Let me tell you a secret for creating the customer-focused organization: focus on the customer! That may sound tautological or even trite, but it has real meaning, because most so-called customer-focused organizations do nothing of the kind. Rather, they focus on markets (anonymous agglomerations of customers) rather than on any real, living, breathing individual customer.
Most recognize that there are no truly mass markets any more. But we must go beyond looking at market segments and niches to embracing the truism that every customer is his own market. Every customer deserves to have exactly what he wants at a price he’s willing to pay, and companies must make that happen in a way that makes them money.
Beyond Mass Customization – B. Joseph Pine II – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review.
There are three classical problems in Greek mathematics which were extremely important in the development of geometry. These problems were those of squaring the circle, doubling the cube and trisecting an angle. Although these are closely linked, we choose to examine them in separate articles. The present article studies the problem of doubling the cube, or duplicating the cube, or the Delian problem which are three different names given to the same classical problem. It is fair to say that although the problem of squaring the circle was to become the most famous in more modern times, certainly among amateur mathematicians, the problem of doubling the cube was certainly the more famous in the time of the ancient Greeks.
Is a point a part of a line? The question touches on the fundations of geometry. To be able to answer it, one should probably first clarify the notions that are involved in the question. According to the present day understanding, the notions of point and line are left undefined in geometry. We just get used to them by making derivations from the axioms, and then derivations from the derivations, and so on. Lines, if intersect, define a point, while two points define a line. It often helps to have a visual representation of either, but, such a visualization may prove treacherous. For example, in projective geometry, due to the Principle of Duality, the notions of point and line are entirely intercheangiable. Desargues’ Theorem supplies a clearest example of that duality.
Posted in GEOMETRY
R-O-B extends the traditional prefabrication process of construction: the robot leaves the protected environment of the production hall and ventures out to the building site.
via Gramazio & Kohler, Architecture and Digital Fabrication.
Dimensioning of various kinds of joints between wooden parts.
via Dimensioning woodworking and carpentry joints | knowledge.
EDM, sometimes colloquially also referred to as spark machining, spark eroding, burning, die sinking or wire erosion,[1] is a manufacturing process whereby a desired shape is obtained using electrical discharges (sparks). Material is removed from the workpiece by a series of rapidly recurring current discharges between two electrodes, separated by a dielectric liquid and subject to an electric voltage. One of the electrodes is called the tool-electrode, or simply the ‘tool’ or ‘electrode’, while the other is called the workpiece-electrode, or ‘workpiece’.
via Electrical discharge machining – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Why is it that we hear about so many big companies that fail at trying mass customization?
Prof. Pine: It’s really a mindset issue. Big corporations want to produce as much as possible, at a cost as low as possible. They often don’t believe that it will be as big of a market, even if they do it, it’s often just a sideline. There are positive examples as well of course, like Lenscrafters. Automobile companies in the US are also picking up on it. While they’ve offered the option to configure your car for a long time now, they also discouraged customers from using it. As BMW makes strides in that are, more car makers will need to follow suit.
via Mass Customization – Mass Customization Insights from Prof. Pine.
The starting point for mass customization and personalization fundamentally is the same: To turn customers’ heterogeneous needs into a competitive advantage. Or, as Bas Possen, a Dutch mass customization pioneer states his as the vision of his company (customax.com): “In general, too little use is made of the advantage that all people are different.”
