Connections between mass customisation practices in housing and lean production

Abstract

The understanding of customers' needs and preferences in housing is complex. In order to respond to this, housing companies should be able to offer a higher product variety while ensuring cost effectiveness. Mass customisation (MC) has been suggested as an effective strategy for balancing the fulfilment of clients' needs and at the same time keep costs and delivery time within acceptable limits. Several MC practices have been associated to Lean Production (LP), such as reducing lead time, increasing value by systematically capturing customer requirements, and increasing output flexibility. The aim of this paper is to identify a set of MC practices in housebuilding, discuss their underlying concepts and principles, exploring their connections to LP. The identification of common concepts and principles between LP and MC can support the definition of the MC strategy for housing companies and also the adaptation of best practices to different organisational contexts. Results are based on a literature review and a case study developed with a Brazilian house-building company. The main contribution is better understanding trade-offs between productivity and flexibility with the aim of improving value generation in housing projects.