THE NATIONAL BICYCLE INDUSTRIAL COMPONY

IMPLEMENTING THE STRATEGY OF MASS CUSTOMIZATION

Team Members:
Abhinav
Amresh
Ankit
Sushant
Sangram

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Japanese Bicycle Industry
 It began around 1868

 1st time European bicycle introduced in Japan

 Japan government modeled their structure

after western governments

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Meiji Restoration
 The Meiji Restoration , also known as
the Meiji Ishin, Revolution or Renewal, was a
chain of events that restored imperial rule to
Japan in 1868. The Restoration led to
enormous changes in Japan's political and
social structure, and spanned both the late 
Edo period (often called Late Tokugawa
shogunate) and the beginning of the Meiji Era
.

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 The Japanase Bicycle industry is in operation
since this period
 It was done to remove the isolation from the

rest of the world

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Arrival of foreign bicycle
 As foreigners came they brought the cycles
with them
 For repairs they depended on local assistance
of hunting gun shops
 Skills acquired to repair guns motivated shop
owners to apply their talent to repair bicycle
 This led to production of bicycle modeled
after European bicycle

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 Bicycle demand grew rapidly in Japan due to
strong growth in economy and consumer
demand
 In 1973 , “Oil Shock” had a major impact on

Japan and bicycle production dropped over

18%

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Introduction

 NBIC is a 2nd largests manufacturer of bicycle in 1992

 Sales close to 20 Billion yen
 A subsidiary of Japanese industrial Giant Matsushita
 Introduced a system Panasonic order System(POS)
 Gained national & international attention world over
 Became the envy of competitors

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 Marketed bicycles under 3 brands-Panasonic,
National & Hikari
 Panasonic bicycles for premium consumer

which accounts for 20% sales

 Began to sell and manufacture bicycle in

1952
 NBIC sold its bicycle to 10 sales companies

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Mass production

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 Which sold to approximately 9000 retailers
which were part of Matsushita group
 Regular meeting held to discuss sale trends

and manufacturing concern between NBIC

and Sales Companies`

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Mass Customization Strategy

 Idea introduced by the President of NBIC

 To custom bicycles the way women customize

their dresses
 Average unit price for customer was dropping
 Average price for sporting bikes were

increasing but the segment was not growing

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Mass Customization Objective
 NBIC had two objectives –
 Wanting to double their amount of high value added
products
 Wanted to devise a system of production and delivery
to differentiate them from competitors
 In June 1987 they unveiled a strategy in bicycle
industry called ‘Panasonic Ordering System’

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Panasonic Ordering System

 Order process- customer orders a high end

bicycle to a POS equipped retailer
 Notes the requirement by taking

measurement and gauging machine

 Customer selects color, seat, model type and

other features

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Panasonic Order System

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POS Form

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 After filling the form dealer sends the
information to control room of custom made
factory
 From there it goes to firm host computer to

register and control customer order

specification
 Host computer assigns a unique bar code

level

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 Requirements are accessed through bar code
level by line workers
 Displayed through a CRT terminal at each

station

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Manufacturing Process
 Foundation of POS lies in design and
manufacturing capabilities of NBIC
 Exclusively built machines for POS
 Development work carried out by firm own

design and process engineer with assistance

from parent company
 Software built internally by NBIC engineer

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 Production system begins when CAD system located
in control scans the bar code level to access customer
information
 A blue print of bicycle is made in 3 minutes
 Frame and Front Fork Production-involves cutting of
tubes that form the frame of bicycle
 Quality Check- complete frame and fork production
is put on a 3D Automatic Measuring Machine

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 Checks the actual measurements
 And corrects the variations if detected any
 Painting-prevents the early rusting of frame

and improve the surface for paint

 Then transferred to a preliminary room for 15

mins to be automatically painted by a robot

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 Robot receives information through barcode
label from host computer
 NBIC is the 1st company to introduce robot in

painting process in bicycle

 After this two skilled workers gives the final

touches using electrostatic spray guns

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 Labeling & Engraving Process-printing or
engraving customer name or any
specification.
 Done using a silk screen process
 The frame is ready for final assembly after

this

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 Final assembly & Shipping- mating of frame
with wheels , chains, gears , brakes and other
equipments.
 During this Derailleur & Rotation adjustment

of bearing section are done

 Entire manufacturing of one customized

bicycle required 150 minutes

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 A year after POS company introduced PICS
(Panasonic Individual Customer System)
 To offer custom made bicycle to overseas

customer.
 Delivery time was increased from 2 weeks to

3 weeks in this system

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Marketing & Distribution
 Appropriate pricing and extensive
communication
 Guranteed 2 weeks time delivery
 To make consumers exited about it
 Under POS factory was given responsibility to

communicate to customers

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Response to POS
 Competitor copy their system
 Company like General Motor visits and study

their operation
 Extensive Media Coverage

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Thank you

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