Realizing instant customerization through proactively enhancing demand visibility

Despite of an increasing trend towards a new manufacturing paradigm ´instant customerization´, there is a lack of research into its feasibility. To examine the feasibility to implement instant customerization, this paper proposed a demand-supply chain model, which include five linkage points between demand and supply chains. The model may provide a set of systematic approaches to analyze the possibility of innovative operations and production illusions, and provide requirements to implement the innovative operations and production tactics. By means of the model, a feasible zone and two kinds of tactics to implement instant customerization are elicited and described at a general level. The key kind of tactic is to proactively enhance demand visibility.