Customize to compete: when digital competences and design are the keys to success. Ares Line business case

Abstract

Today's saturated market has reached levels close to the so-called pure customization, where high-quality and excellent details are the most considered features to make each good different from the others. In this dissertation, the main topic is about the ability of a company to sustain the production of customized products through specific and variable production techniques without taking any loss. The latest opportunity supporting this new demand trend is the digital manufacturing system which has reshaped the business strategy, where design along with innovation became vital tools to stand out in the market. The case history analyses a leading company in the office and community chair sector: Ares Line Spa. To reach customers’ satisfaction, Ares Line relies on its values which are quality in terms of prestigious design, sophisticated materials, excellent ergonomics and liveable environments. To achieve all these goals, the company combines a long culture of traditional craftsmanship with the latest technology, a symbiosis that allows growth based on the synchrony between experience and innovation. Ares Line has developed a strategy based on the optimization of production times by using digital technologies, gaining all the advantages as reducing waste and improving the time-to-customer responsiveness, eliminating any possible interpretation errors that can be corrected in real time in the digital file, increasing the best fitting through a flexible production. In addition, Ares Line keeps its skilled craftspeople who add the rare and unique know-how regarding materials processing techniques, handmade finishing and high-quality customization of the product as an added value coming from the Made in Italy tradition. The highest level of customization is reached in the contract business through which Ares Line competes worldwide. The company is part of the Contract Design Network that aims to promote and improve the development of joint projects in order to create products and whole services by integrating different knowledge and being able to meet more articulate demands. Prototyping is essential to provide reliable tools for marketing activities by reducing the ambiguities due to a clear and realistic rendering for a transparent and direct communication: through customized presentations the company pushes towards a high interaction with the customers directly involving them.