customer tailored products and services.

Published by Springer. ISBN: 978-3-540-71448-4

For any further information in any of the topics above, just contact Lars directly:

Lars Hvam, Chairman of the Association for Product Modeling
Department of Manufacturing Engineering and Management
Technical University of Denmark
lhv@ipl.dtu.dk

Trendcamp Open Innovation by Net Culture Lab Austria

Net Culture Lab Austria is an initiative that wants to explore what "internet culture is" and how a large corporation, Telekom Austria, its main sponsor, can learn from it. The project was initiated in May 2007. It supports small projects of innovative people all around Austria who want to build, experiment, create, or craft in the broad area of "net culture" (remember that Austria is one of the world's leading countries with regard to multimedia and electronic arts).

Recently, I was invited to one of their regular "trend camp" gatherings, and it was a great experience for me. The topic of my 1.5 day workshop was open innovation, and we were a mixed crowd of managers of Telekom Austria (a typical former monopolist in the telecommunication industry, now under pressure in a deregulated market) and young artists, web programmers, lecturers in the area, and consultants. Organizer was Thomas Fundneider from a small innovation consultancy in Vienna.

The day was a great surprise for me: I frequently do this kind of workshops with companies, and regularly the reaction is one of fascination for the opportunities of open innovation, but always paired with a very strong resistance towards change and how this could work in their own corporation.

Not this time, however. The Telekom managers seemed to be even more open on the topic then the "net people", and thus it was a very refreshing experience, one that really filled me with hope that Crowdsourcing and open innovation really can change large corporations fundamentally.

In many small presentations by everyone from the group, and two large structures open table discussions, we generated lots of ideas and great input. I also learned a lot – and mow I am curious to see what Telekom Austria will do with our results.

More reports on this Trendcamp can be found (all in GERMAN language) at Polymatic, digitalks.at, the Telekom Austria Blog and at Thomas Fundneider's Blog

MCP Meetings and Conferences in 2008

In 2008, a few smaller focused events on mass customization and personalization are coming up. The next large MCPC conference will be in Europe in 2009. Before, you have the opportunity to interact on these regional events -- all taking place at very nice locations in Europe!

(1) 3rd Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization in Central Europe (MCP-CE 2008)

3-6th of June 2008, Palić - Novi Sad, Serbia

Conference chairs Robert Freund, UITM Poland, and Zoran Anisic, University of Novi Sad, Serbia are again bringing together the East European countries in this general, but regional event. This conference is a great example of our growing mass customization community. The MCp-CE 2008 is organized by the local chapter of the IIMCP, our mass customization society, and driven by the fantastic support of a group of local people!

All conference information and the call for papers: http://www.ftn.ns.ac.yu/MCP-CE2008

(2) 3rd Joint Conference PETO’08 and IMCM’08: Mass Customization of Services

19-20th of June 2008, Copenhagen, Denmark

Kasper Edwards and Lars Hvam from the Technical University of Denmark are hosting this European event this year again in Copenhagen.

Many industrial companies have successfully applied mass customization to physical products. However, little is known on the transmission of mass customization principles to service industry. Our question is if the service industry can benefit from research advances in mass customization. More importantly, how the mass customization of services can be achieved in the practice. This relates also to services associated with the production and sales of mass customized physical goods. Nowadays, one can hardly imagine a product without the delivery of secondary services. Customers are expecting additional services such as financial services or quickly and reliable on site repair and maintenance. In the case of mass customized products, the task faced by manufacturing companies is even harder. Customer service begins with the interaction/configuration process and ends up with the after-sales phase along product usage. The customer may later initiate a new configuration process hoping to add features to his system. This requires a configuration system able to span product families and generations.

More information and the full call for papers: http://www.dtu.dk/sites/IMCMPETO2008.aspx

(3) IF-MC2 2008 First International Footwear - Mass Customization Conference

10th of October 2008, Lugano, Switzerland

Sergio Dulio and Claudio Boer are planning this focused event on mass customization in the footwear industry. The footwear world is showing a growing interest for the application of the Mass Customization paradigm to its business processes. An increasing number of startups, new ventures and traditional producers are launching MC projects or are already in an advanced phase of exploitation of its market benefits.

The conference will survey the actual penetration of MC among footwear companies, it will present a complete analysis of its market potential and it will provide an up to date survey of the most relevant technological and organizational issues related to the adoption of MC by footwear companies. Researchers will also present the state of the art on footwear MC and future trends.

More information will follow!

Reminder: User Manufacturing & Open Innovation Webinar onThursday, Nov 29, 2007

Some buzz for my next webinar:

Recent trends in personalization and improved product configuration systems mean that Mass Customization is being taken very seriously, driving a new breed of process and improved product development strategies.

In what is described as the ultimate Open Innovation strategy, User Manufacturing allows customers to not just feed into your New Product Development cycle, but actively drive it!

Thursday 29th November 2007: 10.00 New York / 15.00 London

User manufacturing, Instant Companies and Customer Co-creation -- New infrastructure is leading to new competition

In this 60 minute live web seminar I will define what will and won't affect your business as rapid manufacturing takes a hold in the development process. Showing business models of companies already utilizing the creativity of their customers, I will:

- Explain key aspects of Mass Customization
- Define why user manufacturing is a trend you need to take seriously
- Cover the challenge of managing the 'long tail' of variety, personalization and creative customers
- Outline where key threats and opportunities exist

To register, please go to http://www.pure-insight.com/webinars/mass-customization-next-generation and use promotional code "aix" (case sensitive!) when registering for a 10% discount.

Note: You also can download the webinar after its initial live broadcast – but only when joining live, you can interact and ask direct questions.

Pure Insights 60 minute Webinars:
No travel - World class presentations delivered directly to your desktop.
More information.

Upcoming Open Innovation & Mass Customization Related Events -- Fall / Winter 2007

I am slow in blogging these days, but active in speaking. Here are a number of events where we can meet in the next weeks in Germany (or even on your desktop with a new webinar on Next Gen Mass Customization). Some are in English, some in German, some are costly to attend, some are free of charge.

First, the International Events

Rethinking Business: Products of tomorrow: Fabbing, personalization & custom manufacturing (Essen, 22 Nov 2007)

Webinar: The Next Gen of Mass Customization: User Manufacturing, Instant Companies, and Customer Co-Creation (On your desktop, 29 Nov 2007)

IMB Forum: Open Innovation in the Textile Industries (Cologne, 21 Nov 2007)

Frontend Europe Conference: How to master customer focused innovation (Vienna, 28-31 Jan 2008)

Second, two German public lectures

In two lectures in Munich and Aachen I provide an updated introduction into mass customization (Munich) and open innovation. These lectures are a good opportunity who want to get a personal introduction into these topics or just want to meet and discuss in person:

- Mass Customization and Customer Co-Creation (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 12. Nov 2007)

- Open Innovation and User Innovation (RWTH Aachen, 4. Dec 2007)

Webinar: The Next Gen of Mass Customization: User Manufacturing, Instant Companies, and Customer Co-Creation (Nov 29, 2007 on your desktop)

How a new infrastructure is enabling consumers to become instant manufacturers – and your future competitor -- 10% discount for MC&OI Blog readers

I am coming back to your desktop. After the large success of an earlier webinar on mass customization, London based Pure Inisghts is organizing a second webinar on the theme, this time around my new favorite topic of user manufacturing.

The topic: We are used to have a networked laser printer on every desk in our office and in every home, enabling us to print documents on the spot which a few decades ago demanded a specialized manufacturer. The same may be happening with the production of many other goods. Today new production technologies ("fabbing") and advanced design software allow average users to produce almost everything – on their own desk. Welcome to the factory in your kitchen.

This session will discuss the upcoming user manufacturing trend, a development that recently is taking shape in larger scope and scale: User manufacturing refers to a public available software, manufacturing, and distribution infrastructure that enables creative users and customers to design, build, and sell own creations to a larger public – without the traditional investments in setting up a business. User manufacturing supplements – or substitutes – mass customization strategies which many companies have implemented. It also may become the most efficient strategy to serve the long tail of variants in many industries.

Consider Spreadshirt, one of the world's largest producers of graphic t-shirts. This company just allows everyone to create an own assortment of designs, and then sell this assortments in highly targeted retail outlets, online and offline, to a small market segment the user knows best. Thus, Spreadshirt does not have to predict the long tail of heterogeneity of fashion products, but just focuses on allowing users to create and sell this assortment by their own.

User manufacturing is enabled by three main technologies: (1) Easy-to-operate design software that allows users to transfer their ideas into a design. (2) Design repositories where users upload, search, and share designs with other users. This allows a community of loosely connected users to develop a large range of applications. (3) Easy-to-access flexible manufacturing technology. New rapid manufacturing technologies ("fabbing") finally deliver the dream of translating any 3-D data files into physical products -- even in you living room. Combining this technology with recent web technologies can open a radical new way to provide custom products along the entire "long tail" of demand.

User manufacturing builds on the notion that users are not just able to configure a good within the given solution space (mass customization), but also to develop such a solution space by their own and utilize it by producing custom products. As a result, customers are becoming not only co-designers, but also manufacturers, using an infrastructure provided by some specialized companies.

The webinar will discuss recent trends and case examples of the user manufacturing trend. We also will compare the business models of companies which are building on the user manufacturing trend and which implement and operate the underlying infrastructure ´for creative users to become manufacturers.

Planned session outline:

- A short review of conventional mass customization thinking

- Which recent trends and developments enhance these strategies and how mass customization is related to “The Long Tail” phenomena

- What is user manufacturing, and which trends does this strategy support?

- What are the components of an infrastructure that supports user manufacturing?

- A review of business models of established companies and recent startups which already successfully benefit from the opportunities of user manufacturing

- A discussion of the major challenges and open issues in this domain

- Session wrap-up: Idea for further action

To register, please go to http://www.pure-insight.com/webinars/mass-customization-next-generation and use promotional code aix (case sensitive!) wenn registering for a 10% discount.

Note: You also can download the webinar after its initial live broadcast – but only when joining live, you can interact and ask direct questions.

All further information can be found here.

Context information

- If you prefer to see the content of this webinar in action, a seminar on Fabbing and User generated Manufacturing in Essen, Germany, provides a great opportunity on Nov 22.

- My earlier posts on user manufacturing

- Article in CNN online on the fabbing trend

- Article in New Scientist on the fabbing trend

- Article in Make magazine on how to use a fabbing device

Rethinking Business: Products of tomorrow: Fabbing, personalization & custom manufacturing (Essen, 22. Nov 2007)

A VERY interesting focused event on the new world of fabbing, laser sintering, user manufacturing, and how to make business with this will take place in Essen (Germany) on Nov 22 afternoon & evening. Hosted by Z-Punkt, an innovative trend consultancy, and taking place in the Zeche Zollverein, a spectacular industrial location, the conference promised to become a real eye-opener and point of discussion.

For more information on the theme, have a look on this previous blog post: I will host a webinar on the same topic of user manufacturing on Nov 29 in case you cannot travel to Essen, Germany, for this event.

For a list of all speakers and the detailed program, please download the event flyer.

The event will be in German language, so all the following announcements are in German language as well.

Erfahren Sie, wie neue Materialien zu Innovationstreibern werden und warum der 3D-Druck das Business revolutioniert. Die Konferenz "Rethinking Business #02. Produkte von morgen" findet am 22. November 2007 auf der Zeche Zollverein in Essen statt. Themenschwerpunkte: Neue Materialien und individuelle Produktion.

Und noch mehr Informationen zum Thema finden Sie in einen Interview mit Frank Piller auf dem Z-Punkt-Blog.

Drucken wir in ein paar Jahren unser Geschirr jeden Tag frisch aus unserem persönlichen 3D-Drucker aus? Und werden die Fallschirme der Zukunft aus Nano-Spinnfäden gefertigt? Wie neue Materialien die Produktwelt von morgen prägen und welches Innovationspotenzial in einer individualisierten Produktionsweise steckt – das diskutiert Z_punkt im Rahmen der Konferenz „Produkte von morgen“ am 22. November 2007 in der Zollverein School of Management and Design in Essen.

Die zweite Veranstaltung im Rahmen des Konferenzzyklus „Rethinking Business“ setzt den Fokus auf „Neue Materialien und Individuelle Produktion“ – und schlägt dabei die Brücke von der Vision zur Praxis. Der nach dem Open-Source-Modell „fab@home“ für 2.000,- Euro gebaute Prototyp eines einfachen 3D-Druckers geht während der Konferenz live in Produktion und vermittelt den Teilnehmern einen Eindruck von den zukünftigen Möglichkeiten einer Fabrik im Taschenformat: Mit einem für Endkunden erschwinglichen 3D-Printer könnte das Ausdrucken von Alltagsprodukten nämlich bald flächendeckend zu Hause möglich sein.

„Uns beschäftigt im Rahmen der Rethinking-Business-Reihe die Frage, wie die Wirtschaft der Zukunft funktioniert. Dieses Mal interessieren wir uns für die Produktwelt. Wir fragen: Wie sehen die Produkte der Zukunft aus? Wie werden sie entwickelt und hergestellt? Und wie müssen sich Unternehmen aufstellen, um intelligente Materialien und individuelle Produktion als Innovationstreiber zu nutzen“, sagt Andreas Neef, geschäftsführender Gesellschafter von Z_punkt.

Darauf muss die Wirtschaft vorbereitet sein – wie einst beim Siegeszug des Personal Computers. Dr. Matthias Lüken, Produktentwickler bei Henkel, und Dr. Sigurd Buchholz, Technologieexperte bei der Bayer Technology Services GmbH, berichten aus der Industrieperspektive über Anwendungsmöglichkeiten und Innovationspotenziale einer individualisierten Produktionsweise.

Weitere Infos:
Rethinking Business #02. Produkte von morgen

22 Nov 2007, 16:00 - 21:30 Uhr at Zollverein School of Management & Design, Essen

http://www.rethinkingbusiness.de

Programm-Flyer und Anmeldung online (Studenten können für nur 50 Euro teilnehmen !)

Info: Silke Schneider (schneider@z-punkt.de)

IMB Forum: Open Innovation in the Textile Industries (Cologne, 21 Nov 2007)

IMB is one of the largest trade shows for the textile industry, a showcase not of the latest fashions in apparel but the latest in machinery and software for the industry. The IMB main event takes place in Cologne every three years. IMB Forum is a smaller sister event of IMB, filling the years in between with a focused exhibition and conference.

The fifth event of the series will be held on the Cologne Fair Ground on Wednesday, 21st November and Thursday, 22nd November 2007. This year's conference theme is "Information Technology for the Textile Processing and Apparel Industry", and I have the honor to provide the opening keynote for this event as part of a conference section dealing with open innovation in this sector.

I am speaking together with Ralf Reichwald, my colleague and co-author from TU Munich. Our topic on the morning of Nov 21 is "Open Innovation: Customers as active partners of companies in the textile industry." We will address latest trends and case studies on open innovation with a focus on the textile industries to provide an overall framework of interactive value creation.

Our talk is followed by Andreas Milles from Spreadshirt, who is presenting the leading implementation of open innovation and interactive value creation in Europe. Johann Füller from Hyve, Munich will present the work his company did with BMW to implement open innovation in this company

For the entire program, head to the IMB forum website, here is a PDF flyer for download.

Here is some more information from a IMB press release:

"IMB Forum, the international exhibition with an accompanying congress, which will take place at the Cologne exhibition center from November 21 to 22, 2007, has come to be one of the sector's top annual events. That's why many leading companies regard participation in the IMB Forum as an absolute must. Or, as Holger Klappstein, Managing Director Sales and Marketing of TXTe solutions GmbH in Halle, puts it: "The IMB Forum is one of the most important information platforms for the fashion, garment, footwear, and textile industries."

The success of the IMB Forum is based on the fact that the event perfectly supports direct dialogue between the sector's users and suppliers. This is also an important factor for Dominik Berger, Managing Director of RF-IT Solutions GmbH in Graz: "The IMB Forum offers us an ideal presentation platform for our goods and services in this area, while simultaneously offering us the opportunity to conduct intensive discussions with our customers."

Christiane Klaschik, Head of Marketing for ImPuls AG from Krefeld, is also well aware of this strength of the IMB Forum: "There's hardly any other trade fair where we can meet such a concentration of our target groups. Customer contact is also a very important issue for us."

Jacqueline Kellner, Head of Marketing at Lectra Deutschland GmbH, regards the IMB Forum as "one of the most professional events for presenting yourself to a high-caliber public."

"We believe in the event and clearly recognize the efforts on the part of Koelnmesse to achieve a breakthrough in terms of the degree of international participation, especially with regard to the visitors. The presence of the decision-makers, at least from the immediately neighboring countries, is a crucial step in the right direction," says Yvonne Heinen-Foudeh, Marketing and Communications Manager Europe of Gerber Technology GmbH in Munich."

The IMB Forum 2007 will take place from Wednesday, November 21 to Thursday, November 22, 2007. The exhibition will be open to visitors on the first day from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and on the second day from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Presentations will be held in the morning and afternoon on both days.

Frontend Europe Conference: An expensive but high-profile event on mastering customer focused innovation (Vienna, 28-31 Jan 2008)

This is a conference I always was interested in but feared the heavy price tag. So I am glad that this time I am invited to speak and so do not have to register :-) The second annual Front End of Innovation Conference in Europe is taking place from 28th -31st, January 2008 in Vienna, Austria. It is the European sister event of a large, very well established US conference

Readers of my blog get 20% discount off the standard & onsite rate to join me at the event. Mention the code SPKRM2050FP to have the discount applied (but the price tag still is heavy – it is a typical commercial IIR conference that also uses pricing to create a high-profile crowd).

The Front End of Innovation Europe offers some of the most respected names in Innovation and R&D., including Clayton M. Christensen from Harvard Business School (the guy who showed that most companies fail when being faced with disruptive innovation).

This conference will address many recent innovation challenges, including: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint, Global Innovation: Bridging Cultural Differences With Asia And Beyond, Open Innovation, New Business Model Innovation, Customer Focused Innovation, Generating Breakthroughs While Reducing Risk, Linking Product Life Cycle Management With The Fuzzy Front End… and many others.

I am speaking on Thursday, 31st January, during the "Front End Innovation Management Research Focused Academic Workshop", when I will be giving my presentation: “Bridging the Mass Customisation and Open Innovation”

During this talk, I will share some of the latest research on setting up successful mass customization systems and will discuss recent trends in product configuration systems from the perspective of strategy and marketing. Based on our own study of more than 250 mass customisers in consumer and industrial markets, the session outlines the building blocks of successful mass customisation strategies and provides ideas how to avoid the pitfalls of its implementation.

Remember: Readers of my blog get 20% discount off the standard & onsite rate to join me at the event. Mention the code SPKRM2050FP to have the discount applied.

Full information and registration: www.iirusa.com/feieurope

Or download the official conference brochure with much more information and all abstracts of all presentations.

Public Lecture: Open Innovation and User Innovation (RWTH Aachen, 4. Dec 2007)

What is open innovation? What is user innovation, and what is the real idea behind the 'lead user' concept? What are tools and methods companies can employ to profit from these buzzwords? Why does it make economic sense? When does it make no sense at all? What have we learned from case studies and pilot studies in this field? And how is Webasto, a leading German automotive supplier, profiting from creative users & customers?

These are some of the questions Alexander Lang and I will address in a public evening lecture at RWTH Aachen on Tue, Dec. 4. The event is hosted by the German Association of 'Wirtschaftsingenieure' (industrial engineers)..

Alex Lang and I will also talk about our experiences from a joint research project on user innovation which is co-sponsored by "Stiftung Industrieforschung", a large grant giving institution on Germany.

This is the first public event I am organizing in Aachen at my new university. So a special invitation to come and discuss with us. The regular language for this event is German, but if we will have international guests, we will talk in English.

All information (in German language) and an abstract of our talks can be found in this PDF.

The event takes place on 4. Dec 2007, 7:15 - 9pm, followed by a network reception. Place: RWTH Aachen, Karmann-Auditorium, Room FO 5, at Templergraben 62 (opposite of the RWTH Main Building).

The lecture is free of charge, and no registration is necessary. Just come to the room!

Here is some more information for all of our German speaking readers.

Open Innovation: Neue Ansätze zur Steigerung von Effizienz und Qualität der Produktentwicklung

Eine öffentliche Veranstaltung (Eintritt frei!) in Zusammenarbeit des Verbands Deutscher Wirtschaftsingenieure (Hochschulgruppe Aachen), des Lehrstuhls für Technologie- und Innovationsmanagement an der RWTH, der Stiftung Industrieforschung und der Webasto AG

Vorträge:

Prof. Frank Piller, RWTH-TIM: Open Innovation und Interaktive Wertschöpfung: Prinzipien und Erfolgsfaktoren

Alexander Lang, Webasto AG: "Ideen aus der zweiten Reihe" - Strategien für kundenorientierte Innovationen in der Automobilindustrie

4. Dezember 2007, 19:15 – 21:00 und anschließender Network-Empfang
RWTH Aachen, Karmann-Auditorium, Raum FO 5 (Templergraben 62 gegenüber RWTH Hauptgebäude, 1. Stock

Abstract:
Open-Source-Software ist nicht nur ein technisches oder gesellschaftliches Phänomen, sondern das dahinter stehende Wertschöpfungsprinzip erweitert herrschende Prinzipien im Innovationsmanagement zum Teil völlig – auch in anderen Bereichen jenseits der Software-Entwicklung. Auf dieser Veranstaltung soll anhand aktueller Fallbeispiele diskutiert werden, wie durch eine solche Open Innovation Effizienz und Effektivität der Neuproduktentwicklung gesteigert werden können.

Kernidee von Open Innovation ist, eine Aufgabe nicht an den "besten" bekannten internen oder externen Entwickler zu vergeben, sondern das Problem in einem offenen Netzwerk in Form eines breiten Aufrufs zur Mitwirkung auszuschreiben. Potentielle externe Problemlöser entscheiden dann durch Selbstselektion, ob sie mitwirken oder nicht.

Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei Strategien von Unternehmen, die ihre Kunden bzw. Nutzer nicht mehr als nur passive Empfänger und Konsumenten einer von Herstellern autonom geleisteten Wertschöpfung sehen. Vielmehr treten Nutzer als Wertschöpfungspartner von Unternehmen oder anderen Nutzern auf, indem sie Produkte oder Dienstleistungen mitgestalten und teilweise sogar deren Entwicklung und Herstellung bestimmen oder übernehmen.

Bei allen Potentialen von Open Innovation zur Effizienzverbesserung in der Entwicklung stellen sich jedoch auch neue Herausforderungen. Open Innovation ist nicht einfach ein "Outsourcing" interner Entwicklungsaufgaben an die Peripherie, sondern verlangt eine aktive Beteiligung durch den Anbieter, der hierfür bestimmte Ressourcen und Fähigkeiten besitzen muss.

Dies zeigt eindrucksvoll das Beispiel der Webasto AG, einen führenden deutschen Automobilzulieferer. Eine Neuausrichtung des Webasto-Innovationsmanagements betont entscheidend das Potential von durch Endkunden generierte Produktideen im Entwicklungsprozess. Die so entstehenden Produkte verfügen über einen echten Mehrwert, worauf Webasto als Automobilzulieferer mit überwiegend Sonderausstattung