Barriers and enablers to food mass customization
Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies
ISSN: 2044-0839
Article publication date: 27 April 2020
Issue publication date: 29 July 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study is to propose a procedure to support decisions on which enablers should be employed to minimize the impact of barriers to implementing mass customization strategies in food companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Through interpretive structural modeling, the authors analyzed the relationships between barriers. Then, with an approach similar to the quality function deployment technique, commonly used in general product and process development, the authors clarified the relationships between barriers and enablers.
Findings
The results revealed 19 barriers and 17 enablers for implementing food mass customization. The analysis indicates that most of the barriers (16) present strong associations with each other. The barrier “products with non-customizable features” depends on the whole chain of associations and causes a minor impact on the other barriers. In turn, the barrier “ingredient incompatibility” causes impact over the whole chain, and its dependence on other barriers is very low.
Research limitations/implications
The results were tested in a single Brazilian company in the food sector.
Practical implications
The findings can allow food manufacturing companies to focus their efforts on the improvement of enabling technologies, such as smart packaging, Internet of Things and additive manufacture.
Social implications
This study would help food companies to improve their business and provide better products to society.
Originality/value
There are few recommendations in the literature to how to implement mass customization strategy in companies from the food sector. This study fills in this gap presenting a procedure to guide managerial staff to develop this promising approach for food companies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support of CNPq – National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (303936-2019-3) and CAPES - Coordination of Higher Education Personnel Improvement (Finance Code 001), since the work reported here is part of research projects under its sponsorship.
Citation
Calegari, L.P., Avalone, M.C. and Fettermann, D.C. (2020), "Barriers and enablers to food mass customization", Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 403-428. https://doi.org/10.1108/JADEE-08-2019-0116
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited