Modular Design and Modular Process: Panacea for Mass Customization? - An Empirical Examination Model

Modular design and modular process have been taken of granted as panacea for success of implementation of mass customization by numerous papers in the past two decades. However, based on literature review, this paper argued that it is the operations management practices of knowledge re-use and re-engineering that play an important role as mediator between modularity and mass customization capability, and the focus should shift from technical solutions of modularity to management practices. An empirical examination model was proposed for further testing of the hypothesis.