Métodos de customização em massa nos serviços: um estudo empírico com base na técnica de blueprinting

Abstract

Mass customization allows a company to meet the individual needs of its various customers more efficiently. Different methods of customization can be applied in processes that generate value for the customer and that define customized products and services, which becomes a competitive differential in the market.Most of the research that addresses the topic aims its application in products and explores the production processes needed to offer variety. Over time, different classifications have been proposed, some of them focused on the production process perspective,based on concepts of how and where the strategy can be applied,otherson how the result can be perceived or represented to the client.Thus, we understood some of these classifications as methods, among them Pine's (1994), which matches research purposes.Literature replicates the concept of Pine that customization methods usually overlap, but it says little about how to implement it in process design.So, a company that wants to coordinate methods have no parameters to do it satisfactorily. This work aimed to verify how the coordination of different methods occurs from a process-centered approach to design, which principles of service literature efficiency influence the development and what is the nature of this influence.For this, we study the case of Pega e BordaConfecção e Bordados, which has indications of customization strategies in its service.We perform the blueprinting technique from data collected in observation and semi-structured interviews with employees, which helped the analysis of the processes and, from the conceptual framework proposed by Pine (1994), it was possible to identify different methodological profiles of mass customization present in the company Pegae Borda.In addition to the evidence of different methods, mapping and analysis led to the identification of degrees of articulation of these mass customization methods, so recognizing that each method adoption leads to the design of more standardized or more flexible processes.Therefore, the present work highlights a relevant problem of service design, recognizing the need to elaborate more field studies for different types of service to guide the designer to develop more consistent and adherent projects to the business needs.