Although friends in the manufacturing industry have always dreamed that their factories could mass-produce a single product like in the old days, because this is the easiest way in terms of orders, materials, production, skills, equipment, processes, personnel, etc., reality often disappoints. Changes in the social and business environment mean we can no longer return to an era when a factory only needed to mass-produce a single product. The concept of Industry 4.0 quietly entered China in 2013 and sparked widespread discussion in 2014. With the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently making intelligent manufacturing a key focus for 2015 and beyond, Industry 4.0 has attracted broad attention. Flexible and personalized customization is at the core of the factory capabilities envisioned by Industry 4.0's future scenarios.

　 　The trend of small batch, multi-variety, and personalization is coming.

　　In fact, the trend of small batch, multi-variety, and personalization did not arise because of Industry 4.0. It had already appeared long ago.

　　As one of Germany's national high-tech development strategies, Industry 4.0 targets the long-term industrial development trend. It is reasonable that it places great importance on features like flexibility and personalized customization. The global business environment is changing. With the acceleration of networking, people of all generations worldwide increasingly desire to express their individuality and pay more attention to their personalized needs. Self-media platforms like WeChat and Weibo allow more people to showcase their personalities. The trend toward personalization of physical products is also continuously strengthening. Although it will never be possible for all products to be fully personalized in the future, the trend of personalization and more small batch, multi-variety production is unstoppable.

　　Chris Anderson's book "The Long Tail" provides the clearest answer to this future trend. In the book, he elaborates on the essence of the long tail, pointing out that the future of business and culture lies not in the "head" of the traditional demand curve representing "best-selling products," but in the often overlooked "long tail" representing "niche products." In the physical-based "short head" economy, 20% of popular products generate 80% of revenue and 100% of profits; in the knowledge-based "long tail" economy, 20% of popular products concentrate into 10% of popular products, further divided into 2% big hits and 8% secondary hits. The 2% big hits generate 50% of revenue and 33% of profits; the 8% secondary hits generate 25% of revenue and 33% of profits. The remaining 90% of long tail products generate 25% of revenue and 33% of profits. From a profit perspective, the market is evenly split into three 33%s. Who can still ignore small batch, multi-variety, and personalized customization?

　　In fact, the trend of small batch, multi-variety, and personalization did not arise because of Industry 4.0. It has already appeared and is changing our supply chain design, factory design, and production line design. Next, we will illustrate how to achieve this through two practical examples.

　　 Implementation of personalized customization in the automotive industry.

　　 The prerequisite for efficient mixed production of small batch, multi-variety, and even personalized customization is standardization and a very rigorous information system support.

　　The most obvious example in this regard is naturally the automotive industry, as many people already know that current automotive assembly lines can produce multiple models on demand and mixed production, with each car off the line being different, without losing production rhythm and efficiency. For example, BMW's factory in Tiexi, Shenyang, can simultaneously produce many different models of the BMW X1 and BMW 3 Series.

　　How exactly is this achieved? Is every car truly completely different in every aspect? This starts with the standardization, platformization, and modularization of car design. On BMW's production line, although the models and types produced differ, all the tooling that supports the car body is consistent. In other words, all different models and types can be produced on the same production line. From this, we understand one point: the prerequisite for efficient mixed production of small batch, multi-variety, and even personalized customization is standardization. We must ensure some key dimensions are standardized to enable mixed production on the same line without switching. Platformization and modularization make this production mode possible. The BMW X1 and BMW 3 share the same platform, so not only can they share the production line, but most of their modules are also interchangeable during assembly. This allows for multiple differentiated cars to meet different user needs through module selection and combination, while greatly reducing the number of modules (which are no longer just parts but modules).

　　There are also differences in order and production process design. Everyone knows the automotive industry is the best at JIT (Just-In-Time) production, aiming for production on demand, material supply on demand, and zero inventory. To meet personalized or small batch, multi-variety production, it is obviously too late to prepare materials in the warehouse after the production plan is issued. To truly achieve personalized customization by order, the materials for each car must be prepared one-to-one in advance. This means that to fulfill an order for a car, at some point before starting the production of the white body, all materials (modules) needed for that car have already begun to be prepared, and all materials are linked one-to-one according to the order configuration. In other words, even when materials are still scattered on the production line, in warehouses, and at suppliers, they are already associated with a specific car. When we see the white body being produced, the chassis system, power system, and interior system are already being produced according to that order. All this is precisely calculated and tracked by the production information system to ensure that when assembly starts on the main assembly line, all materials (modules) delivered are prepared according to the order configuration. Not only the model but also the delivery time must be precisely guaranteed to ensure the 60-second production rhythm per car without delay.

　　To achieve such a personalized customization process without losing rhythm and efficiency, systematic planning is obviously required in product design, material supply design, production process design, and production line design. Orders must precisely match the car body and materials, and the supply sequence must be delivered on time. This process involves effective coordination among different workshops, departments, and suppliers. Such a complex process cannot be precisely managed by humans alone; it requires a very rigorous information system to support the process. At the same time, production line design must fully consider how to ensure the implementation of such a process.

　　To realize this production mode, a large amount of manpower and resources must be invested in systematic planning, design, development, and implementation. The investment by vehicle manufacturers often reaches tens or even hundreds of billions of RMB. How can one be sure that such a complex process will be flawless before investing? To better guarantee the entire supply and production process, sufficient simulation design must be conducted.

　　For example, the production process of Audi's final assembly plant uses Automod (Applied Materials' process simulation software) for a year-long planning, design simulation, and optimization. During this year, Audi continuously optimized its processes and production line design through simulation, considering all possible abnormal situations, running the process under various states and conditions to observe whether the factory, logistics, and production line design were optimal, thus achieving a production model that supports personalized customization. Therefore, simulation is an indispensable part of large-scale final assembly lines.

　 　Implementation of personalized customization in the electronics industry

　　 It is necessary to consider product design, process design, logistics design, and equipment design simultaneously, and focus on standardization and modularization to enable zero-second fully automatic switching of the production process.

　　The automotive industry is obviously ahead in this regard. In fact, not only the automotive industry but other industries are also exploring the same. Let's take an example of the electronics industry achieving small batch and multi-variety production. If readers are familiar with industrial control products, they will know there is a type of electromagnetic proximity sensor. Every manufacturer producing these sensors has many different models, and during production, they may need to switch between a dozen different models daily. Some manufacturers have been able to handle this situation easily for many years.

　　First, start with product design. Like the automotive industry, to achieve small batch and multi-variety production, the first step is not to truly differentiate them but to standardize them. All the PCBs (printed circuit boards) of this company's proximity sensors are exactly the same; the only difference is the components installed on them. This brings a great advantage: no need to switch PCBs. So how do they ensure different components are installed on the same PCB according to different models? They prepare all components on the SMT (Surface Mount Technology) machine. Thus, product model differences are realized entirely by the same PCB but different barcodes. At the beginning of the production line, the machine automatically scans the barcode. After recognizing it, the SMT machine automatically switches programs to install the components for that model. When the machine reads a different model, it automatically switches programs to mount the components required for that model, achieving zero-second switching when producing different models. After producing the PCBA (PCB Assembly), the machine still automatically switches to install different sensing magnetic cores according to the model. The magnetic core design is also standardized as much as possible, but combined with the PCBA, it forms more different models. The next process is inserting the sleeve and potting, which the machine also automatically switches based on the product barcode. The same applies during product testing; the testing equipment automatically selects different test indicators according to the product model.

　　This example again shows that we must consider product design, process design, logistics design, and equipment design simultaneously, focusing on standardization and modularization, so that our production process can achieve zero-second fully automatic switching capability, resulting in a highly efficient small batch and multi-variety production model.

　　From these two examples, it can be seen that when facing personalized customization and small batch multi-variety order demands, we are not helpless. In fact, some industries have already found and practiced effective solutions. Since we cannot stop the arrival of the era of personalized customization and small batch multi-variety production, we should embrace it. Because as long as we are willing to try and work hard, we can definitely come up with good methods and fully utilize various latest technologies and means to achieve it. In today's highly competitive era, we must not hesitate to look around to see if others have done it. Whoever first thinks of a better way to achieve it may become a dark horse conquering the entire industry, and following others might already be too late.