Mass Customization Information Systems in Business

Mass customization is a business strategy that aims at satisfying an individual customer's needs with near mass production efficiency. Mass Customization Information Systems in Business provides original and innovative research on IT systems for mass customization. It is a wide-ranging reference collection of chapters describing the solutions, tools, and concepts needed for successful realization of these systems. Mass customized markets, product modeling, and supply chain management are explored in precise detail. This Premier Reference Source provides a comprehensive investigation of the business processes required for manufacturing individualized products.

Thorsten Blecker is full professor at the Hamburg University of Technology, Department for Business Logistics and General Management (5-11). He holds a Master s degree in business administration (with honors) and a PhD (summa cum laude) from the University of Duisburg, Germany. He finished his habilitation thesis in September, 2004, at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria. Thorsten Blecker is guest-editor of a special issue of IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management on Mass Customization Manufacturing Systems (forthcoming), coeditor and author of several books, for example, Production/Operations Management in Virtual Organizations, Enterprise without Boundaries, Competitive Strategies, Web-Based Manufacturing and Information and Management Systems for Product Customization. His main research interests include business logistics and supply chain management, production/operations management, industrial information systems, Internet-based production systems, mass customization manufacturing systems, strategic management, and virtual organizations. Gerhard Friedrich is a full professor of computer science at the University Klagenfurt, Austria. He manages the Institute for Business Informatics and Application Systems and directs the Computer Science in Production, Operation and Management research group. From 1993 to 1997, he was the head of the Department for Configuration and Diagnosis Systems at Siemens Austria. Gerhard Friedrich received a PhD and an MS in computer science from Vienna University of Technology, Austria, and was a guest researcher at the Stanford Research Institute and at Siemens Corporate Research. His research interests include knowledge acquisition, constraint satisfaction, configuration, planning, and diagnosis.