Problem arises in HP

1.Not customized products and services:

Trying to customize their products, most companies have found it difficult
to fulfil orders swiftly and at an acceptable cost. In Hp there was not facility
of mass customization and due to that customers were having no any other
choices ,they had compelled to choose the old one that was earlier products
which HP was having from the beginning.it was not that much possible,
then to mass-customize products, deliver them rapidly, and at the same time
by reducing costs.

2.unavailability of Differentiating product:

In HP there was not proper differentiating product as like other companies
are providing. It was having the same feature of products in case of printer
which we are generally using. They were not that much considering about
that differentiation. Differentiating a product for a specific customer until
the latest possible point in the supply network.

3. Long production process or delivery:

By seeing the case we have founded that ,there was problems in production
process which was taking so much time in case of manufacturing ,there
were so much delay in case of delivery as well as when they would have to
delivered the manufactured products .As we know that it would be better
for our company if we can deliver the demanded products to our customer
in given time and it would put a negative impact in our company from the
perspective of customer if we would not able to complete our given task .
4.Not paying much attention on decision making :
Making decisions like these is not easy. It involves people from at least
four areas of a company: marketing, research and development,
manufacturing& distribution and finance. These four groups must play the
following roles to support an effective mass customization program.
I. Marketing: Marketing must determine the extent to which mass
customization is needed to fulfil customers’ requirements. Here in HP
they were not able to identify the need of customer according to
situation.
 II. Research and development: Research and development must
redesign the product so that it can be customized at the most efficient
point in the supply network.it shows that R&D was not performing in
efficient way due to this reason their sales was dropped.

III. Manufacturing and distribution: Must coordinate both the supply

and the redesign of materials and situate manufacturing processes in
the most efficient locations. if we see in HP then co-ordination was
also lacking along with that distribution channel was not that much
efficient.

IV. Finance: Finance must provide activity-based cost information and

financial analyses of the alternatives. Each group at any company
has its own measures of performance. At HP, marketing is evaluated
on revenue growth, R&D on a product’s functionality and the cost of
its components, and manufacturing and distribution on the cost of
assembling and delivering a product to the customer. S o m e h o w ,
there was problem in financial department ,it was not
a b l e t o ma i n t a i n h i s r e c o r d i n p r o p e r w a y a t t h e e n d i t
was compelled to bear a losses in huge percentage .
Solution
1) A product should be designed so it consists of in- dependent
modules that can be assembled into different forms of the product
easily and inexpensively. It would provide the option to their
customer to choose among them which would be better for them.

2) Manufacturing processes should be designed so that they, too,

consist of independent modules that can be moved or rearranged
easily to support different distribution-network designs and meet
the demand of customers in given time .we have seen there are
many company which are mainly seeking the feedback of customer
,how they are reacting towards the company services ,if companies
are able to provide the services in better ways then its good for
them either wise it will create negative impact on company .

3) Although HP was manufacturing the same structure of products

but there should be difference in case of feature of products, it
should not be same for all if its same nature of products. There
should be at least some differ among their qualities and their
working style .

4) HP should to focus much on their decision making process where

four major areas are performing their task. Talking about the
marketing ,HP should to analyze the market on where they have to
know the demand of the customer in the recent era, they should to
identify the actual need of customer .

5) Talking about the research and development ,HP should to focus

more on that ,we know that after analyzing the markets our second
step is to move towards the research about it and develop it .if its
not like that ,we can not survive in the market because there are
many competitor in the markets who are providing similar types of
services or products which is functioning in the same way .

6) At the last HP have to see the financial statement of its company

either it had gone according to his plan or not ,where they have
spent so much money ,if it was required or not .if HP can maintain
all those things in effective way then it would lead to progressive
 way and able to maintain good will of that company.

7) HP should to prepare modular product design which are having

three benefits. First, a company can maximize the number of
standard components it uses in all forms of the product, assemble
those components for all product options in the earlier stages of the
assembly process, and postpone the addition of the components
that differentiate the product until the later stages of the process.
Second, a company can make the modules of the product
separately; in fact, it can manufacture different modules at the
same time, which significantly shortens the total time required for
production. Third, a company can more easily diagnose production
problems and isolate potential quality problems.

8) In HP, the supply network, the positioning of inventory and the

location, number, and structure of manufacturing and distribution
facilities should be designed to provide two capabilities. First, it
must be able to supply the basic product to the facilities performing
the customization in a cost-effective manner. Second, it must have
the flexibility and the responsiveness to take individual customers’
orders and deliver the finished, customized goods quickly.
conclusion
Many of the success stories we have described resulted from the
collaborative efforts of manufacturing, engineering, distribution, and
marketing organizations within and in some cases, outside HP. These
successes show that mass customization does not have to be a financially
risky strategy. By carefully applying the set of design principles we have
outlined, companies can mass-customize at a low cost. They no longer have
to choose between satisfying their customers and increasing their profit
margins.
HP has successfully implemented a standardization strategy for the
LaserJet printer that it sells in Europe and North America A partner in
Japan makes the printer’s core engine, which then is shipped by sea to
the two markets. Before HP and its partner designed the LaserJet for mass
customization, the printer had a dedicated power supply of 110 volts and
220 volts, which forced the company to differentiate it by end customer
market as soon as production began in Japan. As a result of standardizing
the LaserJet, HP was able to reduce the total costs of manufacturing,
stocking, and delivering the finished product to the customer by 5% per
year.
Consider a component that is not standardized: a dedicated power supply, or
a power supply that can- not automatically convert voltage. In the global
electronics market, building a dedicated power supply into a product in the
first stages of production forces a manufacturer to commit to the product’s
country of destination. If a company has a long pro- duction process or
delivery time from factory to end consumer, having this kind of power
supply makes it difficult to mass-customize efficiently. But a company
could standardize components, de- signing or purchasing a single power
supply that would work across an entire product family or, ide- ally, across
many product families. Alternatively, the company could postpone the
assembly of the power supply until a later point in the production process.
Either approach would result in greater flexibility and lower costs

HP decided to take a different approach to customizing its Desk Jet printers

for the European and Asian markets. The company opted to customize the
printers at its local distribution centers rather than at its factories. For
example, instead of customizing the Desk Jets at its factory in Singapore
before shipping them to Europe, HP has its European distribution center
near Stuttgart, Germany, perform this job. The company therefore designed
the printer with a country-specific external power supply that the customer
plugs in when setting up the printer. The distribution centre not only
customize the product but also purchases the materials that differentiate it
.As a result of this redesign, manufacturing costs are slightly higher than
when the factories customized the printers, but the total manufacturing,
shipping, and inventory costs dropped by 25%.

References
 https://hbr.org/1997/01/mass-customization-at-hewlett-packard-the-power-of-
postponement
 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Mass-Customization-at-Hewlett-Packard%3A-The-
Power-of-Feitzinger-Lee/091f33e38355ac52af9a82ffdfab1ba03eaeae1c
 https://www.writework.com/essay/postponement-and-mass-customisation-hewlett-
packard-case-s