mass customization

noun

: the mass production of individually customized products, goods, and services

This courting of the customer has created a new trend. We are moving from mass production to mass customization; from providing a customer with a car of "any color he chooses, provided it is black" to offering the customer so many choices and options that the product is almost tailor made to his or her specifications.

—Joseph Kelada, Integrating Reengineering With Total Quality, 1996

Word History

First Known Use

1985, in the meaning defined above

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