Innovative Processes and Products for Mass Customization

This paper describes the solution developed in the KoViP project and presents the results of introducing this solution in the scope of a pilot project. The idea of the KoViP project targets SMEs of the German machine and plant manufacturing, which are forced to produce customized products whilst simultaneously keeping costs and delivery times low following the approach of mass customization.

But the majority of the SMEs with product platforms cannot afford to develop an individual product configurator. Therefore they have a large demand for a more cost-effective and flexible product configuration solution. The first part of the paper describes the product configuration software and service platform KoViP, developed by the CAD software provider ISD, Dortmund, in cooperation with the ITM chair of the University of Bochum and funded by the EU and the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The main goal of KoViP was to create a modular, easy configurable, standard software platform and a suite of standard services for the knowledge acquisition and maintenance as well as for the implementation of product configurators in SMEs producing mass customized products. The second part of the contribution summarizes the validation of the KoViP platfor in a pilot project within the company VHV Anlagenbau, Hörstel.