Achieving mass customization through technology application and absorptive capacity: A customer-oriented framework

The highly uncertain post-industrial environment has presented unprecedented challenges to the U.S. manufacturing firms. To succeed in this turbulent environment characterized by growing global competition, changing customer demand, shortening product life cycle, increasing market diversity, and rapid advances in information technology, the U.S. manufacturers must possess some very distinctive manufacturing system capabilities. Through comprehensive literature review, this research identified three categories of critical capabilities of a successful post-industrial manufacturing firm. They are: (1) Mass customization capability to create superior customer value; (2) The capability to effectively utilize innovative manufacturing technologies and practices, and (3) Absorptive capacity of new knowledge and technologies.; While there have been plenty of anecdotal discussions of these capabilities in the literature, empirical studies to answer the fundamental research question of how manufacturing firms can achieve these capabilities are almost non-existent. The current research is one of the first large-scale empirical efforts to demonstrate that firms can achieve mass customization capability through advanced technology application and innovative manufacturing practices. A comprehensive research framework is proposed and tested using LISREL structural modeling.; A major contribution of this research is the development of measurement instruments for five important constructs, including Absorptive Capacity, Information Systems (IS) Usage, Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) Usage, Modularity-Based Manufacturing Practices and Mass Customization Capability. These instruments should be of great value to both academics and practitioners for further studying and understanding the post-industrial manufacturing system. The instrument development process involved structured interviews and a pilot survey of manufacturing practitioners. The questionnaire was further revised based on the pilot study results. The large-scale survey yielded 303 responses from senior manufacturing managers covering a wide variety of industries and firm sizes. Several statistical methods were then used to assess and validate the instruments, including reliability analysis and exploratory factor analysis.; The empirical results of this research confirmed that superior customer value can be created through mass customization; IS and AMT along with time-based manufacturing practices and modularity-based manufacturing practices are critical antecedents of mass customization capability; absorptive capability ensures the effective usage and implementation of these innovative technologies and practices.