Unit Seven Mass Customization 1 Lead in 2 Text A BMW Drives Germany 3 Text B How Mass Customization Is Changing Our World Lead in Case Study vMyMuesli the manufacturer of cereal food enables the users to customize a food product through online interaction vQ1 What is customization Do you like MyMuesli s customizing its cereal food Why or why not vHowever the company neglected robust processes of mass customization Whenever a report on customers favor was published the manufacturing capacity was insufficient For lack of human labor mixing muesli from about 65 different categories of options by hand the company had to turn down prospective customers by setting a daily order limit vQ2 Is there any solution to this problem Q3 What lessons of potential risks of customization can be learnt from this case Q4 In your opinion what products are more suitable for mass customization Text A BMW Drives Germany Text A BMW Drives Germany Structural Analysis Para Main Topics Para 1 4 BMW s mass customization used as a marketing device and an effective means of injecting flexibility into BMW Para 5 8BMW symbolic of German economy Para 9 11BMW s highly automated Leipzig plant conducive to mass customization Para 12 18 BMW s attempt to handle the key issues of mass customization workforce flexibility production capacity expansion product line expansion Part I Questions about Part I vQ1 What s the main idea of Part I Para 1 4 vBMW used mass customization to promote its sales as a handy marketing device and to inject flexibility into almost every aspect of the company particularly manifested by its ability to cater for fickle customer desires and its rhythm of work vQ2 What does heavily unionized workforce mean What changes have been brought about by the deals BMW struck with its workforce v1 A union is a group of workers who have come together to make collective decisions about their work and their working conditions Heavily unionized workforce means that a relatively high proportion of employees belong to a union v2 A number of challenges can arise for a company to manage a heavily unionized workforce especially because of lack of flexibility Union workers often work set hours and they must take a certain number of breaks during the day no matter how heavy or how light the workload Deals BMW struck with its workforce enabled it to bring in new ways of working and manage its workforce more or less in accordance with production demands Part I Sentence Interpretation v1 Your BMW dealer will be happy to oblige with as many changes as you care to make until a cutoff point six days before your particular car goes into production Line 7 Para 1 vYour BMW dealer will be happy to do a favor by making as many changes as you care to until a point of termination v2 BMW does not break out details of the additional revenue but given the profit margins on many add ons it s like a big dollop of cream on the cake says Peter Schmidt a British based auto industry consultant Line 6 Para 2 vBMW does not categorize specific information of the additional revenues generated by its many add ons but on the condition of their profit margins it s just like adding a big dollop of cream onto the cake v A big dollop of cream on the cake is slightly adapted from icing on the cake which means a second great thing that happens in addition to the first Part I Words and Expressions vfickle Para 3 vadj characterized by erratic changeableness or instability especially with regard to affections or attachments vsynonym capricious vexample The company must face the challenge of meeting fickle market demands in a new uncertain economy vjuggle Para 4 vv to keep several simultaneous activities in motion or progress at one time vexample He is an expertly project manager who can juggle multiple projects and still make progress on each Part I Notes vFine art something requiring highly developed techniques and skills Part II Questions about Part II vWhat s the main idea of Part II Para 5 8 vBMW is in some ways symbolic of German economy which is resurgent from economic straitjacket but still hindered by both internal and external counter forces vQ2 What are internal and external counter forces which hinder German economy v Internal Little sign of substantive change in the system of labor relations hindering productivity level vExternal Low cost competition from Asia and East Europe Part II Sentence Interpretation v 1 Faced with low cost competition from Asia and Eastern Europe he says many German firms did their homework and now they are benefiting from it Line 1 Para 8 v Do one s homework is an idiomatic expression which means to study a subject or situation carefully so that one knows a lot about it and can deal with it successfully Part II Words and Expressions vformidable Para 6 vadj difficult to undertake surmount or defeat vsynonym awesome vexample As the workshop of world China has become a formidable trading power to be reckoned with causing other countries to view