Simplifying Configuration through Customer Oriented Product Models

Mass customization research explores the design and production of individualized products at mass product costs. Model-based configuration systems allow the customer to configure an individualized product. With increasing product and configuration complexity, ways of simplifying configuration for the customer are required. This paper discusses some principles of model-based configuration and introduces the concept of customer-personalized masks for product models. The concept of masks for product models provides a basis for personalized, simplified views on a product model, thus simplifying configuration for each individual customer. In this paper, we illustrate the concept of product model masks with a simplified product model for customizable products. Moreover, we introduce two principal ways for the creation of individualized product model masks from customer profile information.