It wasn’t long ago when industrial revolution took the world by a storm and along came mass production. For decades we were fed the assembly line products that were and to still are efficient and cost saving. On the other hand, it wasn’t long when we also realized that we are losing touch to our inner selves and custom design was revived. New artists and artisan were given a chance to prove themselves and today, customized products industry is flourishing side by side with mass produced products.
Aesthetics Of Customized Design
Most comparison of customized design and mass production, focus on the advantages and disadvantages. But for a fair comparison, we need to understand that there is actually no comparison between the two, just the pros, and cons to help you make up your mind.
At the end of it, you can always pick what you like better without any reason at all. Mass-produced products may be very sleek but they lack the human touch. Yet custom products such as blow glass items cannot be produced on an assembly line. So where mass production is limited in aesthetics focusing on large quantities of standardized products Customized design allows a rather creative yet time-consuming method of production.
Production
Both of these production methods are equally effective to run a successful business. Though every product can be custom designed you hardly see people demanding a custom toothbrush. Yet there are products that would simply lose their value if produced on an assembly such as, a painting. The very idea of customized design is to let the new ideas flow freely and be paid for, to ensure the human touch and sense of sentiments in a product.
Human Touch Vs Machines
Customized design carries the essential human touch and does not rely only on the automation of certain machines. It is something that has to have a sense of creativity and uniqueness making it unavailable at all the other places like just another regular product. It will be produced in a limited number and on customer demand after getting feedback from them on the initial pieces. This will help improve the business and get a fair idea as to what kind of customers you are dealing with. Mass production, on the other hand, is something which will bring loads of profit but it is a major miss as far as that human touch is concerned.
Costs
Customized design has a very high labor cost and yield time whereas mass production is something which is done usually at the hands of machines so it is very quick and has a rather low labor cost.
This sometimes convinces businessmen to employ the latter process. This seems like a good idea in a limited number of businesses but when it comes to something related to innovation, going for the latter can be one of the biggest business disasters. What people fail to understand is that with high labor price and yield time allows a greater level of finesse. This is exactly what a custom design buyer expects for the money they pay.
In a nutshell, mass production has made our lives easy in various aspect yet our natural craving for better keeps the custom design industry alive keeping a hope for the rising talent.