Mass Customization & Open Innovation News

Impressions from the MCPC 2014 in Aalborg!

The past week were a highlight for every mass customization enthusiast as our colleagues from Aalborg University hosted this year's edition of the MCPC Conference. We were there, of course, and, as always, a lot of tweeting and image-sharing took place. We will post more about some hot topics of the conference within the next days. Until then, here are some great impressions and voices from attendees some of you might recognize...

 

[Market Watch] 3D dataSculptures: Strategical Business Data for Your Desk

The market for 3d-printed goods has a lot of momentum these days. From the simplest of forms to entire houses and parts of space rockets and, unfortunately, even working guns, there appears to be few things that eager engineers can not print - or will not be able to print within the next years. One such thing that, intuitively, is hard to imagine as a physical object is business data. 

However, German company MeliesArt from Duesseldorf is offering exactly that: 3d-printed business data, figures, numbers, in colored plastic or even silver-plated for the extra-positive revenue development "chart". In a way these sculptures are, besides nice to look at, another example of innovative mass customized products.

For some nice images and more details please see the official press release (in German language) or the following video: http://youtu.be/UfWiIh_tbN8

 

 

[Recommended Source] Configurator Database 2013, a Comprehensive Market Overview by cyLEDGE

A little while ago, Austrian media specialist cyLEDGE Media has released a new market analysis about product configurators and mass customization. The Configurator Database Report 2013 is a status quo analysis of 900 international web-based product configurators.

The Configurator Database (www.configurator-database.com) was opened in 2007 to give an overview about the world of product configuration. Since then it has been constantly extended and updated and thus grew to the largest collection of web-based customization tools. A lot of those entries were also used for our mc500 study.

Together with his team, Dr. Paul Blazek, CEO of cyLEDGE Media has now published the Configurator Database Report 2013, which contains information about all 900 mentioned configurators. Every configurator is listed with a full profile, including a screenshot and an evaluation of different criteria. Besides basic criteria like industry, product type or country, the report also contains data about visualization type, tutorial, support and social media usage.

“This report is the result of a long and ongoing journey to understand the future of customer and company relationships in the age of customized products and interactive communication”, says Paul Blazek.

The detailed evaluation of all collected data gives very interesting insights on the market of product configuration. A new approach is the examination of the usage of social media in connection with configurators. The analysis shows that more than two thirds of all companies running a configurator have a Facebook site and over the half uses Twitter. It also shows how this number varies according to different countries or industries. Nevertheless, when looking at the intensity of the usage there are a lot of unexploited potentials.

The Configurator Database Report gives a very extensive overview about the whole mass customization market. It is an excellent source to everyone who wants to start an own configurator business or wants to be informed about the fast-moving world of configurators.

The paperback version of the report is available on www.lulu.com. For a preview and further details visit www.configurator-database.com/report2013.

Amoonic Continues to Excell in Custom Jewellery, Pulled In Huge Investment

Last year at pretty much this time we published an interview with Sabine Linz of Amoonic, a company offering customized jewellery from all price ranges online. Fortunately, Amoonic has not suffered the same fate that many startups do, making critical mistakes and disappearing after a short period of existance. In fact, Amoonic just announced that Business Angel Marlon Ikels, the man behind galleryy.net, has invested a six-digit amount into the future expansion of the company. You can download the official press release here (in German).

This gave us the opportunity to interview Sabine once again, asking about the development of the past year and the future of mass customized jewellery.

FTP: Sabine, it has been about a year since our last interview about Amoonic. How have things developed since then?

SL: In the meantime we broadened our designer product range by a huge variety of jewellery pieces. In addition to that, the technology in the background was enhanced a lot. For example an open configurator was added to simplify the customization process for our customers. Another example is the new 3D product preview. We developed some great cooperations within the jewellery online market. Besides we tested a lot on our website and developed a new system for producing jewellery in a digital way.

FTP: How do you see the market for mass customized goods today?

SL: I think, today mass customized goods are not simply a trend anymore, you can find them everywhere and people love them. Customization is now a well-established approach and customized goods have become more or less mainstream. People nowadays expect to be able to customize their products.

FTP: Can you go into a bit of detail on what you want to do with the huge investment you got? What are your plans?

SL: Since a lot of work on the technology side was done over the last year we are in the lucky position to be able to invest most of the money in Marketing. We like to see Amoonìc expand more and more to be internationally known as soon as possible.

FTP: You mentioned that Amoonic now offers individually crafted jewellery on request. Can you tell us which diamond dreams you can make a reality?

SL: In principle, everything is possible. Our motto is: “If you can dream it, you can do it”. But of course, any technical details have to be considered J . Our customers enjoy the freedom to make their dreams come true and our designers are ready to assist them in case of questions. More and more people use this opportunity and also the B2B sector is highly interested in purchasing customized goods for their clients.

FTP: Any tips you can give entrepreneurs who want to venture into any niche of mass customized products or services?

SL: Keep smiling, be smart and exhaustless. Honestly, it is important not only to focus on a configurator. Show all products on your web presence, give examples and don´t let the user think. Furthermore, in my opinion, an extraordinary customer support is more than a requirement today!

FTP: Are you looking for any specialists to expand your team within the next time?

SL: We are always looking for specialists. Good people are hard to find. Our new partner and Business Angel, Marlon Ikels, is an ecommerce expert and we are more than happy to have him in our team. Among others, he is founder of www.galleryy.net. He´s great and it is always good to get more knowledge. We love to work with him.

 More about Amoonic on www.amoonic.de

[Featured Research] Technology Innovation Management Review on Local Open Innovation

This month's edition of Technology Innovation Management Review focusses on Local Open Innovation. There are some really interesting articles featured in this issue, which is available as a PDF file from the official website as well. It especially provides great background information on the "Seeks Solutions" (or "problem conference", as I use to call it) approach!!! To experience this method live, participate at the ISPIM Seeks Solutions!

• The Seeking Solutions Approach: Solving Challenging Business Problems with Local Open Innovation
  Christophe Deutsch

• Problemsourcing: Local Open Innovation for R&D Organizations
  Sally Davenport, Stephen Cummings, Urs Daellenbach, Charles Campbell

• Local Open Innovation: How to Go from Ideas to Solutions
  Oscar Smulders

• Quebec Seeks Solutions: An Economic Development Agency's Role in Local Open Innovation
  Alexandra Berger Masson

• University-SME Collaboration and Open Innovation: Intellectual-Property Management Tools and the Roles of Intermediaries
  Isabelle Deschamps, Maria G. Macedo, Christian Eve-Levesque

• TIM Lecture Series – Local Open Innovation and the Seeking Solutions Approach
  Christophe Deutsch, Philippe Dancause

[Interview] Matt Peterson of Big Shot Bikes: Customizing the Fixed Gear Trend

With plenty of bling and over-featuring of many products, in many industries now a counter-trend has started to emerge: "back to basics", advocating simplicity over sheer amounts of features.

This also has happend in the bike industry. While traditional bikes with many gears are certainly still in high demand, the opposite side of the scale has a growing fanbase as well: The single-gear bike, or the "Fixie". Being a popular and trendy product, it was just a question of time until somebody specialized in offering customized fixies to a growing customer base.

One such vendor is Big Shot Bikes. The Fort Collins, CO based company has been founded and is beeing run by Matt Peterson who we met for an interview on this special sector of the mass customization market and his role in it, his views on MC in general and the benefits of only having one gear.

FTP: Matt, you are the owner and founder of Big Shot Bikes. Can you tell our reader a bit about yourself, your background and your passion for quality bikes?

MP: Well, growing up in Colorado I had always been active in the outdoors; traditionally I am a software engineer by trade and I had worked for quite some time for a large telecom company. Having rode out the tech and telecom bubble, I had become burnt out on the corporate environment.  So in 2009, I saw an opportunity to merge two of my passions, software and cycling. I had noticed a trend emerging in single speed bikes with bright colors that people had built up themselves. I thought this was a natural fit for customization. With a small initial investment, I dove in, leveraging my skills in software and ecommerce to create a company and brand that is doing quite well and gaining market share. 

FTP: Big Shot Bikes offers customized bicycles. While there is competition on that market, what is special about your bikes?

MP: Hands down the most appealing part about our bikes is the customization and sense of style that comes with owning one of our bikes.

People love the opportunity to create a design that matches their own personality. We get quite a few emails from customers telling us how they have been complimented on their bike and how they take a sense of pride in the color scheme that they created.

FTP: What makes a single speed or fixed gear bike so desirable? Does it not limit you to have only one gear?

MP: Single speed bikes have become a recent cultural phenomenon. Sure, there are some limitations to having one gear, but there are also advantages. The simplicity of going back to basics is what is drawing many riders. No gears to tune or clicking derailleur to worry about.  This low maintenance factor means you can just get on and ride.

FTP: Who is your main customer group? Are these bikes just for the younger ones amongst us?

MP: The majority of our customers are definitely younger, mostly college aged. But we sell to all age groups. In fact, we recently sold a bike to an 81 year old ex-racer in Arizona. So really our bikes are for anyone with a sense of style and just wants a fun bike to ride, no matter what age or background.

FTP: Can you outline your customization, ordering and delivery in a few sentences? How does everything work together?

MP: Sure, our system is designed to be fully integrated with our inventory management system. If a color or part is available on the build tool, that means it is currently in stock.  Once an item becomes out of stock, it immediately disappears from the customization tool; this is critical in being able to effectively fill orders. Once an order is captured, our inventory system is updated and the order goes through a series of status change.  Customers will receive three notifications: one to confirm the order, another to let them know the bike is being built.  The final notification is integrated into our shipping software and a final notification containing the tracking information for the bike. Lastly we integrate right in with our shipping software and tracking provided once the bike is shipped. We also have the ability to track and attach customer support tickets to orders that have shipped just in case we have any issues once the customer receives the bike.

FTP: Especially interesting for our non-US readers: Do you deliver worldwide?

MP: We do. We ship to just about any country that FedEx will service via international economy air. We have shipped to most of Europe and a few more exotic locations such as Egypt and South Africa. Granted, the shipping charges are steep, averaging about $200 USD for international shipping.

FTP: What do you think will the future hold for the mass customization landscape? Will it stay a trend, become a standard or even redefine how we sell and buy products in the future?

MP: Honestly, I feel it will stay a trend, or more appropriately a new established niche in commerce. Mass customization is  ideal for direct to consumer sales model. But I feel that traditional product manufacture and distribution will remain the dominant form of commerce while mass customization will supplement it.

FTP: What are your plans for the coming five years?

MP: If the next five years are anything like the last three years, we will continue to see strong growth in both our brand and business. We plan to diversify our product line offering more bike models and styles. From a technology standpoint, we have invested in HTML5 becoming the standard in web based development and will continue to stay on top of technology that will allow us to offer the best customization experience we can.

FTP: Some of our readers might be looking for a job opportunity in your branch. Are you hiring?

MP: We hire seasonal bike builders each spring/summer, but these positions tend to be filled by college students looking for temporary work.

But where we do have significant opportunities is with international distribution. We are continually looking for individuals or companies that feel they could effectively sell and distribute our bicycles in their country or region. We have designed our customization tool and website to be easily translated into almost any language. So the opportunity exists to establish international distribution points and country specific versions of our site.

Thank you very much for the interview, Matt! It will be interesting to see whether your predictions regarding MC as a trend hold true in the future or not. In any case, best of luck for your business!

And here are some really nice impressions of single gear bikes and the configuration process (even on iPad) in the official video demo:

 

Big Shot Bikes - iPad Bike Customization from Chris Bourke on Vimeo.

Competivation Consulting Founded to Meet Innovation-, Technology- and Strategy Consulting Needs of Industry

I frequently receive requests by companies for innovation counseling and consulting on open innovation, mass customizuation, and technology management.  While we do not perform any consulting for individual companies with our RWTH-TIM institute, there are a number of opportunities for consulting.

To meet the needs of industry, together with an experienced executive consultant, Prof. Hans-Gerd Servatius,  we have founded Competivation Consulting, a dynamic innovation and strategy management consulting company from innovators for innovators. 

Combining decades of innovation research, teaching and consulting, COMPETIVATION's team of experts supports your company with

• Management consulting in innovation and technologymanagement,
• Strategy and innovation workshops,
• Strategic and technology roadmapping,
• Trend analysis and strategic foresight,
• Technology, market and benchmarking analysis,
• Implementation counseling,
• Networking with intermediaries and IT-partners,
• Executive education programs and corporate speaking

Special areas of expertise are open innovation, customer co-creation, mass customization, but also the development of comprehensive strategies for innovation and technology managememt.

Prof. Hans-Gerd Servatius has met our Editor in Chief for a brief interview, outlining the USPs of Competivation Consulting and what can be done especially for the open innovation strategist.

CG: Some of our readers will know you as the author of your latest book, touching a pressing matter of our times, Smart Energy. Can you tell a bit about yourself and your experience in technology and innovation management consulting?

GS: We created the term technology and innovation management in the early 1980s at Arthur D. Little, where I led the German TIM practice. For me this was a great opportunity, to put the concepts, which I had developed in my Ph.D. thesis on strategic management of technology into practical work. During the following decades I tried to anticipate the next TIM waves like corporate venture management (which has a lot in common with open innovation), process and business model innovation, knowledge management as well as sustainability, to mention some examples. Today I think technology and innovation management is more important than ever and looking back to its roots helps to better understand the future.

CG: You have over 30 years of experience as a professional consultant, having been anywhere from an entrance position to partner level and managing director in internationally reknown firms. What sets Competivation apart from the existing competition?

GS: I would like to mention three points. First: Competivation is a young firm with very experienced founders. This helps us to create a unique culture. Second: The founders have an excellent reputation as scientists and management consultants. We have a strong international network. Based on these competencies we can be more innovative in our field than many others. And third: Our combination of executive education with consulting offers possibilities for differentiation that satisfy the needs of many clients, who are looking for more sustainable results.

CG: Our readers are especially interested in open innovation. Do you see OI to be the method of choice to solve many of the (technical) problems that companies usually struggle with solving on their own? Why?

GS: Open innovation has proven that it can generate great ideas and solve many problems. Roughly ten years after the term has been created the experience of leading firms with different OI methods is growing. One of the reasons for this success is the increased connectivity potential of a company, its stakeholders and non-obvious others, who can play a role in the innovation processes. A challenge many companies are still facing today is the integration of open integration into an emerging enterprise 2.0 concept. This means that both internal and external innovation must become more cooperative.

CG: Do you think that corporate culture is key element in (remodeling) innovation management, as part of an integrated approach? If so, can you give some examples from your experience?

GS: Corporate Culture is clearly a key element for innovation. It always was and new forms of innovation require cultural adaptations. The cultural challenge today is to find the right balance between closed and open innovation, individual talents and cooperative success as well as trust in others and securing intellectual property. The answer is not black or white. Success formulas are more complex and need to be tailored to specific situations. In our assignments we help organizations and their managers to improve the specific competencies needed to compete in this new era of innovation. An example is an international automotive company, which we support on its way to become a provider of mobility solutions. This requires new business models combining open and closed innovation as well as improved leadership skills as orchestrators of different partners.

CG: Can you give a little insight into your network? What is Competivation`s special competence mix?

GS:  Our network consists of partners in the academic world, complementary service providers and experienced practitioners, who work together in a trust-based way. One example is the Business Transformation Academy, which is sponsored by SAP. On their international conference in October in Budapest we presented our new study of a changing energy sector based on innovative IT enabled business models. If I have a special competence it perhaps is to put technology and innovation management not only into a strategic, organizational and cultural context but also to translate new findings from complexity theory into practical solution sets. In a volatile world this is what many clients are looking for.

 

While Competivation Consulting´s core market is the DACH region (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), we are also open for assignments beyond these ountries. You will find more informationen on Competivation and our service portfolio at www.competivation.de (in German language only!) or contact us directly!

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[Market Watch] CowCrowd: Wear Your Friends On Customizable Wooden Tags

In conjunction with the MC2012 conference on mass customization in June we reported on CowCrowd,  a customization project by Viennese media agency cyLEDGE. Since our posting back then was in German only (as was the conference), here is what CowCrowd does. 

CowCrowd.com is an online configurator where users can create small wooden pendants with individual messages. These messages contain text or symbols and even photos, which can be uploaded an placed on the „cow tags“. As a special feature, users can directly connect to Facebook to engrave the profile pictures of their friends and family onto the tags.

cyLEDGE, being an innovative media agency, also does its best to make the project as customer-interactive as possible.  Users are invited to share their designs and use cases on Facebook to inspire others and spark new ideas. Via social networks the company stays in close contact with its fans and posts regularly on new infos and funny internet memes, most of them cow themed.

Now, part of being a customer-centric venture is to closely listen to customer wishes and to adapt one's own processes and portfolio to make the one individual happy that really counts: your client. Hence, for the holiday season CowCrowd created two new shapes to give the users more alternatives for their individual pendant. The new shapes are a Christmas tree for last minute presents and a simple round tag to meet the user's demands for more neutral forms than the classic „cow tags“.

Provided, when we first heard about CowCrowd, we were a bit hasitant about wearing a tag formed like a cow's head. However, when we got a chance to see and feel them live on the MC2012 conference, we were all charmed by their cuteness and surface quality. They certainly make a nice gift and there is no real risk in giving it a try yourself since the customizable pendants are available for under 5 EUR.

More about CowCrowd on the official project website. 

[Interview] One Just One: Unique 3D Printed, Very Individual Jewelry by Generative Design

Sivam Krish, one of the veterans of the mass customization movement, is back with a new venture, building on generative design. HIs idea: a new toolkit to customize individualized jewelry.

This is not a new category In the old days, wealthy people went to their jeweler of choice and ordered a piece of earrings or such, matching their individual taste. With the concept of mass customization, customized jewelery has become a bit more affordable and accessible to "the masses". Usually, customization in this sector happens by picking a base model (online) and then changing materials, gems, color and so on. A number of high-profile startups have been busy in this domain.

Now, there is a new approach on the market, though. One Just One has just published their new concept on kickstarter where they hope to raise some investment capital to make their ideas reality. 

The idea sounds fairly interesting. Instead of altering a few numbers of typical base designs for a ring or a necklace, they apply a technology which they call gererative design to generate 3D printed jewelry which is as unique as possible: they only sell one piece of each variation. 

We were lucky to get Sivam Krish of One Just One to give us an online interview and tell more about the idea behind the venture and how it is different from the existing competition.

FTP: Sivam, can you give some general outline of what One Just One is, and why it stands out from competition?

SK: Ok, we are trying here to reverse the influenced of the industrial revolution - which commodotized products. Before that, ladies would go to a family jewellery and say I want something like that but made like this. The jewellery himself would have some prototype types in his mind. We call these prototypes genetic models - but they are computable models.

One of the great disadvantages in design is that there is no way to map design information except in terms of geometry color or texture. Genetic modeling allow us to map products parametrically - which then means we can map at a very high level as what people desire, so it is going to open up new possibilities.

We should be able to do what amazon does with books, in terms of not only what customers are likely to like, but be able to generate from previous purchase patterns designs that are they are more likely to like; that is, generate designs within the envelope of consumer preference.

Before mass production a wide variety of designs emerged from the craft tradition, and it evolved. Only mass production created a fetish about  a single representation of design. We take a genetic view of design - in that we look at designs as belonging to families, as biologist do.
 
FTP: Can you go a bit in depth about the technical side of the design process? Can the potential customer influence the design process? If so, how much?

SK: We think that designers have a new role. That is to create genetic representations of designs rather than a single instance of it. Once this representation is made, we use genoform to create 1000s of variations, but many of them may be not manufacturerable or desirable. We leave it to the designer to use their expert judgment and taste to set the bounds of variations.

The buyer then selects within such bounds. One just One is a designers brand - and we believe that a good part of design is about selection.Evolutionary biologist would agree with us here. So the role of the designer is critical here. But unlike before within a larger range of design possibilities buyers may choose according to their own taste.

We are not in favor of customers designing. The rest of the 3D printing community may be into that, but we are not. We belive that the next generation of designers have a role to give designs form and meaning but gentic form not static immutable form.
 
FTP: You are getting your starting capital through a kickstarter campaign. What are your plans for the future if the business model heads off?

SK: We have set a very small maximum amount of 3000$ and a maximum number of products to 400 - which we can meet. I am a great believer in lean bushiness model and not wish to subject this little venture to the trauma that capital brings. Yet we need to raise some amout of capital. The less investment we have the more we can share with out design community. Out intention is to make it the most attractive platform for the most enlighten and talented designers who are willing to take leaps that others cannot contemplate.

How we are going to do this, I really do not know.

FTP: Thanks a lot for the interview, Sivam! I am sure you do already have some ideas how to approach these rather ambitious goals and I am looking forward to keep our readers updated about its future development.

More Information about One Just One can be found on their official website as well as from their ongoing kickstarter campaign.

Featured Companies from the MC500 (Part 19): Beaniebees: Custom Shirts, Sweatters, Ties, Bags...

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember:  The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

 

Today: Nice Idea, Slightly Limited Solution Space

Personalized fashion is a great way to express yourself. It's also very well suited to add a touch of "I really though about it" to any gift you give. And especially for children it's a good opportunity to break out of the usual spiderman-look.

Amongst others, German online-customizer Beaniebee has exactly that approach covered for you. Offering fairly easy personalization of everything from t-shirts for kids and adults, ties, sweathsirts, bags, even teddy bears.

Their easy to use configurator lets you place both custom text and images on your product of choice, however - and this is where I find the process to be lacking - the amount of images that they offer is relatively limited. There are some theme groups like animals, seasons and so on but each one has a fairly small number of actual images, and the ones availible are often not too creative.

Of course, you can upload your own photo to place on your child's new t-shirt. But from a technical point of view, their configuration space could have contained a little more diversity.

 
Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

Interview: Glubal: A configurator for university-level education to solve the complexity of choice of study programs

Whether that be as a regular student, starting to dive into a chosen field of knowledge, or as a professional, taking the next career step by gaining additional skills, creating a matching a student`s very own situation of life  is very important.

However, there always have been a dis-connect: too many offers, and too much confusion. Since more than ten years, I am talking about the idea of an "education configurator".

Now this configurator finally came true.

Glubal wants to make flexible, individual university-level learning happen . The venture is just about to go live with their online configuration system and represents an educational network, connected to an online configurator.

Very simply put, learning interests (to-be students, professionals seeking promotion etc) will be enabled to configure a list of academic programs by the means of the configurator frontend. The programs offered are provided by the universities and other education facilities connected to the glubal network. The opportunity to filter avilible offers to match one`s own life situation best sounds like a compelling idea in theory.

 

Glubal Configurator: Beta version. Click to enlarge

 

Professor Marc Drüner, glubal CEO and partner at trommsdorff & drüner consultants, kindly agreed to engage in an online interview and explain the concept in more detail.

FTP: Professor Drüner, first. Congratulations to this great idea and realization! You have created glubal as an intermediary to support a new kind of individual studying. Can you tell our readers a bit more about the concept behind glubal and what makes it unique?

MD: Our brand glubal stands for global university network. We provide an online platform (www.glubal.com ) making accredited study and training opportunities available online to students and business in collaboration with international universities.

The idea of glubal derives from the background of the Bologna Reform ten years ago. The establishment of the common credit point system (ECTS) and the three-cycle-degree (Bachelor, Master & Doctor) in Europe makes a more flexible and more international study possible.

As professor at the Steinbeis Hochschule Berlin for ten years and director of an international management consultancy, I have gained insights into economic as well as academic life. There is a problem on both sides: Even though the employment market demands increasing flexibility from employees and employers in terms of education and training, the current mainstream educational system is just too rigid for many people and does not support life-long learning. With glubal, we want to tailor study programs to people’s individual, unique lifestyles. This is the way to ensure a smooth entry into the jobs market and to guarantee chances of promotion by combining working with studying for a qualification.

glubal’s USPs are individuality, flexibility and internationality. The unique feature of our concept is the glubal study configurator (https://www.glubal.com/en/glubal-configurator ) . Dependent on a student’s personal requirements, fields of interest, personal budget and chosen method of study, every course component of our global university network can be combined flexibly and individually with other components from elsewhere to create a study program lasting as long as personal circumstances dictate. We ensure that the module combination selected by a student will lead to a recognized degree.

FTP: Do you consider glubal’s target group to be more the regular student, trying to go a more flexible way of studying or the “lifelong learner”, the professional aiming to get additional qualifications?

MD: There is no conflict between students and professionals for glubal in terms of the target group. Our service is aimed, above all, at graduates and employees interested in promotion. We also offer an attractive alternative for current students who need more flexibility and individuality in their study.

Besides potential students, companies and colleges can also benefit from our service. For companies, glubal offers not only a whole new way to access the talents of tomorrow, but also the connection to the university sector. For colleges and universities, we make it possible to take on a growing number of students, to fill more places on existing modules, to increase international brand recognition and improve access to business.

FTP: Establishing a network that allows to (more or less) freely combine courses from different universities and nations with each other sounds like a really challenging task, especially given the fact that the awarding of academic degrees is regulated by national law. How do you ensure compatibility between all these different modules?

MD: The given background of Bologna Reform I mentioned before is the corner stone of mutual recognition of credit points and academic degrees between colleges and universities in different countries. People have been working on a more transparent and compatible education system in the international context since more than ten years.

I think we have reasons to believe that this trend will carry on and evolve further in the future and that glubal will be able to promote this process. However, glubal will not interfere with the given administrative and approval processes for academic modules at our glubal partner universities. The degree-granting universities stay in the driver-seat and stay completely free to define, which modules of other universities they do accept under their given examination regulation.

FTP: The Bologna Process intended to do what could become a reality with glubal: Allow to study internationally, not just in your country, and in a way that works best for your interests. Yet, many politicians, academics and students say that the ideas of Bologna have not been implemented well enough to really work. What makes the glubal approach more promissing to achieve better results in comparison?

MD: Of course there are still dozens of problems to solve even after ten years reform, especially in terms of the compatibility between the qualities of modules in different universities. But you cannot deny that the mobility of students inside Europe has greatly increased at the Erasmus program for instance. We believe in the vision of a more tolerant education system in the future in the scope of Bologna Reform. With glubal as an educational initiative we would like to contribute to the process of harmonization between universities and help shaping a more flexible education system in the future.

FTP: The idea of highly customized academic learning is not new. Until today one of the great bottlenecks has been the lack of a well-designed configurator, allowing (future) students to select the right modules for their individual life situation and learning goal. Can you tell a bit about the process in which your clients will select their individual courses? Are they being guided or just presented with a configurator?

MD: We have been working the whole time on the more simplified and clearer configuration process. Basically, a student only needs to visit our online platform, choose his preferred subjects and other options in our configurator and he will get the suggested study combination from the system. Of course we also offer personal study consultancy through free hotline with our professional study advisor, who will accompany the applicants along the whole way of application.

Our first course begins this autumn and the application has already started. Our glubal team will do the best to cover the individual needs of our applicants. With the further expansion of our global university network, we will be able to offer even more flexible configurations in the future.

FTP: Developing a system that, if it works, could do a lot to make flexible life long learning a reality is certainly no easy process. Can you tell a bit about how you worked on designing the system? Did you work closely with students and lecturers to get an idea of what they really desire in a sort of customer co-creation?

MD: I am director of an international management consultancy and professor at the Steinbeis Hochschule Berlin for ten years. This kind of career combination enables the possibility to exchange opinions with students, lecturers and companies for me. I have realized that there are huge demands from both economy and academy in increasing flexibility of the education system. The idea of glubal derives exactly from these demands.

FTP: Studying for a master's degree takes about five years, often more. glubal is a private profit venture and as such is subject to the laws of the market. How can you guarantee that students will be able to complete their studies as planned in case of, say, glubal (or HighEd Solutions) becoming insolvent?

MD: glubal is an aggregator of studies and does not grand degrees. glubal students will enroll in and enter study contracts with the chosen universities, and earning real credit points as every other normal student. In this sense, they don’t carry any market risks in terms of the possible fluctuation of glubal’s profitability.

FTP: Can you tell about your network of educational institutions (universities, online course academies,...)? Which and how many partners does glubal have so far and where are they from, geographically?

MD: glubal stands for global university network. We have been in contact with universities from the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Turkey, France, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Chile and of course the so-called DACH countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). Many of them are already official members and many other have given very positive feedback. We are optimistic that our network will successfully expand to these regions. We have also planned the market entry in BRIC countries in the future, starting with Asia in 2013.

FTP: glubal offers scholarships as well. Can you tell a bit more about these?

MD: We have already announced the first three scholarship students for a bachelor’s, a master’s and a doctoral degree at one of our first partner universities, the Steinbeis School of Management in Berlin. With the growing membership of our university network, applicants can expect more attractive scholarships at glubal in the future.

FTP: What are your plans for the future? Where do you see glubal heading in the next 10 years and what do you think can (and should) still be improved about the system/process as it is right now? Can we expect more integrated services in glubal in the future?

MD: Like I mentioned before, we are now already active in many countries. The intention of internationalization will increase in the future. We have already planned the market entry in the BRIC countries (Brasil, Russia, India and China) in 2013. Of course there are still a lot to improve in every aspect, for example a bigger university network, more personalized configuration, more optimized platform usability and so on. The driving force in our team is to provide high quality education with unprecedented flexibility to all students of the world.

FTP: Professor Drüner, thank you very much for the insights into the concept on glubal. Much success!!

The MC Graveyard: Ideas that did not make it: YouTailor & Shirts Onthefly

Although mass customization has proved to offer great opportunities to companies of all sizes, there also have been quite some failures. We will try to look into some of the companies that did not make it in a new series of posts.

And there are many of these failures! When conducting the research for the MC500 study, we learned that over the period of just one year, 17% of our original sample population went out of business. Analyzing the failure reasons showed that these startups on the one hand face "common" challenges of startups like not progressing out of the bootstrapping phase into a scalable business due to undercapitalization, wrong investment policy, overconfidence, and an insufficient business model as well as problems within the team, such as the loss of key employees.

But on the other, there are two more specific reasons for failures of MC companies, according to our research:

First, difficulties encountered by the studied MC companies may be ascertained to possible inadequacies of their toolkits. Many of the toolkits that we studied do not follow the design principles suggested as success factors by previous research: Only 55% instantly visualize consumer input, less than 20% of vendors make use of peer input in the design process, 61% do not provide information on progress of purchasing process. Only 22% allow customers to share their creations with others, just to mention a few shortcomings. The reality of toolkits clearly falls behind the academic research on design parameters of successful toolkits, suggesting a large shortcoming in transferring research into practice.
   
Secondly, problems in making mass customization work may also lay elsewhere. In an exploratory survey of 68 entrepreneurs and consultants active in the MC business (conducted in Oct. 2009), for instance, we discovered that detecting customer idiosyncratic needs and creating flexible fulfillment processes are considered as more serious concerns (average score=4.0/5 and 3.9/5) than creating toolkits that support the sales process (average score=3.5/5). This  research, the preliminary results of the Customization500 study, and many interactions with managers during case-study based research show that profiting from mass customization is not an easy task!

Two current examples have been the market for custom tailored men's shirts. The German MC blog egoo.de recently reported on two consecutive insolvencies of companies believed to be promising ventures.

First company to be hit by bankruptcy was German start-up YouTailor, one of the leading entrepreneurs in the field of online custom tailors. Despite a number of potent backers like Holtzbrinck Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures and myphotobook, YouTailor CEO Michael Urban had to file insolvency mid-June caused by financial irregularities, as eggo.de reports.

Just two weeks later, another mass-custom shirt company, SHIRTS ONTHEFLY, had to strike colors or, as egoo.de quotes the company's announcement, to declare "the mission to make high-quality bespoke shirts available for everybody" a failure. Very sad indeed, seeing how they had announced to team up with Berlin-based venture Upcload, enabling customers to measure themselves via webcam capture technology.

May there be a trend indicating that custom tailored shirts are not very high in demand? Or may it be more likely that these two did not do one of the most important things when establishing a new MC company: Seek qualified expert advise and connect with other founders and MC entrepreneurs to share experiences.

Egooo.de is speculating that the heavy use of Groupon may have facilitated the bankruptcy of YouTailor. No other company in the mass customization domain has used Groupon so often, sometimes with discounts of 50% (which makes no sense at all for me if I consider the economics of mass customization manufacturing -- there you wanted stable sales, no sudden peaks!)

For the full stories about YouTailor and SHIRTS ONTHEFLY, head over to egoo.com by blogging colleague Heiko Vogelgesang!

Featured Companies from the MC500 (Part 13): Alphabetplates.com: Individual and fun from breakfast to dinner

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember:  The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

 

Today: The right plates to complement your customized food

I have been posting about customized food in the past. From mymuesli to chocri, personalized food is one of the large trends in mass customization. However, if you chose to individualize what you eat, you should be as picky about what you eat it from.

Alphabetplates offers exactly that, at least for the younger (or young at heart!) amongst us. Utilizing their simple yet efficient configurator your can personalize a number of really nice plates, placemats, lunchboxes and waterbottles. Depending on the chosen base model you can add your (child's) name, an individually configurable face (you should try that one out!) and more details. Conclusion: a nice product line to spark the interest of the next generation of customization researchers.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

MC2012 Recap: Custom pasta live on location by Pasterie

A while ago I posted about Pasterie, a promissing mass customization company offering individualized pasta.  At the MC2012 conference their team gave us a great live demonstration of what they are able to produce.

While definetly the novelty of custom pasta ordered online is much larger than a customized meal prepared in fornt of you, their demonstration was a nice blend of pasta-cooking expertise and aesthetical design.

The live event however provided a good "offline configuration" experience as it (still ) is not possible to transport taste via the internet. But to see how they solve this problem, head over to their website or facebook page.

Here are some impressions of their live performance at MC2012.

 

Interview: Sabine Beck of Amoonic: Custom Jewelry for Every Budget

Amoonic has been a presenter in the startup panel of the MC2012 conference in Salzburg. Founded in 2011, they are striving to give the market something that it does not already have in excess: customized jewelry at an affordable price. 

"Affordable" is, however, a rather relative criteria, depending on one's own budget, and so Amoonic's products range from 150 to 2.5 million Euro. That being said, the majority of products do, of course, feature a significantly lower price tag than what they ask for their masterpiece, the La Fleur.  Besides rings in all shapes and materials, holding all kinds of gems, Amoonic also offers earrings, brooches, necklaces and, for the male customer, cufflinks.

Custom jewelry has been one of the best funded and prominent applications of MC in the net, with large and successful players like GEMVARA in the US or investments from the German Sammer brothers in the same field.

Like their competitors, Amoonic's portfolio is rather large,  with over 6000 rings, about 900 earrings and nacklaces each and 300 cufflinks. All designs are made on-demand and hence do not require any upfront investment with the risk of losing money if they do not get sold. Storage costs are also extremely low, granting better chances to prevail on the tough market for jewelry. 

Amoonic is also constantly trying to optimise customer experience. For example, Amoonic has just adjusted theit website, now making it a lot easier for the (potential) customer to recognize the individualization potential and to get to configure his/her own jewelry.

We had the chance to talk to Sabine Beck who founded Amoonic together with Olga Dick. In our interview she gave insight into the specifics of the mass custom online jewelry market, how Amoonic overcomes some of the hurdles MC-entprepreneurs are confronted with and gives valuable tips for others who play with the thought to enter the world of individualized online commerce.

FTP: Sabine, you gave a great presentation of your jewelry business Amoonic on this year's MC2012 conference. Being a relatively young venture, how have your experiences on the MC market have been so far and how do they compare to your expectations when you decided to start Amoonic?

SB: Our experience so far shows that individualizing jewelry is definitely a trend in the mass customization market. The demand, to suit jewelry to ones own need is consistent with our expectations. In fact, it was difficult to clearly illustrate or demonstrate at first glance on our website that at Amoonìc jewelry can be customized without losing on design. We had to overcome the gap between a visually elegant and exclusive shop for the premium range and an easy recognizable display site that is about customizable jewelry.

Since last week, you can see at once that this is an exclusive shop in the premium range of mass customization. We have made it clear on our home page as well as on our category pages that you can customize each product. It was important for us that Amoonìc is not to be seen as a standard online shop but as a high-quality "online jeweler".

FTP: Your business model differs from many others insofar as it does require very little storage of raw materials and components, equaling lower fix costs. Does this allow you to compete with other non-MC vendors in terms of price?

SB: We cannot produce as low as companies that manufacture their products abroad. To ensure the highest standard in terms of quality, we produce only in Germany. Nevertheless, our prices are similar to the ones in a traditional jewelry store because we do not have to bear the risk that a collection is not sold. We also don’t provide the usual in store customer service or have expensive store costs so we can maintain prices similar to store prices.

FTP: How do you guarantee timely delivery of products to your customers, seeing how every piece of jewelry has to be produced individually and that the number of orders can fluctuate?

SB: In the background, Amoonìc  has already a very well-functioning supply chain which runs smoothly and partly automated. Thus Amoonìc ensure that even with a higher order volume delivery time can be maintained easily and we have access to flexible resources. Also, we already included a time buffer in our delivery time to avoid delays.

Due to our good contacts to suppliers in the jewelry industry, we can procure our materials in the shortest possible time. Especially in the jewelry industry it is difficult to set up such a flexible supplier network. One advantage is that we are very well networked. We have a flexible price model which allows us to update the prices quickly in frequent intervals.

FTP: Jewelry is typically a product that customers want to see and feel in reality before they buy it. Has this turned out to be an obstacle for your business? How do you (plan) to overcome it?

SB: For Amoonìc the sense of touching jewelry has become a solvable problem. With the possibility to see the jewelry on the own hand by photo-realistic images the customer gets an accurate idea of ​​the piece of jewelry. Being able to return the jewelry within 30 days takes away the inhibition of the customer to buy a gem without having seen it in person.

FTP: Can you tell anything about your sales figures? How well are your offerings received by consumers?

SB: The order volume has exceeded our expectations. We plan and like to reach the break-even-point in the middle of next year.

FTP: At the MC2012 conference you estimated about 40% of your sales to be pre-configured jewelry, 60% customized. How do customized rings differ from their preconfigured pendants? Are all possible combinations of gems and materials already in the preconfigured catalogue?

SB: Customized rings do not differ from the preconfigured pendants. All different combinations are shown in our catalogue on our website so that there is no real need for the customer to customize a ring, if he is not interested in doing so.

FTP: Do you have any plans to broaden your portfolio of products in the foreseeable future? Or to offer new features to your website?

SB: We plan to expand within the next year. In addition to that, we will offer an English version of our website to address a bigger market. In addition, in the next few months there will be a lot of new features available on amoonic.de. Open Innovation is our approach for the future, this means we constantly include our customers and othe experts in the innovation process.

FTP: What do you think where MC in general is heading? Will it just be a trend or the new business model for (most) vendors?

SB: In my opinion, MC address people who don´t want to buy anything from the rack. They would like to emphasize their own personality. I think right now we are still speaking of a trend, but I believe that this trend will develop and establish itself in the next few years. Especially those with middle or higher incomes make a point in buying something unique to distinguish themselves from others and to meet their own needs.

FTP: Which advise would you give entrepreneurs planning to enter the MC market? Can you tell about any mistakes you made that they should avoid?

SB: The most important fact is to consider the size of the targeted market. The main focus should not be only on the configurator. All various possible combinations of the products should also be displayed in the shop. In our opinion the passion to create a product playfully depends heavily on the target group as well as on the gender. In addition, the configurator should be easy to use. Another aspect is that you should create independent content from the SEO point of view besides the configurator, so that you can guarantee a good visibility on Google and other search engines.

FTP: How important do you rate the use of social media not only to promote ones MC-company but also interact with consumers to better position oneself in the market?

SB: Nowadays social media is mandatory and the direct interaction with customers is a real benefit. To us open innovation is the cue. Involving the customer in the idea generation phase is very important and we believe that this is the future. This may reduce intensive costs for market research In the future.

FTP: Sabine, thank you very much for the interview and your interesting views on the mass customization market. I am looking forward to watch Amoonic evolve!

Interview: Heiko Vogelgesang of egoo.de, the leading German Mass Customization Consumer Portal

While the Mass Customization "movement" originated in the United States, the German speaking world has long caught fire about the concept. Many companies are already employing it over here, be it as their main business model or "just" a side branch. 

For all those who want to update themselves on news and trends about MC in German language, my dear blogging colleague Heiko Vogelgesang will most likely have you covered on his very well-written and often updated blog egoo.de.

Furthermore, egoo.de features a pretty comprehensive database of MC companies from around the world, often with a personal review of the products by Heiko. 

We had the chance to talk to Heiko about his blog, the experiences and observations he made during his years-long time in the MC community and his expectations for the future of  individual customization. So read on for what egoo.de really has to offer!

FTP: Heiko, your blog egoo.de is the largest mass customization blogs in German language, and one of the best in the world. Many people take it as an entry point to the MC world. When did your interest for MC spark up and what fascinated you so much about this topic that you decided to start your own blog about it?

HV: My interest started with my first own shirt in 1999. I loved the idea of creating your own products. Nonetheless almost eight years passed unitl I realized that there is a lot of need of information. Beginning of 2007 I wrote an article with an overview of german Mass Customization Online-Shops on my private blog. I never had so many visitors on my blog before. So I researched about this topic and saw that there is no website which informs specific about this topic. egoo was born. After round a about 1 ½ years of planning, egoo.de started in september 2008. 

FTP: What exactly do you offer? What can consumers, scholars, managers expect to get out of a visit on your blog?

HV: First, egoo is geared to end consumers. They can expect a "unique" database of mc-companies, interesting news about personalized products and special offers. But also scholars and managers will find a lot of posts with interesting news about the mc industry.

FTP: And how does this work for companies wanting to be included into your database? Can one simply sign up and fill a questionnaire or do you hand pick them?

HV: Yes, there is a simple way to sign up for free at http://egoo.de/shops/shop-eintragen. The principal goal is to have a complete database with ALL online-shops where you can customize products. To give the visitors an orientation there are hand-picked recommendations in the specific categories.

FTP: Can you go a bit in depth about the benefits of your database for consumers in comparison to, say, just googling for MC companies?

HV: Gladly! First of all the visitor gets an editorially approved overview over all mc-shops of his interest. eg. business shirts. Also, as i already mentioned, the visitors find in every category hand-picked recommendations. Additionally there are detailed information like pricing, shipping time, special offers and year of founding provided for most of the stores. 

FTP: With these services offered, your database needs to be and stay curated and maintained. How do you guarantee for up-to-date information about the companies listed in it?

HV: In Germany we call it "Alle Angaben ohne Gewähr" [information supplied without liability]. ;) So there is no guarantee that all information are up to date at all times. But I check the information regularly and do my very best.

FTP: All this work you invest into your blog and the database certainly costs a lot of time. How do you finance yourself, do your services cost money?

HV: No, there are no costs for customer and no costs for shops. I try to finance this project just by ads. For example companies can buy display-ads, a highlighted position in the database or other special promotions.

FTP: A more in general question: what do you think will the future of Mass Customization be? Will it just be a trend or the new businesacs model for all (or most) of retail?

HV: In my opinion it quite clearly is a new business model for retail. But not for all. You'll never will successful sell customized bathroom tissue. At least in masses. But for the most retailer there is a lot of potential in mass customization. 

FTP: From your experience with all the companies you examined for your database: What are the major errors you notice being made by MC-companies and how do your think these could be avoided?

HV: The major error was to think that to sell personalized products are easier than other ones. In the commodity boom of the MC trend in 2010, there were a lot of startups in Germany who tried to jump on the bandwagon. Many of them are closed again. E-Commerce isn't that easy. On the contrary: With personalized product you have to solve a lot of problems that you don't have with mass-products. 

FTP: How important do you rate the use of social media not only to promote ones MC-company but also interact with consumers to better position oneselve in the market?

HV: Especially personalized products are very emotional. Customers put a lot of time to create their own product so they love them. That's the perfect requirement for sharing in social media. This advantage can be exploited by the mc-companies.

FTP: Do you see any differences between smaller and larger vendors when it comes to MC? 

HV: The "small" start-ups are much more flexible and the most ones are really innovative. Some of them created completely new processes in production. The big ones are sluggish and need much, much more time to optimize their workflow or offers. Moreover I had the feeling that they are spoilt of the easy way to sell their mass-products. If there is a problem they stop the experiment mass customization or don't even start.

FTP: Do you have anything planned for egoo.de? Are any new services or projects to be expected?

HV: There are many optimizations for the directory planned. The next step is to persuade more vendors to provide a customer-friendly returning policy which will be signalized with an egoo seal and integrate customer reviews in the directory.

FTP: Heiko, thank you very much! I am looking forward to your upcoming articles and to follow your next projects!  And a note for anyone in the mass customization field: Support Heiko by cooperating with him, linking to his blog, and providing him with info and perhaps paid ads. As without a large consumer-focused portal, we will never shift MC consuption to a higher level!

Featured Companies from the MC500 (Part 11): Fewsome: Affordable Custom Watches

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember:  The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

 

Today: Watching Time Go By In Style

A watch can be a fairly important piece of jewlery, especially for a man who, in opposite to his female counterpart, can often not wear too many other decorative objects. An individual watch is hence a really nice addition to your individual style and sets your wrist appart from the standard (and is a great converstation starter at a party). This little bit of individualism can easily cost you upwards of a four-digit number of USD or Euro and is usually reserved for a select few.

However, if you do not mind your watch to lack the logo of a high-class premium brand, fewsome might be worth a look for you. On their website, a nice and even animated configurator lets you build your custom wristwatch by picking all the important parts like movement, case, ring, dials, hands and so on. Choice is plentiful and lets you pick both different designs and colors. The result is a pretty unique watch that you can even have engraved on its back cover.

Time will tell how this business model will evolve and it will certainly be interesting to watch it unfold. But as custom papers have been the subject of one of our first good papers on the subject (the 2004 JPIM paper), I truly believe so :-)

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

Open Alps: Cross-National Innovation Support for SME in the Alp Region

A little while ago I posted about the Top Technology Cluster (TTC) project, an initiative to foster and fund open innovation in amongst SME and partners in the greater Euregio Meuse-Rheine region (where my home university Aachen is placed). Their goal is to promote (consortial) cooperation between SME from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

A comparable yet larger project is Open Alps. The program, part of the "European Territorial Cooperation" initiative, is organized and conducted by nine partners from Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. The goal is to support SMEs in their innovation processes with external partners, and to promote the establishment of such cross-border cooperation in the first place.

Much like with the TTC, international linking is the key aspect here. While the famous term of globalization does still mainly apply to large, multinational companies, SME can especially profit from cooperations with partners, large and small, from neighbouring countries, both in one-on-one and larger consortial dimensions.

Unfortunately, there are the usual barriers one has to face when considering to extend business across the border. Open innovation can help to overcome these barriers, especially in regards to the outside-in approach, enabling SMEs to get in touch upon one broadcasting a problem that another can solve.

Open Alps is heading off to support such ventures with a threefold approach. Besides efforts to spread the word of OI, making actors on the market aware of the existance of the approach and its benefits, the program is working on the establishment of so called Open Innovation Labs in all participating areas.

These will then focus on region-specific topics and markets in order to inform and incubate exemplaric cooperations that can be role-models for other SME and get the stone rolling, so to say.

Furthermore (and especially interesting to monitor from a scientist's point of view) there will be special online platform soon, which will support the initiative's goals through active broadcast search and idea contests. This way, hopefully, SME's (and possibly additional larger companies') need information will be matched with solutions from other SME in the region.

It will be interesting to follow the development of this European Union-funded program. Preparing working packages are mostly completed by now from what I hear, and within the next months, labs and online platform will be established and opened for interested companies.

When time comes, we will take a closer look at the platform and its capabilities. Until then, Open Alps informs about all news and launches on their official project website.

Market Watch: Idea Contests as a Service: Pitchburner and Skild

Idea Constest are not only recognized by Open Innovation scholars as a great method to benefit from customer experience, they are also a fairly popular tool to foster end- or lead-user integration into the design and development process.

Setting up a successful idea contest, however, requires a lot of dedication, know-how and legwork. This has shown to be a major barrier for many companies who still do not exploit the (full) potential of crowdsourcing and co-creation.

For those ventures who do not want (or can not afford) to hire an open innovation expert of their own, outsourcing to social media specialists can be a viable, yet still not exactly cheap solution. As a result, a number of companies are now starting to offer idea contests as a (web) service. Their concept is that experienced users can create idea contests very easily and at low cost, sometimes even free (a conventional idea contest by a full-service agency costs easily US$50K or more)

An example for this trend are Pitchburner and Skild.

Pitchburner, located in Lincoln, NE, has specialized in supporting online-hosted events, amongst them all kinds of innovation competitions.

Submission management interface, click to enlarge!

Pitchburner's platform allows innovation managers (or any staff member) to simply put together a complete idea contest by using a simple interface to define the constest's setup, marketing, participant registration, submissions, judges, idea evaluation and so on. 

Comprehensive feature oversight.

Pitchburner offers a free basic version, allowing you do host simple contests as well as two more sophisticated premium and enterprise packages (like multiple rounds, advanced tracking-, messaging- and analytics features, automation of many otherwise tiresome processes and much more).

An interesting part of using a platform like this is the ability to use preexisting template system. Designing a well-looking constes website with all relevant subpages, forms and functionality takes time and requires experienced (hence costly) personel.

Sending emails to all of your participants or judges by the use of the platform's built-in mailing templates is likely faster and less complicated than doing so from your mail client. And if you have ever tried to keep records of an idea contest with 5.000 participants in your standard spreadsheet-software, you probably know how much headache a well-build database can save.

A similar service is offered by SKILD, a new brand by idea contest pioneer idea crossing, one of the most experienced companies in the field in the USA.

SKLID is comparable to pitchburner in many regards, however, they do offer a more complete package of support services. These are not part of the platform, hence not automated, but are "real", traditional coaching and support on tasks like program and marketing strategy, rules development, research, advanced custom design, social media-, technology- and security support, advise on prizes and advances analysis of user/ contest data.

Hence, they do combine the automated contest application with solutions for some of the points I will adress below.

 

Skild offers a graphically appealing, easy to use configurator as well. Click to enlarge!

 

My opinion:

• It is too early to investigate the impact of these offerings on the market for crowdsourcing, and I also personally have not yet tried one of these services for a real project. But the trend is there: Crowdsourcing is getting a broader and broader.
• The price level of these services is fantastic, and the platform's features include everything one needs for a professional ideation contest.
• But winning with an idea contest is much more than software:  These platforms do not help you with ...
  
  • asking the right question,
  • formulating the right task.
  • defining the rules of the game and legal terms,
  • getting a feel for the right incentives,
  • reaching a broad and new field of potential participants,
  • (the majority of) community management,
  • not making the beginner's mistakes again,
  • defining a communication strategy for your contest,
  • selecting the winner,
  • programming an interface to existing customer databases or your internal R&D software system,
  • ...
• But for experienced users and companies, these services are a great tool. The same may hold true for non-profit or even local organizations, hosting, e.g., an idea contest among their members.  I am curious to see how this field will develop!

Conference Report MC2012: The German Mass Customization Community Meeting

Unless you started following my blog just now, there is no way you could potentially have missed the announcements, special editions and features about the MC2012. This year's edition of the largest MC conference in German language, hosted by Dominik Walcher, Paul Blazek and myself, took place on 29th of June.

Despite the early time of day, the air already started to flicker from the upcoming heat of what promissed to be a really nice summer day at the marvellously desgined building of the University of Applied Sciences near edge of the Alp mountains in Salzburg, Austria.

About 150 professionals, researchers, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts from all parts of the mass customization landscape in the German experienced a tightly packed day dedicated to the opportunities of customer co-design.

Panoramic audience shot. Click to enlarge!

And what a day it was! A buzzing audience followed the presentations of no less than 24 speakers, ranging from young entrepreneurs, telling the tale of their entrance into the MC market, global players and market leaders, giving insight into proven ways and tactics to profit from customer participation, to leading scholars, showing how latest research proves the concept of the integrated customer to be more than a trend.

To not only preach customer integration but actually live up to our words and integrate our conference participants beyond questions and one-on-one networking, we had a special feature in place. Werner Haring, founder and CEO of wallero.us, had contributed to the event's multi media experience by "installing" a social media wall right next to the stage.

Social Media Wall, Courtesy of wallero.us. Click to enlarge!

This application was a real eye-catcher and various running gags were born during the course of the event - and you still can follow the #MCSalzburg hashtag for a report of the conference.

 The day headed off with the introductory panel. After a hearty welcome by co-host Dominik Walcher, my research group's members Dr. Christoph Ihl and Thorsten Harzer outlined results from our research projects and demonstrated some of the numerical "magic" behind Mass Customization and Open Innovation and how it can be utilized to take the right decisions about mission-critical aspects that many companies do not even realize to be of great importance.

As an example: asked about the ideal number of customization options to offer in your configurator (solution space), would your answer have been: "As many as possible, since more choice equals happier customers!"? If your answer to this is "yes" then our latest resarch findings might offer some ways to improve your customer satisfaction.

Following Dominik Walcher's insight into the development and outcome of the MC500, our great study of the most important MC companies from around the world, I had the chance to present on the importance of customer integration and how companies of all sizes can profit from proper employment of the concept, as well as some new MC trends of the future.

Next on the agenda was the market panel in which Franz Blach (IDEO), Franz Hölzl (Kaindl) and Wolfgang Gruel (Daimler) gave really interesting and well-received insight how Open Innovation, individualization and co-creation have changed the way they are conducting their business and the ways they found to profit from it:

• An interesting attempt at improvement of working culture were IDEO's working ethics, as Franz Blach outlined them. They are meant to be pretty much contrary to what we are used to in most larger companies these days. Instead of perfectionism and pressure, IDEO deems a culture in which close teamwork, prototypical work (things do not have to be perfect in their first iteration, can evolve and develop), error tolerancy and more fun are the key principles. While there is certainly more to a successful innovation company, this is certainly an approach favorable by many employees.

• Franz Hölzl demonstrated how Kaindl was able to offer a totally new way to produce wooden flooring, printed with individual patterns and colors, in great looking quality. Because of their production technology and business model, they can deliver a much more customized product at a significantly lower price.

• Wolfgang Gruel finally brought up the question if/why it is necessary that privately owned cars are often used in a really inefficient way, standing in the driveway most of the time and usually being too large for most of the time they are used. Daimler has been working on models to counter this development by employing car sharing, car pooling and affordable renting models. Nothing revolutionary new, you will say, but this time it is being done large-scale, by an international company, and not your small start-up next door. It will be interesting to observe whether Daimler can actually change something about the status quo or if the highly valued status symbol "car" will remain untouched by the means of sheer efficiency.

 

Some captures of our speakers. Click to enlarge!

Next: the social media panel, moderated by Paul Blazek: For all those planning to integrate social media into their PR strategy as well, talks by Martina Partl and Clarissa Streichsbier of cyLEDGE were as insightful as Catharina van Delden's summary of her company innosabi's (unserAller, anybody?) work. Renate Gruber gave the finishing presentation about how her venture CupCakes made its way from a traditional food company onto the MC market:

• Partl and Streichsbier pointed out that, while social media in regards to mass customization was nothing new anymore, the combination of social media and open innovation are a perfect match. This is certainly true in so far as open innovation per definition relies on participation and hence any media that is suited to increase awareness is potentially supportive for any OI initiative.
  
  Interestingly they chose Facebook as an example for a customizable information source. The important role of facebook as a customer relationship tool was stressed by all speakers in this panel. Certainly will be interesting to see if/how companies think of now ways to even better employ the platform for their needs. 

During the lunch break, there was time to check the 20+ exhibitors. Some had even set up live demonstrations of their product offers, like Pasterie, supporting us with freshly made pasta or CowCrowd, demoing their lovely wooden pendants, individualized on-location with your own image and/or custom text.

Next: The start-up panel, hosted by MC-blogging colleague Heiko Vogelgesang (egoo.de). Here, Sabine Beck gave an amazing presentation about how her jewlery business Amoonic manages to mix pre-configured and individually customized rings and more in a great portfolio that every manager dreams about: produced entirely on demand, without any significant need for storage space or the risk of wasting materials.

Interestingly, their configurator is not even visible if you enter their website. At first (and actually second) glance you will not notice anything hinting at the possibility to customize a ring. The configuration options do become visible, however, once you have decided upon one of the preconfigured designs. These can then be individualized using a wide variety of options. Possible combinations of gold, silver and gems of all kinds range from 150 to 2.5 million Euro. Certainly something in this for everybody.

However, from my own testing I found it hard to even find out that you can individualize the rings. You have to actually select one before a respective button appears and that could be a serious usability drawback in my opinion as many potential customers might not even recognize the potential of the store. It does, however, explain why about 40% of their sales are actually preconfigured, non-customized rings. Anyways though, with the average customer leaving between 400-500 Euro in their shop, the concept will certainly be profitable - especially since there are very low fix costs.

Next up was Stickvogel, a promissing start-up which specialized in embroiding and etching all kinds of motives into all kinds of goods. Lately they teamed up with major retailer Butlers, offering custom stitching to customers in Butlers' shops. This B2B customization service concept will certainly be exciting to follow over the (hopefully) next years.

Closing presentation of this panel was helt by Carina Schichl and Tanja Sieder, representing their business for unique custom travel guides, Nectar&Pulse, based on insider tips by what they call "soulmates" rather than generalized all-round information. Locals give their best tips for tourists which are then, upon checking, transformed into nicely layouted guides. While this is certainly an interesting idea per se, the issue I see with it is that the product might not be easy to market. As Schichl and Sieder pointed out, their target group originally were younger people. Instead, most of their customers are 30+. While their choice of age clustering is certainly debatable (and lead to one of the mentioned running gags of this conference), this raises the question: do they actually have the right product for the right market? If their average customer's age is above what they expected, they would likely be well advised to adapt to a different kind of information and layout which fits the needs of this target group better.

Next up was the retail panel. Moderator Jochen Krisch (excitingcommerce) did an outstanding job leading through an exciting lineup of big names: Former Bundesliga-athlete Sven Renz showed how his product line of completely customized ski/sports shoes has blessed his company with a yearly growth of 20-50%. However, I expect there to be an even larger potential in this market, seeing how ErtlRenz still "only" sold 2400 pairs of shoe at their peak last year.

Some captures of the exhibition. Click to enlarge!

Claudia Kieserling, winner of this year's much-noticed Million-Dollar-Challenge by Zazzle, gave a short overview of individual shoe manufacturer selve, showing off some of the models availible to women around the world and giving some interesting insight upon questions from the audience. She especially stressed the importance of the customer's shopping experience, which should be more than just pushing a button and receiving a cardboard box.

A great final presenation in this block came from Max Kickinger. His soundbranding company is known for its work with some major companies like Porsche, Swarovski and many more. Commenting on a truly excellent video he explained how companies use clever sound branding to gain the consumers attention - often without him realizing to be guided towards the "right" shelve - and the checkout counter!

Following another networking break, the final panel of the day: The configurator panel, presented and moderated by Alexander Felfering of Graz University, had the technical side of customer integration covered.

Coffee-Break is over, back to the conference room, Alp-Style!

Andreas Falkner (SIEMENS) spoke about the challenges of complex product configuration, especially where multiple dependencies between customizable factors are to be respected (a good example why companies should reffer to an expert instead of just trying to headjump into the MC market).

Marc Herling of Lumo Graphics demonstrated how the use of 3D-configurators can be a blessing for the consumer who can imagine the to-buy product way better than it would be the case with just some images. With more advanced configurators, he says, the concept of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) will more and more be replaced by YGWYW - You [actually] Get What You Want.

On the other hand, developing a really well working, appealing 3D-configurator takes a lot more than the amount of work it costs to "just" shoot said product images. Hence, as with so many cases of exploiting new technological opportunities, its a balancing act and might often not be profitable for small companies.

HYVE's Volker Bilgram was up next. In his "Toolkits for Gamification" speech he explained how and why the aspect of playing - adding features that make the process of configuring/buying a product more fun than just an annoying act of shopping - can contribute to a retailer's sales figures. Again: If done correctly!

To complete this panel, Klaus Pilsl of IndiValue spoke about web based configurators and their part in the customer's shopping experience. His company is about to launch a major new "configurator as a (web) service" -- something that has been tried for many years, but now finally may become true.

My personal conclusions of this year's MC2012:

 (1) MC has great potential to significantly improve a company's sales figures and customer brand loyalty. However, to make it work successfully, more is needed than just to put up a fancy-looking configurator and then wait for clients.

Especially the dialog with the (potential) client is and will be even more important in the future, as more and more companies employ easily accessable social platforms like Facebook to communicate with their crowd. And a lot of both promissing start-ups and established companies could profit immensely from experienced coaching since, as Christoph Ihl had pointed out at the very beginning, even the right choice of customization options (not to be confused with as many options as possible!) can make or break your MC business. 

(2) Mass Customization needs to be less outcome-driven and to be looked upon from a higher, more meta-perspective to develop it further. I believe we know a lot about nice and perhaps even profitable BtoC consumer products. But what about MC services that tackle some of our true global challenges?

(3) Finally, the German MC community really is a nice crowd of great individuals, very eager to collaborate, to share ideas and experiences, and to network!

Looking back on a fantastic conference I truly want to thank everybody who made this possible, may it be as a speaker or a guest, an exhibitor or supportive staff member. Special thanks do go to my dear co-hosts Paul Blazek and of course Dominik Walcher, who did an outstanding job organizing this large event with his team at Salzburg University!

(Most of) our speakers! Click to enlarge!

Featured Companies from the MC500 (Part 10): Mysn.de: Custom Notebooks, Made in Germany

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember:  The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

 

Today: Another Very Personal Computer

Recently I posted about PC costomizer Dell as part of our MC500 Study. Today we are taking a look at one of Dell's competitors in the segment of individualized computers, Mysn.de/Schenker Notebooks.

While I sometimes argue in my classes that customization is not longer a value proposition in the computer market, these comapnies show that the classic application of mass customization still has its market.

Like Dell, Mysn.de are offering variety of base laptops which you can then customize to your exact media-/ business-/ gaming-/ etc- needs. While their configurator is not exactly a graphical firework, it gets the job done well and lets your virtually assmeble the machine of your dreams (or your budget). I believe that exactly for these hardcore applications customization still has functional value.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

Featured Companies from the MC500 (Part 9): PHD Mountain Software: Custom Sleeping Bags for the Outdoor Adventurer

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember:  The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

 

Today: Custom Sleeping Bags Deluxe

Do you like to spend your time outdoors? Go hiking in the mountains, explore nature by boat or even climb on icy glaciers? In any case, if you are doing any kind of adventurous activity that involves sleeping under the stars (maybe with a thin tent between you and the actual stars) then you will probably need a sleeping bag.

Especially in snowy regions of the world your life (or good sleep, at least) might depend on having a sleeping bag that fits your exact needs. And while some manufacturers already offer some customization options, PHD Mountain Software takes things a step further by letting you configure about every aspect of the bag that I can imagine. So if I just sparked your interest in a holiday trip to the top of the Mont Blanc, maybe PHD has the right equipment for you.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

Market Watch: Extreme Customization with CedarWorks: Beautiful, Fully Customizable Playsets

While customized clothing or cars are a rather obvious thing to offer, the MC application I want to present today is rather unique and a really great idea, bringing MC to a new extreme!.

Now, if you are blessed with children of young age, you might want to give them some of the outdoor toys we have all dreamed of during our childhood: A large wooden castle, equpped with some swing set, a slide and a sandbox. And while you can certainly buy one of these in the local hardware store of your choice, if you want to go for something that fits your well-designed garden a bit better, CedarWorks might have just the right offer for you.

The Rockport, ME, based company offers essentially everything you need to create the playset of your (or your little one's) dreams. Your fantasy is pretty much only limited by the laws of physics and the size of your real estate (and not even that, read on). A really easy to use configurator enables you to plan the wooden construction - may it be just a small swing set or a fully grown castle - by dragging and dropping parts like towers, bridges, slides, swings and all sorts of accessory. 

A demo play set, configurator view, 3D view and real life result. Click to enlarge!

 The configurator assists intuitively by highlighting such points that a selected element can be attached to, helping to create an appealing playground within minutes, even without any knowledge of online configuration (or carpentry). 

For clients unsure of how a great design could look, CedarWorks also offers a number of (partially really beautiful) preconfigured sets which can be ordered as-is or customized to one's needs, adding, removing or reordering parts of choice. To top it off, CedarWorks experts are just a phonecall away to help you decide on both a nice and realistic design for your individual conditions like availible space, number and age of kids, pets and so on. 

But what if you do not have a large garden of yours to house a play set? Well, maybe you have the lacking outdoor space availible indoors, in which case you can choose one of the indoor play sets that CedarWorks alongside their outdoor models. These, like their larger pendents, are customizable as well. 

If this concept sounds interesting for you, CedarWorks will hold a tour of their facilities in Rockport, ME, for interested, preregistered professionals. The tour, followed by a lunch, will take place on Friday, 17th of August 2012. More details and registration availible here.

More information about CedarWorks, their products, the configuration process as well as catalogues and pricing can be found on the companie's website.

MC2012 Exhibitor Preview: cyLEDGE Introduces CowCrowd, Brings Virtual Friends to the Real World

Here another preview of our exhibitors at this year's edition of the MC2012, the upcoming German language conference on mass customization and co-creation.

Since the conference will be entirely in German language, so will be this post.

 

CowCrowd: die besten Freunde immer dabei

Neben der eigentlichen Konferenz und dem Expertenworkshop bietet die MC-Conference Unternehmen die Möglichkeit, ihre innovativen Konzepte einer breiten Fachöffentlichkeit zu präsentieren. In den Räumlichkeiten der FH Salzburg stehen dafür großzügige Räumlichkeiten zur Verfügung, in denen wir auch in diesem Jahr wieder eine Reihe interessanter Aussteller begrüßen dürfen.

Für alle, die sich immer schon gewünscht haben, ihr soziales Netzwerk auch in der "wirklichen Welt" repräsentieren zu können, haben wir in diesem Jahr ein besonders interaktives Angebot. Die Wiener Agentur cyLEDGE wird im Ausstellungsbereich eines ihrer gewohnt innovativen Projekte vorstellen: CowCrowd, eine Möglichkeit, die Brücke zwischen virtueller und realer Welt zu schlagen, und das natürliche Bedürfnis nach Individualität mit Vorzügen des Online-Networking zu verbinden.

Im sozialen Netzwerk der Wahl ist man mit seinen engsten Freunden mittlerweile ständig vernetzt, Verbindungen sind für (fast) alle Nutzer jederzeit sichtbar, neue Bekanntschaften ergeben sich nach dem "ich-kenne-jemanden-der-jemand-kennt" Prinzip beinahe von allein.

Doch was, wenn man den Computer ausschaltet, das Netz verlässt? Ohne das digitale Frontend verliert sich der Kontakt schnell. Und wenn man nicht sieht, wer wen kennt, kann das der Kontaktfindung nur abträglich sein. 
cyLEDGEs einfache aber geniale Idee: wenn man schon den Computer zurück lassen muss, sollen wenigstens die besten Freunde mitkommen. In Form wunderschöner Anhänger aus hochwertigem (und fair biologisch gewirtschafteten) Holz in der Silhouette eines sympathischen Kuhkopfes ("CowTag"), mit individuellen Bildern der (virtuellen) Bekannten zu einmaligen kleinen Kunstwerken veredelt.

Die Transformation von Bits und Bites zur Realität übernimmt dabei der Laserschneider. Auf der CowCrowd Website lassen sich die CowTags ganz einfach gestalten. Neben dem manuellen Hochladen von Bildern können auch individueller Text und eine Vielzahl lustiger Symbole auf dem Anhänger frei platziert, verschoben, skaliert und gedreht werden.

Besonders innovativ dabei: auf Wunsch verbindet sich der Konfigurator mit dem eigenen sozialen Netzwerk und lässt den Nutzer die Bilder seiner Freunde direkt von dort aus übernehmen.
In wenigen Minuten entsteht so ein ganz persönliches Schmuckstück, mit dem sich von der Zugehörigkeit zum Sportverein bis zur ewigen Liebe zum Partner alles ausdrücken lässt.

Wenn das Konzept in der Realität den Erfolg hat, den die Idee verspricht, werden sich vielleicht bald ganz neue Bekanntschaften schließen, in der realen Welt, der CowCrowd.

Wer sich über ein geeignetes Design noch unschlüssig ist, findet in der CowTag Gallerie, einem eigenen YouTube- und Vimeo-Channel sowie dem Online-Pinboard Pinterest eine Vielzahl von Anregungen. News zu CowCrowd gibt es darüber hinaus (natürlich) auch auf der eigenen Facebook-Seite und über Twitter. 

 

cyLEDGE und viele weitere spannende Aussteller präsentieren sich auf der MC2012. Mehr zu Ausstellung, Workshop und Konferenz auf der offiziellen Konferenzwebsite.

Featured Companies from the MC500 (Part 8): Mymat: Customized Doormats for a Successful First Impression

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember:  The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

 

Today: Style the Ground You are Walking on!

Here in Germany, sunny days are sparse. They only occure on workdays and the sun usually hides behind thick rainy clouds the moment you leave the office. To keep your home free of dirt, doormats are the tool of choice. However, as the saying goes, "there is no second chance for the first impresson". With this in mind - and especially if you get a lot of people to visit you frequently - you might want to fine-tune the first impression of your home by designing your very own custom doormat.

German MC-Company Mymat.de has you covered in this regard, with a wide variety of either pre-designed or personalized mats. Their simple yet efficient configurator lets you pick from a number of templated which you can then customize with your desired size, color, symbols and text and have it shipped to your doorstep - right where it belongs. So if you are considering moving to Germany or do have bad weather of your own, check out their website at www.mymat.de.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

Mass Customization Explained - The Full Series from Innovationmanagement.se

I have been tweeting about it during the past weeks as more episodes have become availible:

Together with my colleagues Fabrizio Salvador and Dominik Walcher, we have been given the opportunity to provide an extended overview on eight parts of various aspects of mass customization on the well-known innovation blog Innovationmanagement.se .Finally, the last episode has been published.

The series consists of 8 parts, starting here.

In the series, we tried to shed some light onto:

• Part 1: Introduction: Competing in the Age of Mass Customization
• Part 2: The Market for Mass Customization Today
• Part 3: Solution Space Development: Understanding where Customers are Different
• Part 4: Robust Process Design: Fulfilling Individual Customer Needs without Compromising Performance
• Part 5: Choice Navigation: Turning Burden of Choice into an Experience
• Part 6: Choice Navigation in Reality: A closer look into the Customization500
• Part 7: Overcoming the Challenges of Implementing Mass Customization
• Part 8: A Balanced View: Conclusions and Key Learnings

Market Watch: mi adidas Team: Adidas Launches Customization Portal for Sports Teams, Lets You Fly Your Colors

Adidas, major sports gear manufacturer from Herzogenaurach, Germany, is likely known to everybody around the globe.

Since 2000, adidas has been engaging in the market for customized sportswear. Their mi adidas program offers convenient online configuration of your favorite clothing and adds some extra motivation to your sporting efforts. It has been one of my favorite case studies and examples of mass customization in my presentations.

After 12 years of successful mass customization targeting individual athletes, adidas now took the next logical step, enabling not only the individual but also the entire team to design their own individual yet affordable uniforms. Mi adidas Team is the latest addition to the mi-family of adidas customization platforms. And from a business perspective, this may be the trigger to finally scale up MC at adidas.

Configuration process on PC. Click to enlarge!

Amateurs and professionals, youth and adults alike, from schools, universities, leagues and clubs can style a wide variety of footwear, apparel and accessoires. The team's crest, sponsor logo, player number or team name can be applied on the items which are also customizable by picking from 15 base colors.

Sportswear you look and feel great in is one factor adding to your (perceived) victory chances, fan support is another. Well aware of the importance of your supporters, adidas also offers the option to customize a number of off court items for fans, coaches etc.

In the spirit of good sportsmanship, adidas extends the idea of teamwork from the field to the computer: When you have created a design you are happy with, the configurator lets you share your concept with your teammates, management and sponsors via facebook, twitter, email or blog integration.

Once the final look has been decided upon, adidas will ship your order to a dedicated adidas specialist retailer within 45 days.

Mi adidas Team is currently availible for eleven sports categories (running track and field, running cross country, rugby, baseball, football, basketball, handball, volleyball, American football, TECHFIT® training and select Olympic sports) on 16 markets (USA, UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, poland, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

For those who prefer old fashioned personal collaboration over online social media, mi Team has designed the platform with the use on mobile platforms in mind. It looks especially great on tablet PCs and allows you to design your new major league uniform right on your advancement party.

Configurator demostration on a tablet PC. Click to enlarge!

It will be interesting to observe how this rather large addition to adidas' customization portfolio will develop and which impact it will have on the market of (semi-)professional team sports goods. More about mi adidas Team on the official website.

Concluding, these are the following three features that make the new mi adidas team customization site really interesting for me:

• Moving from 1:1 customization to communities of users!  This is still one of the first team customization sites.
  
• Building a multi-layered site that takes care of multiple stakeholders - players, equipment managers, coaches, moms, fans, retailers ... this is one of the best configuration systems in this regard I have ever seen!  While the online cofiguration toolkit is "just" common good practice, I would say, this multi-stakeholder capability of mi adidas team is terrific!
  
  
• Re-integrating the (independent) retailer back into the MC system. For a long time, MC moved direct, and away from retailers. With mi adidas team, the site also provides great opportunities for individual retailers to customize a sales pitch for a local team, based on a local set of garments.  By making independent retailers part of the system, Adidas may utilize these retailers as "brand ambassodrs" for customization.

Contest: Siemens Student Award Germany: How Can You Upgrade Our Aging Community into a Zero Emission Society?

Another interesting contest by German technology major Siemens: The Siemens Student Award 2012 has just headed off.

Siemens has a tradition of trying to find solutions for major problems that our society is already or might be facing soon. These are usually questions concerning the entirety of the global population, like identifying sustainable resources or how the city of the future could be more resource efficient. With this global relevance in mind it is obviously a good idea to have those concerned participate in the finding of a solution. 

One such attempt to create new, future-ready concepts for our planet is the Siemens Student Award, a crowdsourced idea contest to find and discuss new thoughts to solve old (yet relevant than never) questions by the help of students. 

After two very successful iterations in the Middle East and Brasil, where a total of nearly 12.000 registered users gave input on and discussed over 1.000 unique ideas, this year Siemens has decided to put the focus of their third contest, realized in cooperation with German crowdsourcing expert HYVE, on its country of origin, Germany.

From now on until the 15th of July, students enrolled in German universities are invited to take on the challenge to find answers to one of the most pressing issues of our times:

How to upgrade our aging infrastructure to help create a zero emission society?

Urban infrastructures, factories, buildings and networks do not meet the energy efficiency needs of the future. How would you design creative and innovative solutions to meet these challenges?

The entire contest is hosted on a dedicated contest website where all ideas can be submitted, reviewed, commented and discussed by the community. Siemens experts will pick the best 10 ideas who's creators will be invited to present their concepts infront of a jury at the award ceremony in Berlin, Germany.

Prizes for the three winners are really generous: 20.000, 10.000 and 5.000 Euro for places 1,2 and 3, respectively. Furthermore, these contests are usually a great opportunity to impress the human resources department and maybe get one of the much sought-after internships or trainee positions at Siemens...

All details about the contest can be found on the official website.

MC2012 Exhibitor Preview: Hyve: Consumer Integration For Maximum Creative Power

Here another preview of our exhibitors at this year's edition of the MC2012, the upcoming German language conference on mass customization and co-creation.

Since the conference will be entirely in German language, so will be this post.

 

Hyve: Ideen finden, formulieren, verdichten, verwerten

Neben der eigentlichen Konferenz und dem Expertenworkshop bietet die MC-Conference Unternehmen die Möglichkeit, ihre innovativen Konzepte einer breiten Fachöffentlichkeit zu präsentieren. In den Räumlichkeiten der FH Salzburg stehen dafür großzügige Räumlichkeiten zur Verfügung, in denen wir auch in diesem Jahr wieder eine Reihe interessanter Aussteller begrüßen dürfen.

Besonders freuen wir uns über den Besuch der Münchener Innovationsagentur HYVE, die die Konferenz neben einem Vortrag zum Thema "Toolkits with Gamification" auch um eine eigene Ausstellung zu Kundeninteraktionssystemen bereichern wird.

HYVE unterstützt seit nunmehr 12 Jahren Unternehmen unterschiedlichster Branchen dabei, neue Lösungsansätze und Innovationsideen zu finden, in Worten greifbar zu machen, weiterzuentwickeln und in reale Produkte zu verwandeln.

Dabei ist der Name Programm: Hyve bedeutet Bienenstock und kaum ein Wort charakterisiert die größte Ideenbörse der Welt treffender als dieses. Das Internet vernetzt nicht nur Computer, es verbindet Menschen. Menschen mit Träumen, Wissen und konkreten Ideen zu allen nur erdenklichen Lebens- und damit Geschäftsfeldern. Die Chancen stehen also gut, dass die Lösung vieler Probleme, die Ihrem Team gerade Kopfzerbrechen bereiten, irgendwo im Netz bereits existiert - und sei es nur als Expertenwissen, das lediglich mit Ihrer Herausforderung in Verbindung gebracht werden müsste.

Die Größe und Komplexität des Internets erschwert aber leider auch die Kontaktaufnahme mit denjenigen Nutzern, die das benötigte Wissen oder innovative Ideen zum eigenen Produkt beitragen könnten.

HYVE bietet als Mittler zwischen den Bedarfen der Industrie und Wirtschaft sowie der Kreativ- und Wissensbasis der Internet-Community Lösungen, um die Intelligenz (und Emotion) des "Bienenstocks" zu filtern, zu verdichten und zu einer Problemlösung zu formen. Dabei stellt das Unternehmen alle notwendigen Dienstleistungen zur Lösungsfindung  bereit: von der klassischen Marktforschung über Ideenwettbewerbe und -Management, Lead User Ansätze, die Arbeit mit Communities, spezialisierte IT-Konzepte bis zum Industrial Design.

Nach einer Vielzahl erfolgreicher Projekte für und mit internationalen Partnern aller Branchen verfügt HYVE über einen enormen Erfahrungsschatz und umfassende Kenntnis der besten Methoden zur Unterstützung des Innovationsmanagements. Unternehmen, die für aktuelle oder zukünftige Projekte auf wirklich kompetente Unterstützung zurückgreifen wollen, finden in HYVE einen hervorragenden Ansprechpartner.

HYVE und viele weitere spannende Aussteller präsentieren sich auf der MC2012. Mehr zu Ausstellung, Workshop und Konferenz auf der offiziellen Konferenzwebsite.

Featured Companies from the MC500 (Part 7): Proper Cloth: Custom Dress Shirts the Easy (and Affordable) Way

In our series of postings introducing companies that performend very well in our Customization 500 study, we are introducing the next mass customizer. Remember:  The order of these feature postings is more or less randomly!

 

Also, just in case you somehow missed it, the MC2012, largest MC/OI conference in German language, will be heading off soon (28th/29th of june). So if you are going to be in the area, understand German and want to meet some really interesting MC/OI enthusiasts, the conference website has all the information you need. Would be glad to see you there in person!

Today: Dress Yourself with the Latest Fashion, Decide What is "in Fashion" Yourself

As I said in my last MC500 Post about Mission Bicycle, summer - if that's what you want to call it - has finally arrived in Germany. While (unfortunately) this does not mean that work would magically finish itself, at least one gets a chance to spend the evening outdoors (sometimes), may it be sitting on the terrace of a nice restaurant or taking a walk in the park.

Whether it will be the office or the park for you, what always comes in handy is a well-tailored, perfectly fitting dress shirt. While each of you will have a different idea of what "perfectly fitting" means, one place might have you covered for all your individual shirt needs.

Proper Cloth, founded in Delaware in 2008, offers a pretty complete customization experience when it comes to dress shirts, a fashion article which, as many of you will agree, tends to just not fit perfectly at some point or another. Proper Cloth's promiss is exactly that, a perfectly fitting shirt, tailored to your needs, based on a really well-made configurator which even shines where others lack by offering assistance in finding out your individual measures in various ways. Oh and, if configurators should not be your thing (unlikely as that is, seeing how you are visiting this website), they offer a variety of preconfigured shirt as well.

So whether you need a new shirt to wear with your favorite suit or a stylish untucked one for leasure, a visit at propercloth.com might be worth it for you.

Note: Please see this post for detailed information on how to interpret the above data.

MC2012 Exhibitor Preview: Mein Kuscheltier-Tagebuch: Heartwarming Individualized Children's Books, The Adventures of Your Favorite Pet

Did you already book your ticket for this year's edition of the MC2012, the upcoming German language conference on mass customization and co-creation? I am looking forward to meeting you again (or for the first time, respectively).  To help you pass the time until the conference heads off on June 28th, here is another little preview on one of our exhibitors.

Since the conference will be entirely in German language, so will be this post.

 

Mein Kuscheltier-Tagebuch: Spielend lernen mit wunderschönen Geschichten

Neben der eigentlichen Konferenz und dem Expertenworkshop bietet die MC-Conference Unternehmen die Möglichkeit, ihre innovativen Konzepte einer breiten Fachöffentlichkeit zu präsentieren. In den Räumlichkeiten der FH Salzburg stehen dafür großzügige Räumlichkeiten zur Verfügung, in denen wir auch in diesem Jahr wieder eine Reihe interessanter Aussteller begrüßen dürfen.

Für alle, die kleine (Enkel-/Paten-/Adoptiv-...)Kinder haben, gibt es 2012 eine besondere Empfehlung. Die Pariser Agentur Typlume & Graphine bietet mit dem Projekt "Mein Kuscheltier-Tagebuch" allen Kindern die Möglichkeit, ihr allerliebstes Kuscheltier in lustigen Geschichten allerlei Abenteuer erleben zu lassen. So wird die Gutenachtgeschichte - mit dem Kuscheltier fest im Arm - zu einem ganz besonderen Erlebnis.

Eltern und alle, die mal wieder auf der Suche nach einem ausgefallenen Geschenk für die lieben Kleinen sind, können auf der Projektwebsite in einfachen Schritten ihr Wunschbuch konfigurieren. Neben dem Vornamen des/der zu Beschenkenden, einer persönlichen Widmung und dem Namen des Lieblingstieres (optional) werden dazu nur drei Fotos des plüschigen Spielkameraden benötigt.

Nach Abschicken der Bestellung wird das zuvor ausgewählte Buch individualisiert. Dabei werden neben dem Namen auch die hochgeladenen Bilder integriert und durch schön umgesetzte Photomontage in die Geschichte eingefügt. Das Ergebnis ist ein hochwertiges Buch zum Blättern, Vorlesen und Immerwiederanschauen, mit dem jüngere Kinder, je nach gewähltem Thema, spielerisch die Tierwelt, die Natur, den Bauernhof, die Pariser Innenstadt und viele weitere Motive kennenlernt.

Click to enlarge!

Alle Bücher können vor der Bestellung online durchgeblättert werden, für die sichere Abwicklung der Transaktion steht PayPal als Zahlungsweg zur Verfügung. Und um das Warten auf das persönliche Kuscheltiertagebuch etwas zu verkürzen, stehen auf der Website viele schöne Tiermotive zum kostenlosen Ausdrucken und Ausmalen bereit.

Mein Kuscheltier-Tagebuch und viele weitere spannende Aussteller präsentieren sich auf der MC2012. Mehr zu Ausstellung, Workshop und Konferenz auf der offiziellen Konferenzwebsite.

MC2012 Exhibitor Preview: UnserAller: Taking Care of Your Crowdsourcing Endeavors

Did you already book your ticket for this year's edition of the MC2012, the upcoming German language conference on mass customization and co-creation? I am looking forward to meeting you again (or for the first time, respectively).  To help you pass the time until the conference heads off on June 28th, here is another little preview on one of our exhibitors.

Since the conference will be entirely in German language, so will be this post.

 

UnserAller: Crowdsourcing für alle

Neben der eigentlichen Konferenz und dem Expertenworkshop bietet die MC-Conference Unternehmen die Möglichkeit, ihre innovativen Konzepte einer breiten Fachöffentlichkeit zu präsentieren. In den Räumlichkeiten der FH Salzburg stehen dafür großzügige Räumlichkeiten zur Verfügung, in denen wir auch in diesem Jahr wieder eine Reihe interessanter Aussteller begrüßen dürfen.

Für alle, die zur Unterstützung ihrer Innovationsarbeit auf Co-Creation, also die Integration potenzieller Kunden und anderer Interessierter in die eigene Entwicklungstätigkeit setzen, haben wir in diesem Jahr einen ganz besonders interessanten Tipp: die Crowdsourcing-Experten von UnserAller. 

Dass Crowdsourcing ein enormes Potenzial hat, nicht nur neue Käufer auf die eigenen Produkte aufmerksam zu machen, sondern auch die richtigen Produkte richtig - also Zielgruppenkonform - zu entwickeln, ist mittlerweile kein Geheimnis mehr. Weltmarktführer der verschiedensten Branchen haben die Chancen erkannt und betreiben teils enormen Aufwand um diejenigen in die Produktentwicklung einzubinden, die ihre Wünsche letztlich besser kennen als jeder Marktforscher: die Kunden selbst. 

Aber auch mit kleinem Budget lassen sich durch Crowdsourcing messbare, die Erwartungen oft um ein Vielfaches übertreffende Ergebnisse erzielen. Vorausgesetzt, man weiß, wie es richtig geht. 

Ein Kernaspekt beim Einstieg in die Welt des Crowdsourcing ist die Etablierung eines geeigneten Kommunikationskanals zur "Crowd". Diesen zu konzipieren, softwareseitig zu entwickeln und zu betreuen erfordert Expertenwissen, Erfahrung und Ressourcen und ist eine der größten Hürden die es auf dem Weg zu offener Innovation zu überwinden gilt. 

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Für alle, die nicht über eine eigene Marketingabteilung mit entsprechenden Fachkenntnissen verfügen, bietet die Münchener Agentur Innosabi eine spezielle Plattform, die mit einem Rundum-Sorglos-Paket die realisierung individueller Crowdsourcing-Projekte unterstützt: UnserAller.de. 

Unternehmen jeder Größe können nach Buchung eines auf ihre individuellen Anforderungen passenden Paketes konkrete Produkte zur Diskussion stellen oder Vorgaben machen, nach denen die Community (mit ca. 15.000 Mitgliedern eine der Großen in Deutschland) Vorschläge und Wünsche zu Neuentwicklungen äußern kann.

Die technische Umsetzung ist dabei angenehm einfach und übersichtlich gestaltet. Je nach gewähltem Leistungsumfang kann sie in die eigene Website, Facebook-Präsenz oder die UnserAller-Community eingebunden werden, können Marketingmaterialien bestellt oder eine besonders prominente Projektpräsentation ausgewählt werden.

Produkte, die in Zusammenarbeit mit der UnserAller-Community entwickelt wurden, können auf Wunsch im eigenen Onlineshop zum Kauf angeboten werden. Darüber hinaus bietet Innosabi auch eine individuelle Projektberatung, ein Angebot, von dem besonders solche Unternehmen profitieren können, die Crowdsourcing bisher noch nicht (intensiv) genutzt haben.

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Für die (Käufer)Community bieten sich ebenfalls interessante Anreize zur Mitarbeit: konstruktive Beiträge, Verbesserungs- und Produktvorschläge werden über ein Punktesystem honoriert, Punkte lassen sich beispielsweise beim Einkauf im UnserAller-Shop in Rabatte umsetzen. 

Ein interessanter Ansatz ist auch das Vorschlagsportal, über das jeder Interessierte neue spannende Projekte vorschlagen kann. Wer sich also immer schon gwundert hat, wieso es ein bestimmtes Produkt noch nicht gibt, kann hier zum Erfinder werden.  

 Innosabi informiert auf dem eigenen und dem UnserAller-Blog regelmäßig über neue Projete und interessante Trends aus der Welt der Co-Creation. Mehr Informationen über die UnserAller-Plattform finden sich auch auf in der FAQ-Sektion der Projektwebsite.

Innosabi, die Köpfe hinter UnserAller, und viele weitere spannende Aussteller präsentieren sich auf der MC2012. Mehr zu Ausstellung, Workshop und Konferenz auf der offiziellen Konferenzwebsite.

MC2012 Exhibitor Preview: Wunschfutter: Benefiting from the Custom Pet Food Trend in Germany

Did you already book your ticket for this year's edition of the MC2012, the upcoming German language conference on mass customization and co-creation? I am looking forward to meeting you again (or for the first time, respectively).  To help you pass the time until the conference heads off on June 28th, here is another little preview on one of our exhibitors.

Since the conference will be entirely in German language, so will be this post.

 

Wunschfutter - Nicht irgendeins. Sondern meins.

Neben der eigentlichen Konferenz und dem Expertenworkshop bietet die MC-Conference Unternehmen die Möglichkeit, ihre innovativen Konzepte einer breiten Fachöffentlichkeit zu präsentieren. In den Räumlichkeiten der FH Salzburg stehen dafür großzügige Räumlichkeiten zur Verfügung, in denen wir auch in diesem Jahr wieder eine Reihe interessanter Aussteller begrüßen dürfen.

Dieses Jahr mit dabei ist das Team von Wunschfutter. Das junge Dortmunder StartUp hat sich auf individuell zusammengestelltes Futter für den besten (vierbeinigen) Freund des Menschen spezialisiert. Auf der Firmenwebsite finden Hundebesitzer einen komfortablen Konfigurator mittels dessen sich der individuell optimale Futtermix komponieren lässst - echtes Wunschfutter eben. Interessant: der Konfigurator geht dabei sogar auf das individuelle Aktivitätslevel des Tieres ein.

Wer sich über die ideale Ernährung für seinen Hund noch nicht im Klaren ist, findet umfangreiche und gleichzeitig intuitiv bedinebare Unterstützung im Futterberater. Nach Eingabe einiger Daten wie Alter, Größe und Gewicht, aber auch Allergien und Gesundheitsprobleme des Tieres empfielt die Software eine geeignete Futtermischung, die auf Wunsch direkt bestellt werden kann.

Wunschfutter bietet neben kostenfreiem Versand auch einen besonderen Service: wer sich vor seiner Bestellung von der Qualität des Angebots überzeugen will, kann auf der Website eine kostenlose Futterprobe ordern.

Abgerundet wird das Produktportfolio durch eine Auswahl von Snacks zur Belohnung oder für zwischendurch sowie eine Reihe fertiger Futtermischungen, die je nach Art und Lebensweise des Hundes ausgewählt werden können.

Wer tiefer in die richtige Ernährung seines Hundes einsteigen will, findet im Wunschfutter-Blog viele interessante und teils sehr umfangreiche Informationen, beispielsweise zu schlecht verträglichen Snacks oder Regeln zur optimalen Hundeernährung.

Wunschfutter und viele weitere spannende Aussteller präsentieren sich auf der MC2012. Mehr zu Ausstellung, Workshop und Konferenz auf der offiziellen Konferenzwebsite. Wir freuen uns auf Sie!

MCPC2012 Preview: Pasterie: Custom Noodles for Everybody

Did you already book your ticket for this year's edition of the MC2012, the largest German language conference on mass customization and open innovation? Many of you have and I seriously looking forward to meeting you again (or for the first time, respectively) to discuss the latest and greatest in MC and OI.  To help you pass the time until the conference heads off on June 28th, here is a little preview on one of our exhibitors.

Since the conference will be entirely in German language, so will be this post.

 

Pasterie - Pasta a la carte

Neben der eigentlichen Konferenz und dem Expertenworkshop bietet die MC-Conference Unternehmen die Möglichkeit, ihre innovativen Konzepte einer breiten Fachöffentlichkeit zu präsentieren. In den Räumlichkeiten der FH Salzburg stehen dafür großzügige Räumlichkeiten zur Verfügung, in denen wir auch in diesem Jahr wieder eine Reihe interessanter Aussteller begrüßen dürfen. Ein besonderes Highlight sind dabei die Livepräsentationen, also praktische Mass Customization "hautnah".

2012 freuen wir uns besonders über den Besuch der Pastaspezialisten von Pasterie. Das Team rund um Geschäftsführer Daniel Schneider wird mit einer eigenen Pastamaschine auf der MC2012 vertreten sein und die schmackhafte Produktlinie live vor Ort präsentieren.

Wer danach Geschmack an ausgefallenen Nudeln und individuellen Saucen gefunden hat, kann seine kulinarischen Träume auf Pasteries Internetpräsenz hemmungslos ausleben. Über einen denkbar einfachen (aber optisch sehr ansprechenden) Konfigurator lassen sich Form und Zutaten der Wunschpasta schnell und einfach auswählen. Die gewünschte Menge Teigwaren kommt in einer attraktiven Hülle (auf Wunsch auch mit eigenem Bild und Grußtext) nach Hause.

Wer keine genauen Vorstellungen von der eignen Traumpasta hat, kann sich auch von einer Auswahl vorkonfigurierter Mischungen wie "Afrika" und "Blütenstaub" oder, ganz im Zeichen der EM 2012, von einer "Europameister"-Pasta in verschiedenen landestypischen Varianten inspirieren lassen (und diese auch direkt bestellen). Regelmäßiges Wiederkommen kann sich lohnen, schließlich gibt es regelmäßig eine neue "Pasta des Monats".

Pasterie und viele weitere spannende Aussteller präsentieren sich auf der MC2012. Mehr zu Ausstellung, Workshop und Konferenz auf der offiziellen Konferenzwebsite. Wir freuen uns auf Sie!

Open Service Innovation: BOSCH Launches OI Community Dedicated to Auto Mechanic Services

Bosch, one of the world's leading suppliers for (professional and personal) electronics and tools, has taken another interesting step in opening their innovation process. 

Bosch is not a new player in this field, already providing a general idea plattform where you can both submit solutions to specific problems and get the chance to send in and present your very own revolutionary idea for the next big product (enhancement). 

Now Bosch has taken things one step further. Seeing how automotive componentes and electronics are a major branch of their business they decided to go where problem-knowledge and improvement-ideas are most likely to be found: with the professional employer of Bosch's tool, the mechanic. 

In light of this realization, Bosch has recently launched the Bosch Open Innovation Plattform, specifically dedicated to professional garages and their employees. 

The concept of this community (which is so far in German language only) is twofold: The core-piece is a forum where professionals can discuss problems they may encounter during their work with Bosch's tools as well as exchange tips and tricks with colleagues from all over the nation (and the world, provided they understand German). Dedicated Bosch staff is also present on these forums so a direct interaction with company representatives is possible.

Next to this the plattform features an "Idea" section in which users (upon free registration) can submit their ideas about product enhancements and new solutions that they deem helpful/ necessary to better employ the company's products in "real life". Browsing through already submitted ideas is possible without registration. And of course you can submit ideas on how to improve the plattform itself (there even is an own section for this topic). 

A complementary "News" section is used by the company to transmit additional information deemed valuable for their target group. 

So far Bosch's concept seems to be rather successful with 400+ registered users and already 72 submitted ideas as of today, ranging from improved knowledge databases to concrete improvements of software provided by Bosch. It will be very interesting to observe where this communty of experts will go and which concrete outcomes it will produce. In any case a very good example of open innovation employment beyond "just" putting another idea website out there and wait. 

Featured Research: New Forms of Collaborative Innovation and Production on the Internet

In my series of featured research on open innovation and mass customization, today I would like to present you a book (also availible as free downloadable pdf) published by my colleagues Volker Wittke and Heidemarie Hanekop (Goettingen University). They present an interdisciplinary view on the effects of broad (online) collaboration on innovation and production.

New Forms of Collaborative Innovation and Production on the Internet

By Volker Wittke and Heidemarie Hanekop (Editors)

Published byUniversitätsverlag Göttingen, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86395-020-0

Availible for free download and hardcover purchase at Universitätsverlag Göttingen

 

The Internet has enabled new forms of large-scale collaboration. Voluntary contributions by large numbers of users and co-producers lead to new forms of production and innovation, as seen in Wikipedia, open source software development, in social networks or on user-generated content platforms as well as in many firm-driven Web 2.0 services.

In their book, editors Volker Wittke and Heidemarie Hanekop take a nuanced look at the (online) collaboration landscape, presenting a collection of papers contributed by international scholars from sociology, management research, economics, and law. Complemented by a number of very interesting case studies, this book provides a good (academic) overview on the "big picture" of online-based collaboration in innovation and production.

Large-scale collaboration on the Internet is an intriguing phenomenon for scholarly debate because it challenges well established insights into the governance of economic action, the sources of innovation, the possibilities of collective action and the social, legal and technical preconditions for successful collaboration. Although contributions to the debate from various disciplines and fine-grained empirical studies already exist, there has been a lack of an interdisciplinary approach. This is exactly where this book provides great value -- and as it is open access and free for download, it may serve as a good starting point for the debate.

Note: For more books on open innovation, co-creation, and corwdsourcing, head to the Knowledge Base of my website.

Public Proceedings of the last MCPC Conference Published -- Access all Conference Presentations, Papers, Videos

Did you miss the MCPC 2011 conference? It was a terrific event, and we really got great feedback and comments on the conference.  Check here for some conference pictures!

Richard Henderson at UC Berkeley has been very helpful in creating the best conference documentation we ever had! On a special conference website, the full conference program  is  now available with links to the slides of the presentations, full papers (when available), and many full videos of the plenary and keynote presentations (for Day 1 and 2).

To access this rich source of information (I estimate that this are 2500+ slides, 1000+ pages of papers, and 15+ hours of video), either use the access code you got as a conference participant, or purchase* the full text proceedings:

Bridging Mass Customization & Open Innovation. Proceedings of the MCPC 2011 Conference -- including an access code to all presentations, papers, and videos. Edited by Henry Chesbrough and Frank Piller. Published by Lulu, Inc. (Raleigh, NC), 2012.

=>  Paperback version: ISBN: 978-1-4716-3023-1 (ca. 5 day delivery time)

=>  eBook version: ISBN: 978-1-4716-3086-6 (instant download)

For detailed information about presentations and speakers please also refer to the conference proceedings flyer!

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*Note: Why do we sell these proceedings and do not provide open access? First, this would have been unfair to all people participating at the conference and paying the full fee there. Second, organizing such a conference is a big effort and investment, and we still need the proceeds from this publication to cover our cost. Third, many authors and presenters do not want to have their papers and presentations openly on the web, but agreed to a controlled publication only.

Your Opinion on the Future of Mass Customization: Participate in two short surveys

We would like to tap into the joint intelligence of the MCPC community and ask your to participate in two short conference surveys -- results will be posted here:

Dominik Walcher and Frank Piller want to learn about your opinion on the market development for mass customization. How is the market of mass customization (MC) and personalization growing? What will be the developments in the next years? Please help us to get a better picture of the MC future! Participate here:http://www.tiny.cc/mc-future 

 

Ryan Chin and Daniel Smithwick of the MIT Media Lab, are studying product life-cycle energy use of customized dress shirts to understand how to develop more sustainable products.  Please complete their 6-8 minute survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MCPC2011) on your current dress shirt wardrobe and you'll be entered into a lottery for a FREE custom men's dress shirt worth $100 retail value.  Pretty fancy stuff.  Survey and prizes are open to both men and women!

#MCPC2011 Business Seminar: The Future of Mass Customization: The New Open Manufacturing System at #Materialise, #Ponoko and #ILT

On November 16th, the MCPC 2011 conference kicks off at the Marriot SFO Airport, San Francisco. In this series of postings, we introduce our speakers at the business seminars of the conference.

Additive Manufacturing and the opportunity for every consumer to turn any idea into a tangible product will change not just mass customization, but our dominant perspective of design and manufacturing. Learn the key facts from visionaries and business leaders in this field.

Wim Michiels, Executive Vice President, Materialise
The Industrial Revolution 2.0: Personalization through Additive Manufacturing

Every year, consumers’ interest in customization increases and market demand for personalization is creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs as well as entrepreneurs who have an existing offering that they now wish to tailor. With the technological advancements in Additive Manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D Printing, individuals have the ability to add a personal touch to the things they use and love most from cell phone cases, to shoes, to accessories for their cars and more.

David ten Have, CEO, Ponoko
Building the World's Easiest Making System

The future of products - using software to connect consumers, designers and making devices. Ponoko Inc is the creator of Personal Factory — the world’s most advanced platform for the mass creation of custom goods. Creative consumers can turn their design ideas into custom goods on demand using Ponoko's global network of making devices. This local production reduces the environmental impact of manufacturing. So far, more than 100,000 customer designed products have been made in 15 locations throughout the USA, Europe and Australasia - everything from 3D printed jewelry to laser-cut clocks to CNC routed furniture. Just as the Internet revolutionized the exchange of digital photos, music and movies, Ponoko pioneered the exchange of digital designs, reinventing the way consumer goods are designed, made and distributed. In a future when there is a making device in every home, school and business, Personal Factory is the software that makes it easy for everyone to create custom goods.

 Reinhard Poprawe, Director of Fraunhofer ILT, RWTH Aachen University
Laser Additive Manufacturing - The Key to the Next Generation of Economic Custom Production

 

 

 

 

Please find the complete program at the official MCPC 2011 website.

Winning Logo of MCPC 2011 Crowdsourcing Competition – My Experiences with CrowdSPRING

Here is the new MCPC 2011 conference logo … to get it, we did what we preach and started a logo crowdsourcing competition at CrowdSPRING, one of the leading places in the internet to run design competitions.

I hope you like it … the logo will be used for the conference design and the final invitation brochures etc … I like the way how it connects the different backgrounds of our conference.

It was interesting to actually run such a contest. Here are my personal experiences with CrowdSPRING:

1. It is quite easy to launch a new project, even if you have never done this before and do not know anything about writing a briefing.
2. It is more expensive than often said. In some blogs or reports, crowdsourced graphic design competitions are said to be very cheap. Well, compared to hiring a design company for a new logo, CrowdSPRING is very affordable. But the average award is much higher today as it used to be in the past. As a non-profit conference and taking everything from my research budget, I decided to go low and just awarded $375 (The average contest is $1000 or more), On top, you pay about $150 transaction fees to the host (and expect to pay much higher fees if you want to have your contest promoted).
3. This is not much money, but for $500, you also will find many designers who will take such a job on a traditional contract base. But when you are new to the area and have not many great designers in your contact list, this is a great way to connect.
4. When you run a contest, reserve some time. Don't do it when you have a very full agenda. Participants expect instant feedback, and indeed your submissions get better when you give feedback just after every submission. I totally underestimated this.
5. You will not get better results when you keep the competition open longer than a week. Good entries only come in a few days before the closing deadline.
6. Get a few friends or colleagues involved helping you with the final voting. In the end, however, as usual, my wife made the decision for me :-).
7. The post-processing of the contest is very easy and well organized. Just a few clicks, and you have your files and the contract. This is where CrowdSPRING really provides value as a broker.

The winner of our contest was an experienced graphic designer who actually lives quite close to my German home, Raoul Camion. Raoul is a Belgium graphic designer who has specialized in logos projects. Without knowing, we selected a highly professional user: Raoul has participated in about 1000 projects at CrowdSPRING, and has won 87 of them. Sounds little, but is a lot given the large number of entries that are submitted for each contest.

So, we hope that you like the new MCPC 2011 logo!

A Structure of Customer Co-Creation: Special Issue in Swiss Marketing Journal

In the recent issue of Marketing Review, a German-language magazine on marketing practice, a number of brief articles are addressing open innovation with customers. In the lead article, Christoph Ihl and I are presenting our structure of different approaches of customer co-creation. "Co-creation" is the term I now frequently use to address the systematic integration of customers in the innovation process of a company. Customer co-creation is

".. an active, creative and social process, based on collaboration between producers (retailers) and users, that is initiated by the firm to generate value for customers." (This definition has been inspired by this report of LSE).

In our article, we present the following structure of eight co-creation strategies. The picture is in German (as is the article), but the strategies are easy to differentiate:

The dimensions we found crucial to differentiate between co-creation methods of companies are:

• The stage in the innovation process: Are customers being integrated in the early stages like ideation and concept development ("Frühe Phase") or the later stages like product development, testing, or launching the new product ("Späte Phase").
  
• The relationship of the companies with its customers: Is the company focuing on interacting with single customers which are not connected with each others, or is the company addressing a community of users?
  
• The scope of the task that is demanded from customers: Are companies offering large degrees of freedom for customers to participate, or are they integrating them into a clearly defined, rather narrow task?

This structure is building on our earlier (much longer) report on "Open Innovation with Customers" (Download working paper version). In several workshops with companies, I found this strcuture helpful to differentiate the diverse starting points for co-creation. Here is the link to the full article. I am also happy to send you the corresponding working paper (in German) with the content of this article.

Also in the same issue, Tina Burkhart, a Ph.D. student at our department and at the same time a member of Henkel AG's innovation management team, writes with some colleagues about implementing open innovation in this company. And Katja Hutter and her co-authors have a nice article about customer idea contests as a special measure of customer co-creation.

Mass Customization Friday on Facebook at August 6

20 startups in the mass customization space will advertise in a coordinated fashion on Friday (August 6) on Facebook to create awareness for design-your-own and customization.

While mass customization start-ups really are popping up all over the place, there still is rather little awareness about this new trend with the general public. 24 mass customization companies set out to change that! They have united in a great way to make August 6 "Mass Customization Friday" by all purchasing and running Facebook Ads with a "design your own" claim on that day.

The objective is to reach at least 8 Million impressions on Facebooks for the "design your own" trend. The core idea is "conversation not conversion" and to create some buzz and awareness for the customization trend.

Carmen Magar from Chorci USA describes her motivation to participate with er company in this project, "I think it's a great example of a collaboration, a "movement" if you may. Hopefully this will change the way people think about purchasing products and encourage them to co-create and actively look to have an input in the products they consume."

These are the "mass customization" companies participating -- many of these companies met on the MIT Smart Customization Seminar in May for the first time and started to cooperate!

• Blank Label- co-created dress shirts (style the collar, cuff, placket and really make it your own)
  
• chocri- co-created chocolate bars (pick your favorite chocolate base and mix in the toppings you love!)
  
• Spreadshirt- co-created t-shirts, sweaters and hoodies (add graphics or text and get it personalized for you)
  
• LaudiVidni- co-created handbags (for the woman that really knows style and is tired of the monotonous Coach and LV bags)
  
• Gemvara- co-created jewelry (one-of-a-kind gemstone jewelry with 16 different gem varieties and eight precious metal choices)
• Shoes of Prey- co-created women's shoes (style the heel (or no heel), tor, fabric, color andembellishments)
  
• Wagner Skis- co-created skis andsnowboards (uniquely suited to your style, strength, weight and mission profile)
  
• Gemkitty- co-created jewelry (customize semi-precious gemstone jewelry. Choose from seven necklace, five earring styles and hundreds of gemstones)
• Snaptotes- co-created totes (add photos to your bags to further cherish the memories)
• Element Bars- co-created nutrition bars (energy and protein bars with the ingredients you favor)
• YouBars-co-created protein bars, shakes, trail mix, cookies and cereal (mix the ingredients you love and need)
  
• Red Moon Pet Food-co-created pet food (for that particular pet with a special diet or just because your pet deserves more)
  
• Rooms By You-co-created bedding and soft goods (home décor customized on demand)
  
• Lindgolf-co-created golf clubs and bags (golf clubs for performance and looks)
• Artaic-co-created mosaics (build your own art by uploading the photos you love)
• Melboteri-co-created handbags (select the style, components, and color of each handbag)
• Indidenim-co-created jeans (jeans designed with your preferences in mind and made to measure)
• Kidlandia-co-created home decor and puzzles (from dozens of designs, your personalized creations make memorable puzzles, wall décor, and other unique, high-quality gifts)
• Maguba-co-created clogs and women's sandals (style your footwear however you want!)
  
• Personalwine-co-created wines (personalize award winning wines with your unique label)
• Proper Cloth-co-created luxury dress shirts (for the guy that loves Egyptian cashmere and is a luxury buyer)
  
• Design A Tea-co-created tea blends (blend the teas with the proper proportions you prefer and personalize the packaging)
• Selve-co-created women's shoes and boots (choose your style, color, suedes, leather and lining)
  
• Open Runway- co-created women's shoes (still to be launched)

I am curious to see how this is working and what buzz this generates --- at least it got me into blogging again after rather a long break.

How to advertise a mass customization offering? A collection of TV spots

How to communicate a mass customization offering still is one of the larger open issues in the field. While we now have plenty of research on how to design the consumer interaction process within a configurator / co-design toolkit, we still know rather little about the communication policies of mass customization. How to advertise mass customization? Which are the features that one has to stress in a TV spot, banner ad or newspaper to attract new people to a mass customization offering? From my experience, direct mailings and word-of-mouth, plus PR, are the major means of marketing communications.

Evalotte Lindgens in our Aachen research group is working on this topic in her Ph.D. thesis, and so we hopefully know much more about it in the future.

The topic came to my mind again as I got a mail by my old mass customization friend Jan-Christoph Goetze who proudly announced the first TV spot for his personalized novels, targeting the "Mother's Day" present season in Germany:

Evalotte then directed me to the following TV spots that advertise a mass customization offering (most are in German):

My Muesli and Spreadshirt:

...

Prince Tennis Racquet Customization and Dein-Schneider.com (apparel):

...

The Shirtinator clips (R rating):

...

Chocri and PosterinXL clips (2010):

...

MySkin (2009 and 2010 spot):

...

 

If you know more, please post a comment or send me a link! (Note: We are not looking for tutorials on MC websites or videos about the company! No, we are seeking good ol' TV spots to advertise a mass customization offering and bring people to the site).

Mass customization retailers grow more than ten times as fast as online sales in general, NYT report says

Just in time for Christmas, the New York Times had a large article on the growing trend to give a mass-customized Christmas gift.

In the article, reporter Claire Cain Miller provides a nice overview of the most popular one-of-a-kind Christmas ideas. Her claim:

"Searching for meaning beyond a price tag, more holiday shoppers are giving custom-made gifts this year. But adding the personal touch doesn’t mean that gift-givers have to break out the knitting needles, haul out the scrapbook supplies or fire up the oven and start baking." Instead, mass customization on the web is doing the job.

The article shows the appeal and the strong growth of mass customization online:

While in general, e-commerce sales have grown only 4 percent this season, according to comScore, and offline retail sales have barely grown at all, sales of customized items did skyrocket, according to examples at the NYT article:

• CafePress and Scrapblog have each reported 80 percent increases in sales this holiday season compared with last year.
• Orders at Spreadshirt have doubled.
• At Blurb, where people create their own photo or art books, sales are up 43 percent.
• Even at Blue Nile (customized jewelry), orders are up 20 percent this year -- despite the crises in this industry in general.

These reports confirm messages I got from German mass customization sites like MyMuesli and Chocri.

The NYT article also provides some great anecdotal evidence why consumers love mass customization:

Morgan Taylor, a nanny in San Francisco, did all her holiday shopping at Zazzle. The boy she cares for received a skateboard emblazoned with the name and mascot of his school, and the girl received an Avery binder decorated with pictures of her and her friends. Ms. Taylor gave her mother postage stamps personalized with Christmas trees and the family name, and her friends will receive monogrammed stationery.

“I was able to put on my personal touch and get something they could call their own,” Ms. Taylor said.

Read the full NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/business/23custom.html

[Updated] Exnovate and Open Innovation Forum: Two New Open Innovation Community Sites

Recently, two new blogs or portals covering open innovation went online:

Our colleague Wim Vanhaverbeke has initiated a great community service for everyone interested in open innovation: He just has launched Exnovate, an European Network of Excellence on Open & Collaborative Innovation.

Exnovate is just another name for the idea of open innovation that originated from the pioneering work of Henry Chesbrough and other domain experts. The site very much focuses on open innovation in a company setting, with a focus on getting access to technical solution information in the periphery of a firm. The topic of customer co-creation and user innovation (the "Eric Von Hippel School") is not so much in the focus of the site.

What is Wim's idea for Exnovate? In a statement, he says: "Exnovate aims to become a highly visible, leading European network of excellence on managing and oganizing open & collaborative innovation -- a place where OI best practices could be exchanged and where a genuine market for OI expertise would be prepared and organized for all stakeholders."

On the site, I found three features especially useful:

•  A list of case studies on open innovation for teaching
• A list of academic papers on open innovation, most with a link to download (while not comprehensive in the moment, it can become a great collection)
• A list of people working in the field

For companies, there is the possibility to join a company consortia, but this seems to be just in the making. On top, the site has also information for policy makers, service providers, and venture capitalists. Just have a look: http://www.exnovate.org

The OI Forum is a wordy, academic focused site that reports about latest research. It is facilitated by Stefan Hrastinski, a Research Fellow and Director of Master Studies at the Department of Information Science, Uppsala University, Sweden.

From the Open Innovation Forum’s perspective, open innovation involves all aspects of creating new business opportunities by engaging end-users in co-creative activities. Web 2.0 technologies has caused electronic collaboration to evolve, hence paving the way for companies to invite customers and employees to be involved in the refinement of their offerings. Ideally open innovation will create win-win situations where users get services that are more oriented to their needs and organizations will offer services that are more desired by the market.

With this perspective, the Forum is much more focused on "customer co-creation", just one aspect of the larger understanding.

Have a look at http://openinnovationforum.com (where you also will find a new posting by myself about a new paper and research project).

Mass Customization Comparison Shopping

Milk or Sugar, the Amsterdam based consumer site with a listing of customizable products, has launched a new service: On the site, you now can compare different offerings in one category. Have a look:

• 3x custom shoes compared
• 3x custom bikes compared
• 3x custom bags compared

Nice idea! When following MoS (or the German site EGOO), I am always surprised about the sheer number of offerings and new comers on the field. It seems that the time is ripe for MC in the BtoC domain.

Mass Customization Media Blitz in the German Press

After 15 years in the business, I have see many waves of hype around mass customization. But in the German media, it never has been as strong as recently.

Probably triggered by an article in BrandEins (the most innovative German business publication) and a report about mass customization by dpa, the German Press Agency, many newspapers and weeklies followed with articles in the last weeks. There was a report in the main news show of RTL. And last weekend, even taz - die tageszeitung, a German newspaper on the left side of the spectrum that normally has no reports about hedonistic products, had a long report.

The theme (similar to the article in BrandEins): Mass Customization of food. I have commented on this category in a previous post. 

What do I learn from the sudden media attention about a phenomenon that is 20 years old?

1) Perhaps the time now is ripe? People are more internet savvy, willing not just to shop but also to configure custom goods online. At the same time, there is a growing level of sophistication of the market, more knowledge how to create a great MC website has been distributed ...

2) In economical bad times, people love easy sophistication with a bit of affordable luxury - which a custom chocolate bar or your own tea creation probably offers. So this is a great product for bad times.

3) Some journalists are not too creative, and when one is writing a nice article on a new theme, other copy. The same, by the way, is true for many academics.

4) The idea to customize an item still is big news and a real novelty for most consumers. In my classes for students and executives alike, I am still astonished how many people have never ever heard about the possibility to customize products or services online. We finally have to create a better understanding how to communicate mass customization!

=> Context information: For a collection of press articles covering mass customization, please head here (shameless self promotion as all these articles quote me :-)

Milk or sugar? New repository of customization offerings

A new repository for mass customized products was launched today. Still a long way to go to match the 600+ entries of our configurator-database.com, but a great attempt with a fresh look.

The crew behind the "milk or sugar" website (look here why this name) is ILUMY, an Amsterdam based design agency. Initially to serve research for a client project, they built a database of websites where you can customize and order products online. They added reviews, and the database became a site, offering some links to interesting sites for customization, like a custom sleeping bag, samurai sword, bicycle, skate board, scrabble board, watch, machine parts, perfume, lingerie, wallpaper or lego model. And soon, your built to order fire extinguisher, guitar, radio controlled car, protein shake or kanu.

Soon, visitors shall be able to also post reviews and upload images of the things they had made to order.

Sounds like a great idea -- and I am very happy about every new repository of things custom!

Enjoy: www.milkorsugar.com

Democratization of Manufacturing: Great Article in ASME's "Mechanical Engineering" Journal

In the recent issue of Mechanical Engineering (April 2009), the journal of the powerful American Society of Mechanical Engineering , Associate Editor Jean Thilmany has published a great article on mass customization. His conclusion: Mass customization is part-way here; when the rest will arrive is anyone’s guess.

The article provides a great comparison of traditional consumer-co-design driven mass customization (you designing your shirt in an online-configurator), traditional engineer-to-order and small-batch production, and the new opportunities provided by 3D printing and rapid manufacturing.

As Thilmany observes in the article:

"Pine’s definition [of mass customization] can get a bit muddled, what with the growth of rapid prototyping and related technologies such as 3-D printing. Is a rapid prototype an instance of mass customization? Does an object printed on a 3-D printer qualify?

If the printed piece is meant to be used as an end product—not a prototype—it’s an example of a mass customized product, Pine said.

“I always believe words have meaning,” he said. “It’s called rapid prototyping because you’re making a prototype.”

But say you design an object using an online service like Shapeways of Eindhoven, the Netherlands? That company allows you to upload your own 3-D models. Shapeways prints your object on a 3-D printer and sends it to you. You’ve created your own custom product, Pine said."

But what is the future of mass customization?

Donal Reddington, who runs the Web site MadeForOne.com, is quoted in the article on this:

"So far mass customization—of varying degrees—has supplemented mass production, Reddington said.  So why, in this age of the Internet, hasn’t it come closer to replacing mass production in both the retail and engineering sectors?

“The consumer society is very much based on the idea of gratification. I walk into a shop, see something I like, and walk out with a sense of satisfaction at having bought it,” Reddington said.

“But the predominant mass customization business model that’s gained root since the mid-1990s is the online model, which provided customers with the facility to go online and configure the product, order it, and get exactly what they wanted delivered after one week. Or maybe two or three weeks,” he added.

And where will this lead to?

Despite the impediments to adoption, all the experts interviewed expect mass customization to grow.
“Going into the future, the Internet will facilitate a new wave of mass customization, where customers will create and trade designs for physical products in the same way they trade music files,” Reddington said.  

And not only will consumers find ever-more Internet-based design tools at their disposal, they’ll continue to see advances in the capability to build their own products to their specifications, Piller said.

For the full article, available for free online, head to:
http://memagazine.asme.org/Articles/2009/April/Democratization_Manufacturing.cfm

Personal Fabrication for Dummies -- Teaching Videos at Replicator, Inc.

I just discovered the great new blog by Joseph Flaherty, founder of a start-up called Replicator, Inc. While the company will launch in full speed in February 2009, they already were quite successful in securing seed money and attention in a number of important start-up competitions (MIT 100K  (semi-finals), Princeton (semi-finals), and the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition (runner up prize winner)).

I hope that we can meet Joseph at the MIT Smart Customization Seminar in three weeks.

Replicator, Inc., manufactures and sells custom consumer products. Their first product is custom jewelry for tween and teenage girls, sold under the name WhirlyBelle. This is made possible by combining web-based design tools with custom manufacturing

His company blog not just has a recent posting about 47 words you can not use on custom Nike sneakers (which I do not quote here to get my blog not banned from your corporate content filter). In another posting, he has a great chart about the price premiums you can gain with mass customization:

A great number of postings covers user manufacturing and the new opportunities for users to produce anything they want. In one of my favorite posts, Joseph explains all technologies that enable personal fabrication. You probably also could Google those, but Joseph created a great posting with small videos explaining all technologies.

Many people think 3D printers are the way this will happen, but there are half a dozen other amazing technologies that allow people to make anything they can imagine.

While by no means an exhaustive list, his list is a is a very convenient overview for anyone interested in how the idea user co-design meets manufacturing. As Joseph writes:

"Combined with web-based design tools these technologies could enable a change as profound as the industrial revolution: increasing the options for customers while reducing the environmental impact."

His posting shows examples of these machines in action and provides a glimpse of what is possible already today:

1. 3D Printers (some notable examples: Z Corp., Dimension, 3d systems, Objet, Desktop Factory, Paragon Lake, Figure Prints, EOS)

2. Laser Cutters  (Notable Examples: Epilog, Trotec, Etchstar, Ponoko, VersaLaser)

3. Waterjet Cutters (Notable Examples: OMAX, Flow Corp, OCC)

4. 2D Plotter Cutters (Notable Examples: Cricut, CraftRobo, Xyron)

5. Print on Demand (Notable Companies: Blurb, Lulu, Shutterfly)

6. Direct To Garment Printing (Notable Companies: Cafe Press, Zazzle, Spreadshirt, Spoonflower)

7. CNC Milling (Notable Examples: eMachine Shop, Tech Shop, Craftsman Compucarve)

8. CNC Embroidery (Notable Examples: Singer, Brother, Toyota)

9. Cut & Sew Construction (Notable Examples: NIKEiD, Timbuk2, Freitag)

10. 3D Scanning (Notable Examples: Z Corp., Next Engine, 3D Digital Corp., Corpus-e)

Go to his web site to watch all videos