An Advisory System for Customers’ Objective Needs Elicitation in Mass Customization

To better understand customer requirements in mass customization, we introduce here a model distinguishing between the objective and the subjective customers’ needs. The model points out that the explicitly expressed customer requirements do not necessarily correspond to what customers really want. This model enables the explanation of the main shortcomings of the existing customer interaction systems. We conclude that customers should be better assisted during the elicitation process. Then, we briefly examine recommender systems within E-commerce. However, they are not able to provide customer assistance based on objective needs. Therefore, we introduce the notion of advisory systems for mass customization and we outline its basic structure. To better elicit the objective customers needs, we identify main extension fields of the system. Furthermore, to ensure the implementation of the extended advisory system, we describe the required technical infrastructure.