Mass Customization in Service Firms

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Management: Formal Training or Experience
Technology & Face-to-Face Communication
Approaches to Busting Bureaucracy
No Growth Philosophy of Management
Reference List

Mass customization, a concept that has been subject of much publicity and a fair share of criticism from researchers and mainstream commentators (MacCarthy & Brabazon, 2003), refers to the capacity, achieved by a few organizations, to provide individually tailored products or services on a large scale (Zipkin, 2001).

Although mass customization has been widely adopted in many manufacturing settings, it is yet to be fully incorporated in service-oriented settings. This observation, however, does not imply that mass customization can never be applied to service firms; on the contrary, a scenario is shaping up where service organizations are adopting the concept to, among other things, provide better services and reduce operating costs.

Mass customization can be applied to service firms if such organizations tailor their services to the varied demands and expectations of their customers. This implies that for service organizations to fully integrate mass customization of services, they must move away from supply-led models towards a more demand-led orientation (Moon et al, 2011).

In addition, service organizations, particularly in the call center business, are taking advantage of the convergence of IT and telecommunication industries to develop pre-programmed, pre-recorded call flows, which are then used to handle simultaneous client inquiries or send important information to customers via the Agent-assisted Automation system (Moon et al, 2011).

Management: Formal Training or Experience

A leading researcher once said that for one to learn about the abstract conceptions, he must first be able to establish actual relationships that can be established with the bare eye (Wagner & Harter, 2006).

Bearing this in mind, it cannot be denied that top-level management often engage in establishing the so called abstract conceptions or the ‘intangibles’, implying that prior experience is absolutely necessary if one is to make any headway with regard to the abstractions.

However, it should not escape the attention of the reader that for the top manager to be able to actively engage in establishing abstract relationships based on the intangibles, he must have prior capacity to establish actual relationships – something that can only be done through formal training.

As such, it can only be argued that the two – formal training and experience – compliment each other in providing the top management with the capacity to make proactive decisions and be able to predict into the future business trends (Wagner & Harter, 2006). It should be noted that in management, unlike in other fields such as medicine, decisions do not follow similar approaches, and hence the need to compliment the two since situations are handled as they come (Sims, 2009).

Technology & Face-to-Face Communication

The convergence of technology witnessed in the 21^st century, along with the development of a multiplicity of electronic-based communication applications such as video conferencing, e-mail, voicemail and instant messaging (Martin, 2007), have brought into the fore new and more rewarding communication possibilities not only for the top management, but also for average employees and their supervisors.

Today, more than ever before, a top executive of a global company located in Australia can utilize video streaming capabilities and video conferencing to listen to, and actively participate in, a conference or meeting held thousands of miles away in the United States.

Indeed, according to Arslaner, (2011), “…advancing technologies are making virtue events not only a less expensive replacement for physical meetings but also a superior one” (para. 2).

Other emerging technologies such as smart phones and instant messaging have been dubbed ‘communication accelerators’ by virtue of the speed with which they are able disseminate information across the spectrum (Martin, 2007). In this light, it can be argued that technology will eventually reduce face-to-face communication among the top management.

It should however be noted that in as much as technology can reduce instances of face-to face communication among the top management, it cannot – either completely or partially – replace face-to face communication by virtue of the fact that the latter is the foundation of communications (Martin, 2007).

Literature demonstrates that human face-to-face communication is, and will continue to be, the most effective model of communication, in large part because it delivers not only the intended information and messaging, but also inspiration and motivation (Kulick, 2002). Consequently, face-to-face-communication is irreplaceable.

Approaches to Busting Bureaucracy

The concept of ‘busting bureaucracy’ revolves around the fact that “…organizations can glide smoothly between a highly formalized, hierarchical structure that is effective during times of stability and a more flexible, loosely structured one needed to respond well to unexpected and demanding environmental conditions” (Daft, 2008, p. 351).

When asked to deliver an all-new Ford diesel engine in three years, Adam Gryglak, the chief diesel engineer, made use of this concept by surpassing the laid-down rules and regulations to short-circuit the usual development process.

The engineer departed from the normal tradition by refusing to outsource the design and manufacture of the engine (due to previous quality problems) and instead choose to assemble a team to design and build the engine in-house from scratch.

Gryglak and his team, while developing the new engine, altered almost every bureaucratic process traditionally associated with Ford, including how they engaged with other suppliers and how they reported progress to their superiors (Kiley, 2009). This busting of bureaucracy made the team to achieve what many thought was unachievable – developing a state-of-the art diesel engine in record time.

In yet another case scenario, it is evident that Nokia corporation’s market share in mobile telephony (both Smartphone and non-Smartphone end of the market) is slowly being taken away by competitors, courtesy of the company’s massive red tape which continues to stifle innovation (Cellan-Jones, 2011).

The high end Smartphone market for Nokia has been considerably decimated by Apple iPhone, while the lower end market is being taken over by Chinese manufactures.

For the company to succeed, therefore, it has to shed off some of its bureaucratic red-tape, at least for the moment, and engage in the production of fast-moving, cheap mobile applications (Cellan-Jones, 2011). The production of fast-moving, cheap mobile phones has never been the calling for Nokia, thus it can be argued that the management is attempting to bust the bureaucratic red tape to protect Nokia’s market share.

No Growth Philosophy of Management

One of the most important tasks for any manager is to ensure that the company returns profits for its shareholders. Indeed, many managers operate with quantifiable yearly profit targets, set either by the senior management or the shareholders.

The popular view in the contemporary business arena is that any manager worth his or her credibility must guarantee shareholder value and increase the company’s value by at least 15 percent each year or face the sack (Patton & Pratt, 2002).

However, as much as we would like management to return value for the company in terms of profits, we must take cognizance of the fact that global business environment has tremendously changed in the last few decades.

In equal measure, the discipline of management, unlike in other fields such as medicine or teaching, is faced with a lot of uncertainties, in large part due to the stiff competition and continuously ever changing business environment (Daft, 2008).

Consequently, there are times when managers may have to post a loss no matter how hard they try to return value to the company. This being the case, I submit that a ‘no growth’ philosophy should be administered in management institutions, but only from the perspective of what the managers need to do after experiencing an year of no or negative growth.

Reference List

Arslaner, B. (2011). Virtual meetings will erase face-to face. Bloomberg Newsweek. Web.

Cellan-Jones (2011). Nokia at crisis point, warns new boss Stephen Elop. BBC News. Web.

Daft, R. L. (2008). Organization theory and design. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning

Kiley, D. (2009). Ford’s new powerstroke: A design Breakthrough. Bloomberg Businessweek. Web.

Kulick, R. (2002). Technology can’t replace face-to-face communication. Web.

MacCarthy, B., & Brabazon, P. (2003). In the business of mass customization. Manufacturing Engineer, 82(4), 30-33. Academic Search Premier Database.

Martin, C. (2007). The importance of face-to face-communication at work. Web.

Moon, S. K., Shu, J., Simpson, T. W., & Kumara, S. R. T. (2011). A module-based service model for mass customization: Service family design. IEE Transactions, 43(3), 153-163. Academic Search Premier Database.

Patton, W. D., & Pratt, C. (2002). Assessing the training needs of high-potential managers. Public Personnel Management, 31(4), 465-472. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier Database

Sims, D. (2009). How to be a stelios and not one of the heard. The Guardian. Web.

Wagner, R., & Harter, J. K. (2006). The elements of great managing. New York, NY: Gallup Press.

Zipkin, P. (2001). The limits of mass customization. MIT Sloan Management Review, 42(3), 81-87. Web.

Click Here To Order Now!