Challenges in Choice Navigation for SMEs

As mass customization is becoming a more widely adopted business strategy, not only large companies but also SMEs are beginning to adopt mass customization. Previous research suggests that in order to become a successful mass customizer, companies must hold three fundamental capabilities: solution space development, choice navigation, and robust process design. Since mass customization often requires complex systems related to these three capabilities, this is often resource consuming and can thus be challenging for SMEs due to the smaller scale compared to traditional mass customizers. This paper analyzes six cases of SME mass customizers, by describing and comparing the challenges they have been faced with implementing mass customization. This paper focuses specifically on the capability choice navigation and thus addresses the expected benefits and challenges these companies have encountered in relation to product selectors, product configurators, or other systems used for matching customer requirements with selection within the company’s product variety.