Sustainability assessments for mass customization supply chains

This book brings several original contributions to research and practical applications in the field of mass customization from the designer, manufacturer, and customer perspectives respectively. It presents advancements in product design for mass customization, design of assembly and supply chain processes, variety induced complexity models, complexity management, marketing tools, information systems to support decision-making, and critical success factors of this manufacturing and marketing strategy. A special focus of interest is also on the use of product configurators in practice and sustainability assessment for mass customization strategy. The aim is to disseminate current developments and approaches for further theoretical investigation and practical applications of mass customized manufacturing systems.

The aim of the chapter is to evaluate the sustainability of supply chains, applying a model based on the integration of life cycle assessment (LCA) with discrete simulation to compare different customization policies in a networked context. In the developed model, the environmental impact of the supply chain is assessed through an innovative modular LCA where different levels of customization have been analyzed. The chapter then compares the scenarios based on variations of drivers such as lead time to the customer, quality in terms of scraps, and the level of sustainability of the suppliers. The model is validated by collecting data from a fashion-based case study taking into consideration the environmental impact of a certain batch production. The preliminary results highlight that specific decisional areas under the control of supply managers (e.g., supplier selection and manufacturing defects) can significantly affect the environmental impact of the whole supply chain.