Product customization aims to consider individual customers preferences in the design of new products, in order to directly involve them in the product development process and to maximize their satisfaction. It can be considered a key competitive factor and a “hot topic” in several industrial sectors, including luxury apparel goods and high-end footwear products. However, currently the design and manufacturing of customized shoes are carried out through artisanal and non-standardized processes, based on the individual expertise of operators.The objective of this study is to define an innovative framework to support the different processes affected by customization. This framework is enabled by different digital technologies, as CAD-based tools, virtual/augmented reality systems, etc., opportunely integrated in the product development process. The main benefits related to the framework implementation in real industrial contexts are an increase of flexibility, the repeatability of processes, a higher efficiency in information exchange, a more effective involvement of final customers, and, as a consequence, the reduction of time to market and production costs for tailor-made shoes.
The implementation of symbiosis approaches is recognized as an effective industrial strategy towards the optimization of resource exploitation and the improvement of collaboration in the context of Industry 4.0. An industrial system can be considered as a complex environment in which material, energy, machine, and human resources should cooperate towards the improvement of efficiency and the creation of value. According to this vision, the paper presents a detailed literature review about the existing symbiosis approaches: (i) industrial symbiosis models, which mainly aim at the sharing of resources among different companies, and (ii) human symbiosis, which focuses on how to effectively strengthen the synergy among humans and machines. Strengths, weaknesses and correlations among the most common symbiosis approaches are analysed and classified. Finally, the existing symbiosis models are related with the pillars of the Industry 4.0 paradigm, in order to understand what should be the future directions of research in the context of collaborative manufacturing.
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