Individualizing Mass Production

Seems a powerful idea,   The data is all there, so to what degree and for what products can this be applied and scaled for manufacturing production?   Proposed details at the link.

Mass production of individualized products
Fraunhofer Research News / June 02, 2020

How can mass production methods be applied to individualized products? One answer is to use a combination of digital manufacturing technologies, for example by integrating digital printing and laser processing into traditional manufacturing processes. This paves the way for in-line product customization. Six Fraunhofer institutes have pooled their expertise to take the new process to the next level.

The term mass production generally suggests large numbers of identical products rolling off an assembly line. However, the latest trends call for individualized products. The automotive industry is one example for this trend: Volkswagen, for example, produces only one or two identical Golf models a year. Yet this drive toward individualization is also pushing mass production techniques to their limits. The Fraunhofer Lighthouse Project Go Beyond 4.0 aims to meet this challenge by enabling the mass production of individualized products. It is a collaboration between four different Fraunhofer Groups and six Fraunhofer Institutes: the Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems ENAS, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC and the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU. The project is managed by Fraunhofer ENAS in Chemnitz.  ... "