What is bespoke manufacturing?
Bespoke manufacturing is producing individualized or one-off products. Rather than producing the item in large quantities, bespoke manufacturing produces limited quantities of the items, typically relying on a large proportion of manual labor rather than automated machines.
Bespoke manufacturing caters to the needs of people who want unique individual products, or have different needs requiring individual or personalized items to the produced.
How does bespoke manufacturing compare to other approaches
Bespoke manufacturing vs mass manufacturing
Mass manufacturing is in many ways the opposite of bespoke manufacturing. Rather than produce unique items, as is the case with bespoke manufacturing, mass manufacturing is when times are produced in large quantities, often taking advantage of automated manufacturing processes. In mass manufacturing it is common to see large quantities of identical products being produced – the large batch sizes helping to reduce the item costs of the goods.
Bespoke manufacturing vs mass customization
Another approach to produce individualized products is mass customization. As the name would suggest, mass customization seeks to produce individual custom products on mass – typically relying on automated processes to customize the item. Thus in mass customization, there is typically a number of key dimensions that can be adjusted – while bespoke manufacturing allows much greater control over customizing the entire product.
Advantages of bespoke manufacturing
Some of the advantages of bespoke manufacturing include:
- Unique products: The one-off production process allows unique custom products to be created, potentially quite different from the products sold by competitors
- Products tailored to the specific needs of the customer: Because the products are manufactured individually, they can be created specifically to meet unique customer needs
- Ability to charge a higher sales price: Another advantage of bespoke products is that because of their uniqueness, a higher price may be charged for the items than may be attainable with mass-produced goods.
Related Articles
