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Research paper−38−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.1 No.1 (2008) consumers into several groups, and provides different products for each group to improve the fit. The second solution is “Adjustable Products”, in which the product size is adjustable. The third solution is “Finding Well-fitting Products”, in which the retailing system can select well-fitting products for specific customers from several candidates (produced based on the first or second solutions) according to customer parameters. The fourth solution is “Mass Customization”, in which the whole product or important parts of a product are designed and manufactured based on customer parameters. Although this may seem similar to traditional tailor-made production, “Mass Customization” is based on engineering rather than on the know-how or experience of a specific craftsman. Figure 1 shows the features of the four solutions. Conventional mass production and traditional tailor-made production are located at both ends. The squares indicate cost, the triangles indicate delivery time, and the filled circles indicate customer satisfaction. As Fig. 1 shows the conceptual characteristics of the four solutions, the vertical scale is not meaningful.“Population Grouping” is the most popular solution. It requires somewhat higher costs than one-size products, but delivery time is shorter because all size variations of product can be stocked. “Adjustable Products” is a typical solution for products such as car driver’s seats and office chairs. Additional costs are required for manufacturing adjustable products. In these two solutions, consumers have to select or to adjust the product by themselves. If they do not have sufficient knowledge or experience for selection, the performance of the product can be poor because of a loose or tight fit. The result of our study on shoe fitting [1] is a good example. In this experiment, volunteer subjects selected 1 IntroductionThe design concept of “One Fits All” is one solution for universal design. With this idea, one size of product is supposed to comfortably fit all users. This concept is appropriate for designing public facilities and buildings. The “One Fits All” concept is also attractive to manufacturers, as they can reduce manufacturing costs by mass producing just one size. However, it is clear that “One Fits All” is not universally applicable. For instance, one size of shoe cannot fit everyone. For personal products, users are interested in whether they fit their own bodies, not others. While consumers usually use public products designed based on the “One Fits All” concept, they tend to prefer customized products designed for themselves.Customization based on the skill, know-how and experience of craftsmen has a long history. This type of customization strongly relies on the skill and experience of craftsmen, and it is difficult to apply this approach to mass customization. The aim of this study is to identify human factors that are related to product fitting, to quantify the variations in such factors, and to propose a method to realize mass customization based on engineering. The ultimate goal of this study is to realize a new solution for universal design that can provide customized products “Only For Your Body” for “Anybody”, at reasonable prices.2 Research scenarioFour different solutions have been proposed for providing products of appropriate size. The first solution is “Population Grouping”, in which the product provider classifies - Toward the mass customization business -Masaaki Mochimaru* and Makiko KouchiThe ultimate goal of this research is to realize a mass customization business that enables any consumer to easily obtain a well-fitting product. As the first step towards this goal, an IT-based product recommendation system for eyeglass frames was developed. Using this system, a customer’s 3-D face shape is measured, frames of the proper size are recommended, and the impression of the customer wearing an eyeglass frame is simulated for style recommendation. Technologies such as face measurement, size recommendation and impression simulation are integrated based on a 3-D face shape database. When the system is used in a retail shop, the contents of the 3-D face shape database can be expanded, and statistical information on face shape and/or impressions of the face and eyeglass frame can be utilized for product design and retailing services.Technologies for the design and retail serviceof well-fitting eyeglass framesKeywords : Human sensing, Kansei engineering, Service engineering[Translation from Synthesiology, Vol.1, No.1, p.38-46 (2008)]Digital Human Research Center, AIST 2-41-6, Aomi Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0064, Japan *E-mail : m-mochimaru@aist.go.jp

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