A chair as an object of mass customisation

The article reveals the prospects of the process of creating individual items and services, taking into account models, methods and tools that help companies manage a variety of products. Examples of individual customisation of things found on the market are given. Attention is drawn to the segment of furniture products, which, according to the authors, is currently not sufficiently customised. Special attention is paid to the possibility of customisation and expansion of the product range with the help of parametric design on the example of a desk chair designed taking into account the dimensional characteristics of the human fig-ure.

Development of an Automated Mass-Customisation Pipeline for Knee Replacement Surgery Using Bi-Planar X-rays

For standard ‘off-the-shelf’ knee replacement procedures surgeons use X-ray images to aid implant selection from a limited number of models and sizes. This can lead to complications and the need for implant revision due to poor implant fit. Customised solutions have been shown to improve results but require increased preoperative assessment (Computed Tomography or Magnetic Resonance Imaging), longer lead times and higher costs which have prevented widespread adoption. To attain the benefits of custom implants, whilst avoiding the limitations of currently available solutions, a fully automated mass-customisation pipeline, capable of developing customised implant designs for fabrication via additive manufacturing from calibrated X-rays, is proposed. The pipeline uses convolutional neural networks to extract information from bi-planar X-ray images, point depth and statistical shape models to reconstruct the anatomy, and application programming interface scripts to generate various customised implant designs. The pipeline was trained using data from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information. Thirty subjects were used to test the accuracy of the anatomical reconstruction, ten from this dataset and a further twenty independent subjects obtained from the Osteoarthritis Initiative. An average root mean squared error of 1.00 mm was found for the femur test cases and 1.07 mm for the tibia. 3D distance maps of the output components demonstrated these results corresponded to well-fitting components, verifying automatic customisation of knee replacement implants is feasible from 2D medical imaging.

A scalable mass customisation design process for 3D-printed respirator mask to combat COVID-19

Purpose A three-dimensional (3D) printed custom-fit respirator mask has been proposed as a promising solution to alleviate mask-related injuries and supply shortages during COVID-19. However, creating a custom-fit computer-aided design (CAD) model for each mask is currently a manual process and thereby not scalable for a pandemic crisis. This paper aims to develop a novel design process to reduce overall design cost and time, thus enabling the mass customisation of 3D printed respirator masks. Design/methodology/approach Four data acquisition methods were used to collect 3D facial data from five volunteers. Geometric accuracy, equipment cost and acquisition time of each method were evaluated to identify the most suitable acquisition method for a pandemic crisis. Subsequently, a novel three-step design process was developed and scripted to generate respirator mask CAD models for each volunteer. Computational time was evaluated and geometric accuracy of the masks was evaluated via one-sided Hausdorff distance. Findings Respirator masks were successfully generated from all meshes, taking <2 min/mask for meshes of 50,000∼100,000 vertices and <4 min for meshes of ∼500,000 vertices. The average geometric accuracy of the mask ranged from 0.3 mm to 1.35 mm, depending on the acquisition method. The average geometric accuracy of mesh obtained from different acquisition methods ranged from 0.56 mm to 1.35 mm. A smartphone with a depth sensor was found to be the most appropriate acquisition method. Originality/value A novel and scalable mass customisation design process was presented, which can automatically generate CAD models of custom-fit respirator masks in a few minutes from a raw 3D facial mesh. Four acquisition methods, including the use of a statistical shape model, a smartphone with a depth sensor, a light stage and a structured light scanner were compared; one method was recommended for use in a pandemic crisis considering equipment cost, acquisition time and geometric accuracy.

Mass Customisation for Zero-Energy Housing

This article describes the potential that co-design and marketing strategies have on increasing the consumption of energy-efficient dwellings. It explains how Japanese housebuilders are using ‘mass customisation’—a phenomenon that mirrors the production and marketing of the automobile sector—in order to produce zero-energy houses and how this applies to the UK. The research consisted of a comparative analysis of Japanese and UK housebuilding. It identifies how mass customisation strategies are used to drive the sales of zero-energy houses in Japan and infers how to apply these in the UK context. This research found that some housebuilders in the UK are already using production strategies that resemble Japanese practices; however, the sustainable benefits observed in the Japanese context are not present in the UK because housebuilders’ mass customisation strategies are limited to construction and not used as part of the marketing, co-design, and selling processes. Production and consumption of sustainable houses would increase in the UK if housebuilders implemented full mass customisation, meaning selecting existing robust production processes, defining an appropriate space solution, and using informative navigation tools.

Optimizing Lot-Sizes and Scheduling in Terms of Mass Customization

The goal of mass customisation is to offer products tailored to the specific needs of the customers. Even though customers are aware that manufacturers need a certain time to produce and deliver customised products, the companies might guarantee that their products will arrive on time. Then, the objective of manufacturing managers is to minimise the total flow time of parts through the shop. One of the effective ways to reach this objective is to optimise schedules in order to satisfy the due date criterion, which plays a crucial role in the mass customisation environment. This paper, in the first part, outlines methodological tools to tackle the problem of shortening delivery times through scheduling and management of resources. In the second part of the paper, the proposed methodology framework through the theoretical example is applied.