Episode #9 | The Journey Behind Our Mass Customization Use Case

There's lots of buzz about mass customization, but how do you actually apply it from a product development and manufacturing standpoint?

In this episode, we dive into the details of our two-year journey using mass customization to develop our own direct-to-consumer brand called Threedom. It's a behind-the-scenes conversation about the challenges we faced creating the complex digital workflow necessary to scale one product design to nine products and over 30,000 SKUs. We talk about the opportunity we discovered to build an ever-expanding platform of unique products that connect with customers in a whole new way and you'll also get ideas about how to apply the concept of mass customization to functional or industrial parts.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ufsomEV1vbU

Episode Topics
01:03 Welcome
02:35 Challenge of injection molding
04:18 Speed to market and increased market share
05:19 Difference in capital investment
06:00 Uses of mass customization
07:35 Visual personalization
09:04 Serving unique market segments
10:01 Business model innovation
10:50 Our use case for mass customization
14:50 Nine products
15:15 38,500 digital files for 9 products
17:24 Getting real-time feedback from customers
19:55 Initial vision for tailored products
20:32 Managing SKUs
21:28 Building on demand & inventory management
22:00 What we've learned
23:21 Time investment in digital workflow
24:24 It's really hard
25:00 Competitive products
26:16 One design became a product platform
26:54 Applying it to functional or industrial parts
28:28 Version control
30:19 Surface textures
31:39 Manufacturing process to manage complexity
34:25 Defining key constraints
35:01 Multi Jet Fusion
36:01 Lessons after 2 years
37:47 Apply our experience to your project
38:52 Business model innovation vs part costs
39:14 Perceived value of the product
40:58 Powerful brand that connects with consumers

Learn more about Threedom: https://dilabs.cc/portfolio-item/threedom/
Learn more about DI Labs: https://dilabs.cc/