Mass Customization @ Lutron Electronics

Keywords identified: competition, innovation, specialization, quality, market share, standardization, modularity, customization, economies of scale, economies of scope, commonality, responsiveness, consensus.

With this paper, the authors are trying to depict how Lutron Electronics transformed itself from a one office company to the giant it is now, by realizing the benefits that could be reaped from moving towards mass customization. As time moved on and people started realizing that the mass production philosophy really did not took into account the customers needs, severe competition drove companies to enter a price war to sell their products at the lowest possible costs to stay in the market. Lutron chose to compete in the market with product differentiation (driven by innovation) and the strategy paid off. Initial success with the new strategy helped Lutron build a product platform they could have expanded upon. The decision makers realized that to grow its business the company needs to keep expanding and develop new markets rather than trying to take control of the market share. It was very interesting to read how Lutron used innovation to open new market segments, which they

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by creating modular components that could be configured into a wide variety of end products and services. For this open office spaces are used and face to face and small group discussion are encouraged within the company. You are flexible internally and at the same time being responsive to external demand. But, I don’t think that is a drawback in this case. If Lutron was making money how did it trickle down to other companies who were a part of the entire supply chain.

It is evident that by delaying the decision to make a specific product by the use of common design elements helps Lutron (Dell is also a very good example) eliminate ‘muda’ and keep the inventories low. Mass customization and product families are definitely worth pursuing in today’s market and economic scenario.

Enterprises in all branches of industry are being forced to react to the growing individualization of demand, yet, at the same time, increasing competitive pressure dictates that costs must also continue to decrease. The idea was to focus on the concept of mass customization giving out few examples of products that had the most success in the beginning. The strategy to reduce the color options based on the preference percentage of the consumer was another interesting aspect where the wheels turned the opposite way. Again, with cross functional teams in place, it will be interesting to know if there is some kind of dissatisfaction among engineers who might be asked to do something different than their core competency as a part of the job. The best method for achieving mass customization was cited as minimizing costs while maximizing individual customization i. Some of the examples quoted were products such as GRAFIK Eye and the Lumea II. The manufacturing team members are cross trained to form flexible work groups. The authors did not give any financial information as to how the profit margins or revenues increased.

Common topics in this essay:
Lutrons Lutron, Lutron Electronics, Mass Customization, Lutron Dell, Electronics Keywords, Lumea II, R&D MC, mass customization, lutron electronics, efficiency mass customization, cross functional teams, mass customization product, customization product families, functional teams, cross functional, office spaces, standardized platforms, efficiency mass, paper authors, cross trained, supply chains,

Approximate Word count = 1128
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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