Sustainability and mass customization: can they be integrated in a new production paradigm? Empirical test of a reference framework

In today highly competitive environments firms need to choose a proper strategy that can bring them competitive advantage. Mass customization and sustainability are two paradigms becoming more and more important and being used by companies operating in different sectors to increase their competitiveness. However the possible advantage that can be gained by companies through integration of sustainability and mass customization in a unique production paradigm is something that needs to be explored. This paper reports the results achieved in one research step of a European funded project (S-MC-S, http://web.ttsnetwork.net/SMCS), whose aim is the development of a sustainable and mass customized paradigm. More specifically, objective of the paper is analyzing the practical applicability of a framework depicting a sustainable mass customized design process developed as a reference tool within the SMCS project. Two case studies have been investigated to achieve this purpose.