Citation
Heap, J. (2001), "Variety is the spice of life", Work Study, Vol. 50 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2001.07950caa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
Variety is the spice of life
Variety is the spice of life
Modern manufacturing is often said to be moving towards "mass customisation", i.e. to be engineering flexible manufacturing systems that can respond to customer needs for a degree of individuality, whilst retaining the cost benefits of high volume manufacturing.
Notice, I used the phrase "often said" rather than "is". My personal experience suggests that though the best may be moving in this direction, the majority are not. Admittedly, the automobile industry has made great strides. I do now get the chance to ask a dealer to supply my particular preferred configuration of car/extras. The same is also true of parts of the PC industry – I can walk into a high street store and select from a menu of components to design a PC to meet my own specific needs. However, such examples only serve to highlight that they are indeed exceptions.
This mismatch between rhetoric and reality is mirrored elsewhere – in service industries. The great "customer focus" revolution has resulted (or been paralleled by) the growth of the Call Centre whereby lowly paid operators work through prepared scripts and responses (customisation?) to address customer queries or complaints.
Those of you in the UK may remember the TV ad about an old lady trying to find a bank – and constantly finding that buildings that had previously been branches of one of the high street banks have become trendy wine bars. Where is the focus on the customer in bank branch closure programmes?
I even read a report recently which suggested that a number of insurance companies were refusing to re-insure any of their own customers who had made a claim in the previous year, i.e. people who used their prime service (their core product) are turned away. Astonishing!
Of course I know that these are not simple issues. Banks – and all other businesses – tread on a high wire balancing "service" with cost. Customers want high levels of service but often choose low prices. Even worse, for those organisations attempting to offer quality service at a premium price for manufactured goods, customers will often use their service at the investigatory/selection phase but then move on to a lower cost supplier for the actual purchase.
Maintaining the balance is not easy. What we need is something that preserves the cost savings associated with "efficiency", yet does not detract from, indeed enhances, customer service. We could call this "mass customisation".
On reflection, perhaps the world is moving as fast as is possible. No one said this was simple!
John Heap