How do you see Mass Customization in Apparel Industry ?

I agree with Mr. Kiran. The points he gave are really valid. By using them, indeed mass customisation in Apparel industry can be easily done.

Dear Shailena,

I am trying to answer your question on why mass custmoisation concept failed.

As Dr. Siddharth clearly explained, mass customisation is about being able to deliver to the customer whatever the customer has asked for; be it in color pattern, garment design, fit, few styling details etc.. Here we need to understand that in Garments customisation can happen in limited ways only. A customer can expect the customistaion inthe following areas.

1. Fabric - design- colour - rawmaterial : any retailer cannot afford to give this Coz, you cannot have a grey fabric dyed in 3-4 mtrs in a particular design as required by the customer, so we can offer customisation on the fabric that is already available with us.    
2. Styling: This can be offered to a certain degree, Coz, to get a better finish and quality a manufacturer prefers to use automated machines. And most of the retailer who wants to enter into this kind of a business prefers to play within few styling options like what Dr. Sidharth suggested- For example in a mens shirts you can have - sleeve options ( F/s& H/S), Collars ( Regular, Btn Down, Cut-away, etc.), Cuffs ( Regular, French, etc..), Bottom shape ( curved, Straight cut) etc.. If a customer asks for a totally different styling in a particular option, it will become difficult for the manufacturer.
3. Fitting: This is basic requirement of mass customisation. Any retailer or manufacturer who is in this business, has to offer this facility.

•  As we can understand now Mass customisation is able to serve a bigger customer base with a unique offer of customisation. Here, It is very essenital to know that no one can predict what a customer is going to ask for. 
• To satisfy his requirement, we have to give a product that is totally as per his requirements, in Good quality, and in a short period of time.
• This happens only when you have buffer of different parts in your assembly line waiting to be assembled as per the requirement. 
• For this, you have to maintain huge inventories of different types of fabrics, out of that only 30-50% will get sold.  
• Because we are not doing any mass production, we will not have any benefit of Economies of Scale. So obviously our costing per pc will be higher.  Customer may/not be ready to pay for this.
• Customisation means changing patterns every time for every customer. This needs high degree of quality control, any lapse will result in customer dissatisfaction and material wastage.  
• Customers will wait for the product.  But the important thing is how long they can wait. can we deliver them in the promised time frames.

According to my knowledge, These are the main concerns any retailer will face in order to start an apparel mass customisation concept. I dont know the exact reasons why thier company falied even though they had the expertise and Knowledge of the Italian company.  I assume that above listed factors might have contributed in some degree.

Actually we, in ZeroStock Retaile are doing some thing similar to this, by offering 11 siazes in shirts , 14 sizes in trouser and giving additional options of selecting collars, cuffs, fits  (Slim, regular in shirts pleated/ flat front in trouser) etc.  We taseted success in small range. But as any innovative business takes some time to get the acceptance of customers as well as vendors,I am hoping  this will also get accepted in the future, keeping my fingers crossed.

-Kiran Koti

Dear Shailena,

I am trying to answer your question on why mass custmoisation concept failed.

As Dr. Siddharth clearly explained, mass customisation is about being able to deliver to the customer whatever the customer has asked for; be it in color pattern, garment design, fit, few styling details etc.. Here we need to understand that in Garments customisation can happen in limited ways only. A customer can expect the customistaion inthe following areas.

1. Fabric - design- colour - rawmaterial : any retailer cannot afford to give this Coz, you cannot have a grey fabric dyed in 3-4 mtrs in a particular design as required by the customer, so we can offer customisation on the fabric that is already available with us.    
2. Styling: This can be offered to a certain degree, Coz, to get a better finish and quality a manufacturer prefers to use automated machines. And most of the retailer who wants to enter into this kind of a business prefers to play within few styling options like what Dr. Sidharth suggested- For example in a mens shirts you can have - sleeve options ( F/s& H/S), Collars ( Regular, Btn Down, Cut-away, etc.), Cuffs ( Regular, French, etc..), Bottom shape ( curved, Straight cut) etc.. If a customer asks for a totally different styling in a particular option, it will become difficult for the manufacturer.
3. Fitting: This is basic requirement of mass customisation. Any retailer or manufacturer who is in this business, has to offer this facility.

•  As we can understand now Mass customisation is able to serve a bigger customer base with a unique offer of customisation. Here, It is very essenital to know that no one can predict what a customer is going to ask for. 
• To satisfy his requirement, we have to give a product that is totally as per his requirements, in Good quality, and in a short period of time.
• This happens only when you have buffer of different parts in your assembly line waiting to be assembled as per the requirement. 
• For this, you have to maintain huge inventories of different types of fabrics, out of that only 30-50% will get sold.  
• Because we are not doing any mass production, we will not have any benefit of Economies of Scale. So obviously our costing per pc will be higher.  Customer may/not be ready to pay for this.
• Customisation means changing patterns every time for every customer. This needs high degree of quality control, any lapse will result in customer dissatisfaction and material wastage.  
• Customers will wait for the product.  But the important thing is how long they can wait. can we deliver them in the promised time frames.

According to my knowledge, These are the main concerns any retailer will face in order to start an apparel mass customisation concept. I dont know the exact reasons why thier company falied even though they had the expertise and Knowledge of the Italian company.  I assume that above listed factors might have contributed in some degree.

Actually we, in ZeroStock Retaile are doing some thing similar to this, by offering 11 siazes in shirts , 14 sizes in trouser and giving additional options of selecting collars, cuffs, fits  (Slim, regular in shirts pleated/ flat front in trouser) etc.  We taseted success in small range. But as any innovative business takes some time to get the acceptance of customers as well as vendors,I am hoping  this will also get accepted in the future, keeping my fingers crossed.

-Kiran Koti

Dear Shailena,

The term mass customization is a combination of "mass production" and "customization". Essentially, it means customizing in large quantities. The concept is opposite to the conventional concept of customization according to which customization occurs in small quantities only. At the moment, level of customization in apparel industry is very low. There is lot of variety in clothing but this is only a low level of customization. True customization means that customers can order and get what they want instead of choosing from a given range of products. Currently, customization in clothing is in very small quantities. In order to achieve mass customization in apparels, one can explore the possibility of having modularly designed apparels. This means breaking down the whole design into a number of components and then allowing customers to choose a product by differing combinations of these modules. For example, differnt styles of collars which can be fitted on different styles of shirts and which can be stitched with different type of cuffs. In this case, the individual modules can be mass produced and then can be assembled according to customer requirements.

Yes, Mass customization is happening in the Apparel industry. A recent example has come to me very recently where I met with a retailer who is coming up with chain of store only for the girls party wears. The concept moves like a girl who want to be look like her mommy and before getting ready for the party she can step into the store. Once she come inside, she will be taken care and dressed from top to bottom (includes clothing, accessories, footwears etc.) and will be out with complete make over. Like wise a lot of customization is happening in other verticals also.

We as a software developer have been developing, as asked by our exisiting customer, and customized with customer card which can capture different taste of the customer and hence can be cater with their individual desires.

Intersting to see other development in coming years.

Thanks for ur kind answer everybody, ya, its very necessary for the apparel industry for mass customization as per present time.But I couldn't understand Mr.Ramesh's point when he said the concept was flopped when he started this in Delhi with collaboration with Italy.Mr.Ramesh, can you kindly explain the reasons responsible for that

Mass Customisation in apparel is challenging  epecia;lly in apparel industry . Especially when apparel dsign works seasonal summer, winmnetr autmn spring .. andcoupkle of otherseasonal patterns .  Understanding the anthropmetric data would be  a challem=nge in this areas depending on the countries . I have seen mass customisation happening in suits . KB +T in India had launchedthis in Delhi with their collaboration in  Italy in Gurgaon Delhi but I think the concept flopped and they had lot od dead stocks at the end

It's a good idea but than i suppose all this can happen when the 1st lot of apparels have hit the stores and sales of the same happens in a very short span of time.Based on sale and consumer's feedback ...stores should intimate this directly to manufacturers which in turn will help manufacturer to understand what is floating in market and can customize things accordingly.