Mass Customization and Footwear: Myth, Salvation or Reality?: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Adoption of the Mass Customization Paradigm in Footwear, from the Perspective of the EUROShoE (Extended User Oriented Shoe Enterprise) Research Project

181 Pages·2007·1.98 MB·English

by  Claudio R. Boër PhD

Mass Customization and Footwear:
Myth, Salvation or Reality?
Claudio R. Boër and Sergio Dulio
Mass Customization
and Footwear:
Myth, Salvation
or Reality?
A ComprehensiveAnalysis of the Adoption
of the Mass Customization Paradigm
in Footwear, from the Perspective
of the EUROShoE(Extended User Oriented
Shoe Enterprise) Research Project
123
ClaudioR.Boër,Prof.,PhD SergioDulio,Eng.
Director ViaSimonedelPozzo18
ICIMSI–InstituteofComputer 27029Vigevano
IntegratedManufacturingfor Italy
SustainableInnovation
SUPSI–UniversityofAppliedScience
ofSouthernSwitzerland
Galleria2
6928Manno
Switzerland
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Boer,C.R.(ClaudioR.)
Masscustomizationandfootwear:myth,salvationor
reality?:acomprehensiveanalysisoftheadoptionofthe
masscustomizationparadigminfootwear,fromthe
perspectiveoftheEUROShoE(ExtendedUserOrientedShoe
Enterprise)ResearchProject
1.Footwearindustry2.Masscustomization
I.TitleII.Dulio,Sergio
338.4’76853
ISBN-13:9781846288647
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ISBN 978-1-84628-864-7 e-ISBN 978-1-84628-865-4 Printedonacid-freepaper
©Springer-VerlagLondonLimited2007
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Preface

Mass, customization and footwear: these three words appear in the title of this
book and summarize its contents and purposes. The word mass reminds us of the
many individuals that make up a community, the population for whom consumer
products are normally thought. It also reminds us of the traditional organization of
industrial production, of the way large quantities of almost identical items have
been produced until today. It recalls the past. Customization deals with
individuality, with personal tastes and with consumer satisfaction: the challenge for
tomorrow is to offer the privilge of individuality to the masses rather than just to
elite consumers. A big challenge, which is even bigger when the goods to be
produced are footwear, with all the peculiarity of a complex product, with a
complex industrial pipeline in a market dominated by laws that, until today, seem
to privilege big numbers rather than niches. This is the aim of this book: to show
how mass, customization and footwear can live together in the industrial scenario
of the years to come and, finally, how mass customization can contribute to local
and global sustainability.

Claudio R. Boër
Sergio Dulio
Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the many people whose work has made this book
possible. It will be difficult not to forget somebody but we have tried our best.
First, we want to thank the European Commission Research Directorate who
funded the project EUROShoE within the 5th Framework Program, and in
particular Mrs. Roberta Salonna, Project Officer, who gave critical but always
constructive contributions through the whole project. Without her support it is
certain that the project would have had much more difficulty in reaching its goals.
Second we would like to thank all the personnel of ITIA-CNR who, in one way
or another, have helped during the whole project, from its start to its conclusion. In
particular we would acknowledge the invaluable contribution of Eleonora Schiariti
who was not only a secretary but also a very attentive organizer of meetings,
documentation and project events.
Andrea Zangiacomi was an important gear in the EUROShoE project and his
contribution was not only as a researcher but also as a very competent and precious
financial administrator of a complex consortium involving so many partners.
Claudia Redaelli was not only a researcher but also a great support in collecting
information and in interpreting them; her contribution is particular evident in the
chapter regarding customer satisfaction and the requirements for footwear
customization.
Rosanna Fornasiero is also acknowledged for her important contribution in
Chapter 2 where a model for analyzing the financial aspects of mass customization
in the footwear industry is presented. The value of this model is not only
theoretical but it is also applicable in practice; by adopting the correct parameters
and data, companies interested in entering the business of mass customization can
simulate their own environment to select the best approach.
Furthermore, we would like to thank Cristoph Berger (Adidas) and Claudia
Kieserling (Selve), who have provided data and information about their approach
to mass customization, and Frank Piller, whose profound knowledge on mass
customization and personalization has pushed us always forward in our project,
indicating new actors, new approaches, and new sectors in which mass
customization is more and more applied.
viii Acknowledgments

Finally we would like to mention here all the partners of the EUROShoE
project:

Itia – Cnr (Italy)
Bally Schuhfabriken (Switzerland)
Calzaturificio Frau (Italy)
Calzados Anatomicos Calana (Spain)
Jefar Industria De Calcado (Portugal)
Lirel – Lima & Resenda (Portugal)
Lloyd Schuhfabrik Meyer &Co (Germany)
Ecco Sko (Denmark)
Fagus-Grekon Greten (Gremany)
Formificio Milanese Team (Italy)
Consorzio Sintesi (Italy)
Centro Servizi Calzaturiero (Italy)
Csm3d International (United Kingdom)
Graisoft (France)
Massen Machine Vision Systems (Germany)
String (Italy)
Atom (Italy)
Comelz (Italy)
Molina & Bianchi (Italy)
Torielli Rag. Pietro & C (Italy)
PFI Pruf Und Forschunginstitut Fur Die Schuhherste (Germany)
Siemens (Italy)
Delcam (United Kingdom)
Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany)
Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi – Onlus (Italy)
National University Of Ireland – Galway (Ireland)
Institute CIMSI of SUPSI (Switzerland)
Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Forderung (Germany)
Asociacion Instituto De Biomecanica De Valencia (Spain)
Universitaet Karlsruhe (Germany)
Universitaet Hannover (Germany)
Loughborough University (United Kingdom)
University of Genoa (Italy)
Joseph Stephan Institute – Lubljana (Slovenia)

With them we shared around four years of knowledge and experience in a
challenging technological adventure.
Contents

1 Introduction: Why this Book and to Whom it is Addressed...........................1

2 Mass Customization and Footwear....................................................................5
2.1 The Mass Customization Paradigm and its Production Revolution...............5
2.2 The Footwear Business at the Start of a New Millennium............................7
2.3 Mass Customization Made Simple (for Shoemakers)..................................17
2.4 Three Good Reasons for Mass Customized Shoes......................................28
2.4.1 The Consumer......................................................................................29
2.4.2 The Product..........................................................................................30
2.4.3 The Market...........................................................................................31
2.5 Implementing Mass Customization in Footwear Enterprises......................36
2.6 The Role of Technology: Where to Find the Appropriate Enablers............38
2.7 Mass Customization, Footwear and Economics: A“Win all” Game............49
2.7.1 Most Important Changes in Terms of Costs and Benefits....................50
2.7.2 Steps to Mass Customization Implementation.....................................52
2.7.3 How to Integrate the Macros Towards Mass Customization...............53
2.7.4 Hypothesis on Shoe Demand and Selling Price...................................56
2.7.5 Assessment of the Strategies................................................................59
2.7.6 Presentation and Comment on Results.................................................60
2.7.7 Risk Analysis.......................................................................................61
2.7.8 Further Qualitative Evaluation of MC.................................................64

3 The EUROShoE Project...................................................................................67
3.1 The History of the Project, its Goals and its Partners..................................67
3.2 The Technical Challenges and the Main Innovations..................................69
3.2.1 The Innovations in the Design Process................................................71
3.2.2 The Innovations in the Sale Process.....................................................73
3.2.3 The Innovations in the Manufacturing Process....................................74
3.2.4 The Integrated Pilot Plant....................................................................75
3.3 Lessons Learnt and the EUROShoE Legacy...............................................85
x Contents

4 Footwear Mass Customization in Practice......................................................89
4.1 The Many Paths to Customized Shoes.........................................................89
4.1.1Classification by Level of Customization.............................................90
4.1.2 Classification by Origin of the Company.............................................93
4.1.3 Classification by Product Positioning..................................................94
4.1.4 Classification by Operational Approach..............................................96
4.2 The Champions of Mass Customized Shoes................................................98
4.2.1 The Vanished Pioneers.......................................................................100
4.3 Case Histories............................................................................................104
4.3.1 Style Customization...........................................................................106
4.3.2 Best-matched Fit................................................................................120
4.3.4 Custom Fit..........................................................................................139
4.3.5 Functional Customization..................................................................142

5 From Footwear to Other Industries...............................................................153
5.1 Peculiarity of Mass Customization and Footwear.....................................153
5.1.1 The “Human Touch”..........................................................................156
5.1.2 Dedicated Manufacturing...................................................................156
5.1.3 Fast Changing Styles..........................................................................157
5.1.4 The Speed of Complexity..................................................................157
5.2 What Mass Customization and Footwear can Teach Other Industries......158

6 Conclusion: A Few Questions to be Answered..............................................165
6.1 Has Footwear Mass Customization Arrived?............................................165
6.2 Is Footwear Mass Customization a Myth?.................................................168
6.3 Can Mass Customization Help Sustainable Development and How?........169
6.4 Can Mass Customization be the Salvation of the Footwear Industry?......172

References...........................................................................................................175
Index....................................................................................................................177
1
Introduction: Why this Book and to Whom it is
Addressed
This book is about mass customization but, perhaps more than that, it is about
footwear; we think it is important to stress this point in order to clarify the specific
perspective that we decided to adopt in treating the main topic of the book. There
are already several books and a large number of scientific and popular publications
about the concepts of product personalization and mass customization. But we are
not aware of any other in depth treatment of the peculiarities of the application of
this business model and manufacturing paradigm to a specific industrial sector, in
our case footwear.
The purpose of our work was to provide a comprehensive presentation of the
many possible different applications of mass customization to the shoe as a product
and to shoemaking as an industry. The book is also about the project EUROShoE,
which, for the first time, brought together a large number of stakeholders of the
footwear world in a cooperative research project that focused on the application of
mass customization to footwear. As an outcome of their joint effort, models,
enabling technologies and a pilot implementation were developed that have shown
shoe makers that product customization was possible and that it could be
considered as a valid, workable option to improve their competitiveness. In writing
these notes today, we can certainly state that the general acceptance of the concept
among shoe companies was much higher at the end of the project than it was at its
beginning; and it is even higher now, more than two years after the conclusion of
the research.
We did not intend to write another textbook on the general concepts of mass
customization, so readers will not find anything more than some basic standard
definitions on that issue [1]. They will, on the other hand, find a quite detailed
analysis on how the ideas of mass customization apply to footwear, which
problems are to be faced in implementing it, and the factors to which most
attention should be paid. A methodology for calculating the return on investment
based on different levels of implementation of mass customization is also
2 Mass Customization and Footwear: Myth, Salvation or Reality?

presented, because in a competitive industry it is not enough to speak about new
ideas and enabling technologies if the basic concepts cannot be validated by the
company cheque-book. This section of the book sets the framework for the correct
implementation of mass customization in footwear companies.
Technology plays an important role in enabling the adoption of the new
business model at all levels in companies, allowing the modification of all relevant
processes to become customer orientated. Hence a central role in the book is taken
by the presentation of the research project that first studied the kind of technologies
that were needed, defined their specifications and produced test bed
implementations of most of them. Many of these technologies have now been
developed in industrial applications used for mass customization.
We also believed that the best way to prove that the idea was realistic, and that
many different implementation paths were possible, was by showing examples and
best practice cases; therefore the central part of the book takes an in depth look at
different ways mass customization can be adopted by shoe companies, for each one
of these ways, examples and detailed case histories are given of those companies
that have already successfully moved along that path. Finally, in the final section
of the book, we try to draw some final conclusions on whether the knowledge
developed and the lessons learnt on the topic of mass customization and footwear
could be of any interest and application to other industrial sectors.
Is mass customization a strong enough new competitive factor to help the
footwear companies of the most industrialized countries in facing the current
difficult economic situation? Is it a possible salvation from the fierce competition
on quality and price they have to fight in most of their markets? Although no final
conclusions are possible yet, we have nevertheless tried to give a few indications
on what is the situation now in regards to the penetration of the idea of mass
customization, on its potential for the future and on what is likely to happen in the
years to come.
If we were asked why we decided to write this book, probably the easiest
answer would have been: to share with those involved in shoes and shoemakers the
knowledge that we and the other members of the team who supported us in
preparing this book have gathered on the topic of mass customization applied to
footwear. Our aim has been to provide shoe practitioners with examples to follow
and basic guidelines to help them evaluate the feasibility of this approach for their
common business. Practitioners as well as curious readers fascinated, on the one
side, by shoes and their world and, on the other, by the idea of linking that with a
modern interpretation of consumer centricity, are the public we had in mind in
preparing these notes.
We also think that the information, the concepts and the ideas that are presented
in this book could be interesting for graduate students studying in the area of
business management as well as in the area of design and manufacturing
engineering, where a strong interaction between the two disciplines, we believe, is
necessary in order to have a successful implementation of the presented concepts.
In addition, the book may be of some interest to researchers and academics who
are looking for an in depth presentation of an industry specific application of an
interesting emerging paradigm as mass customization is. With these goals in mind