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Procedia CIRP 61 (2017) 93 – 97

The 24th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering

In Pursuit of Personalization Design

Kazuki Kaneko*, Yusuke Kishita, Yasushi Umeda
Department of Precision Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-(0)3-5841-1274; fax: +81-(0)3-5841-7207. E-mail address: kaneko@susdesign.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Abstract

In response to diversified needs in the market, the manufacturing industry is required to provide more user-oriented products and services than
ever. In order to satisfy such needs, much attention has been paid to personalization, which, in this paper, refers to the process of designing,
manufacturing, and providing different products and services for each individual user. There are key enablers to foster personalization because
of technological advancement. Since personalization is considered an approach to prolonging the value lifetime of a product and minimizing
resource input, it should be further discussed in the field of lifecycle engineering. To realize personalization, a methodology to design such
products is essential. We call such design as “Personalization design.” The goal of this research is to develop a theory for personalized design. In
this paper, we propose the concept of personalization in the context of product and service design including a life cycle perspective. We firstly
show examples of personalization and their characteristics as context, target phase and participation. This is followed by a presentation of the
concept of personalization. Then, we show how the actual personalized design system was designed through a case study on designing equipment
for rehabilitation hospital. In this case, participation of multi-stakeholder has a great influence on a design solution. Finally, we discuss the future
direction of design research for personalization.
©
©2017
2017Published by Elsevier
The Authors. B.V. This
Published byisElsevier
an open access
B.V. article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 24th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 24th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering
Keywords: Insert 5-10 keywords here, separated by semicolons (;)

1. Introduction methodology to design such products is essential. We call such

design as “Personalization design.” If we implement
In response to diversified needs in the market, the personalization design, potential propagating effects may
manufacturing industry is required to provide more user- include strengthening the market competitiveness of companies.
oriented products and services than ever. For example, due to Relevant fields include lifecycle design [3], service design [4],
aging population around the world, larger number of elderly product-service system (PSS) design [5], participatory design
people need nursing-care equipment that is tailored to their [6], and human-centric design [7]. However, it has not yet
body shapes and behaviors. In order to satisfy such needs, much systematized how to support personalization design.
attention has been paid to personalization, which, in this paper, The goal of this research is to develop a theory for
refers to the process of designing, manufacturing, and providing personalization design. In this paper, we propose the concept
products and services specialized for each individual user [1]. of personalization in the context of product and service design
In reality, there are key enablers to foster personalization including a life cycle perspective. We firstly characterize and
because of technological advancement, particularly in the area categorize examples of personalization. Then, we show a case
of information technology and 3D printing technology. Indeed, study of designing equipment for rehabilitation hospital to
personalization businesses are becoming popular using analyze how a personalized system was designed. Finally, we
personal devices, sensors, and digital production [2]. discuss the future direction of design research for
Since personalization is considered an approach to personalization.
prolonging the value lifetime of a product and minimizing
resource input, it should be further discussed in the domain of
life cycle engineering. To realize personalization, a

2212-8271 © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 24th CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2016.12.003
94 Kazuki Kaneko et al. / Procedia CIRP 61 (2017) 93 – 97

2. Characteristics and categories of personalization use, and at times it is a matter of taste. Some of them will try to
solve their problem on their own, which is called “Do It
2.1. Examples Yourself”. Various tools and places are provided for such
people in the market. Sometimes they make community to
Table 1. describes some typical examples of personalization. share their knowledge.
There are a lot of studies and practices of personalization in Fourth context is life cycle. Situations change for each
broader fields [8]. This is because the definition of product over time. Some gets failure and need repair, others
personalization focuses not on the specific area but on the change their owner. When and what happens are quite different
individuality as an abstract aspect of user, products and depending on the product, so that their needs individual
services. treatment.

2.2. Characteristics 2.2.2. Target

Target of personalization includes products and services.
As depicted in Table 1, we here analyze four characteristics The difficulty of personalization depends on the target.
of personalization; including context, target, phase and Products with simple and modular architecture are relatively
participation. easy to be personalized by replacing parts. To make it more
efficient, some products have a platform which is common to a
2.2.1. Context wide range of products like car production. Platform design
Though there are various kinds of personalization, we can focuses on how to find the common architecture and how to
find some contexts in each case. The context shows the primary add and replace the modules [9].
objective. As shown in Table 1, we found four contexts; Personalization advances in the information industry,
marketing, hospitality, user action, and life cycle. because it is easy to replace components. A number of services
The first and major context is a marketing. A lot of that have Identification number (ID) are provided. For example,
companies do personalization to make their products attractive Amazon introduces products “inspired by your shopping trends”
and expand their own market. Its background is the transition using records associated with the ID. Personalization of
of customer behavior. Before they only selected from lists of information technology can separate into two parts. One is to
available options, but now they are actively involved in the select a predefined action associate with a visitor segment. The
design of the products they want to buy [8]. It requires higher other is to find implicit relationships between information,
variety and smaller volumes per product variant. To realize this which sometimes provide unexpected experience for a
production scheme with minimizing cost, personalization is the customer.
solution for companies. Services are also relatively easy to be personalized. The
The second context is hospitality. This is related to services special difficulty of personalized services is to guarantee the
rather than products. Hospitality means the strong willing to quality of service. Existing personalized services are provided
satisfy customers. Sometimes it results in try to respond to the with implicit knowledge and its quality depends on the skills of
special problems that go beyond regular work. each service provider. This heterogeneity becomes a serious
Third context is the user action. Many owners have desires problem for some large company with lots of stores.
about their possessions. Sometime it is a matter of the ease of

Table 1. Examples of personalization.

No Content Context Target Phase Participation
1 Measuring customer's body and Marketing Product Production Yes
providing fitted garment
2 Printing photos or letters on cups Marketing Product Production Yes

3 Choosing colour or additional Marketing Product Production Yes

accessories of cars
4 Showing advertisement tailored to Marketing Product Use No
individual users on website (Information)
5 Providing prosthesis fitting to user Hospitality Product Production Yes
body
6 Remembering the name and Hospitality Service Use No
preference of the guest in hotel
7 Making original bookshelf by User action Product Production Yes
yourself
8 Writing the name of owner on the User action Product Use Yes
textbook
9 Renovating the house to Life cycle Product Production Yes
accommodate changes in residents'
lifestyles
10 Internet searching that getting closer Life cycle Product Use Yes
to an individual's interests
spontaneously
 Kazuki Kaneko et al. / Procedia CIRP 61 (2017) 93 – 97 95

Personal data
Nurse call system

Statistical data Nurse

IR sensor
+ shield
Universal Personally fitted
product or service product or service

Fig. 1. Standard process of personalization Patient

Fig. 2. Use case of the personalized nurse call system.

2.2.3. Phase
Phase means when products or services are personalized in more people the products or services. It is completely different
their product life cycle. Phase of personalization has two from traditional business which attempts to provide universal
patterns; production and use. products based on statistical data.
Personalization in production phase has two patterns due to
the level of product individuality. Products with high 3. Case study: Personalization in rehabilitation hospital
individuality, which is also called “one of a kind”, are produced
in a unique production process. Such products are usually very In this section, we illustrate a case study of personalization
expensive, but satisfy detailed needs of customers. On the other in the field of rehabilitation.
hand, products with not so much individuality are produced in
the common production processes, which is called “Mass- 3.1. Background
customization”. It is a common way in the manufacturing
industry to increase product value while reducing production Rehabilitation is a kind of health care done by physical
costs. therapists or operational therapists. Its purpose is to enhance
Personalization for products or services in use is one of the the ability of patients who experienced a serious disease or a
most important categories. It enables to enhance the value of severe accident. In a rehabilitation hospital, product
existing products. This will lead the extending product value personalization is an essential process because health problems
lifetime, which means to increase both consumer satisfaction and symptoms totally differ patients by patients.
and resource efficiency. Easy personalization like writing a The aim of this case study was to analyze how a
name on the products can be done by the user alone, but more personalized nurse call system was designed and used in a
complicated personalization needs expert services and rehabilitation hospital. To this end, we interviewed several
technological assistance. nurses and rehabilitation engineers (RE) involved in the design
of personalized nurse call systems.
2.2.4. Participation The patient of interest here had brain disorder and, therefore,
Personalization needs personal data or requirement. In most has difficulty for both movement and recognition. For this
cases, companies acquire this kind of information by the reason, it was vital for him to call nurses and receive care
participation of the users. It is one way to collect individual data service to spend his everyday life. Without a nurse call system,
with low cost. It was also suggested that personalization has the nurses had to check the patient frequently, but it had been a
effect of strengthening the attachment of the owner to the hard task for them. In addition, it was also problematic when
product [10]. the patient could not call for help where necessary.
However, companies collect the personal data without user
participation in some cases. It is because the users cannot tell 3.2. System overview
or even recognize the information about themselves. Methods
for these cases include an evaluation by an expert, accurate A nurse call system contained two components. One is the
measurement of a user using various sensors and recording interface for the patient to receive the call for a nurse. A nurse
personal logs. call system usually uses a push-button switch on a wall or hand
held. The other is the alarm system to send the message from
2.3. Concept the patient to the nurse. In the case study, it had already been
equipped to the hospital.
From the discussion above, we propose the concept of The developed personalized nurse call system has an Infra-
personalization in Fig. 1. Personalization is an attempt to offer Red (IR) sensor instead of the push-button. It can detect the
different products or services to each individual. Whether a action of raising arm of the patient. It sends a signal to the
product is suitable for an individual is evaluated from existing alarm system to send a message to the nurse.
information on an individual. Because individuals have Figure 2 illustrates how the nurse call system works. When
different characteristics, higher variety is needed to satisfy the patient wants to call a nurse, he raises his arm. The IR
96 Kazuki Kaneko et al. / Procedia CIRP 61 (2017) 93 – 97

Secondly, the target of this case is a mix of product and

2. Evaluate service. In this case there was also a way to solve this problem
7. Explain Patient by changing the service. In fact, nurses previously visited the
patient more frequently to deal with this problem. In this case,
3. Evaluate
1. Order changing product is considered to be superior in that the patient
RE Alerm System can call the nurse when they would like to. Note that since the
7. Explain 4. Design product is composed of electrical parts, it was relatively easy
5. Production
6. Implement to replace.
Nurse This case occurred during the use phase of the nurse call
8. Modify
system. The RE needed to take the existing system into
considering so that he evaluated the alarm system. The existing
IR sensor + shield system worked as a restriction for him, but, from another
viewpoint, the existing solution saved time and costs of the
Fig. 3. Personalization process in the rehabilitation case design and production.
From the perspective of participation, the role of the nurse
sensor detects the action and send a signal to the alarm system. is interesting. She is not the primary user of the nurse call
Then the alarm system in turn sends a message to the nurse. system but still have influence on the product and therefore on
Finally the nurse comes to the patient and respond to his the process of personalization. The important thing is that she
requests. participated in design, though she is not the engineer. It shows
that, in the personalization process, required knowledge and
3.3. Process roles are dispersed among multiple actors. That is why
collaboration among actors is necessary for the personalization.
The actual process of personalization proceeds as follows
(Fig. 3). 4. Conclusion

1. A nurse asked the RE to solve the problem. In this paper, we proposed the concept of personalization as
2. RE evaluated the patient’s physical condition and a design target to increase customers’ satisfaction. We
found that he can raise his arm. discussed its concept and four characteristics of personalization
3. RE evaluated the existing nurse call system to by showing examples. Then we indicated the way to realize a
understand the configuration. personalization by illustrating a case study in a rehabilitation
4. He designed the nurse call system that can be used by hospital.
lifting his arms. In order to present the methods of design and realization of
5. RE modified a commercial IR sensor to detect the personalization, the factors of each characteristic should be
action of the patient and to send a signal to the existing clarified. The next work is to do more advanced analysis of
alert system. requirements for broader fields and modeling the methodology
6. RE replaced the existing push-buttons with the of personalization.
modified IR sensor.
7. RE explained how to use the system to the patient and Acknowledgements
nurses.
8. Because it often sent false alarms, the nurse added The author would like to thank the Mr. Naoki Kusumoto,
shields made of paper to the IR sensor and restricted Ms. Rumi Tsuchiya, and Mr. Naoki Yoshida for accepting our
detection range. interview.

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