Batch Size One and the Customer Experience: Rethinking Business Models
In 1913, Henry Ford’s statement that a Model T Ford customer could have the car in any colour they liked, “as long as it is black”, was ground-breaking; ambitious, confident, self-assured. His words promised and ushered in a glorious, brave new world; a world in which a golden age of mass production was emerging – where industry would be transformed to produce goods efficiently and uniformly to an assured standard. His words proclaimed progress.
Yet, today, they seem curiously lack-lustre. One hundred years later, perceiving his statement through the lens of the twenty-first century, we wonder: how could a company be so successful with so little thought to the customer experience? His words seem less ground-breaking than arrogant and out-dated. In the intervening century, our expectations of what it means to be a consumer have changed. Quality assurance, standards, and efficiency are taken for granted; what we are seeking now is differentiation. Enter: batch size one.
“Parts will be made to order as and when required – reducing inventory and warehousing costs and streamlining operations.”
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