PROUD OF THEIR SIGN: Jim Stoneham, Sarah Harrison and Jeff Wilson post before their County Road 124 sign north of Horning's Mills. Photo/WES KELLER A resident of Mulmur's River Road who has been quietly carrying on a successful bracelet stamping operation north of Shelburne, and who has designed a computerized system of "custom mass production" of cabinets, has now teamed with a former hands-on cabinet maker and production superintendent to form Guild Interiors.

Jeff Wilson, who still has Verso Design Limited in partnership with his wife, Sarah Harrison, says custom mass production might be viewed as revolutionary - but it really isn't, he says.

All one needs do is research Dell Computers, to find a glaring example. You can order a basic Dell laptop online for about $600, or you can customize it by choosing any number of options. Dell is Mr. Wilson's favourite example of the system he's applying to custom interiors.

But it's not the only example.

He said there's a company in Germany that's custom building shoes using the same principles. You get measured for your shoes, and then either match up something from the rack or have the shoes made to the specifications.

"In the old days, people would go to the cobbler, have their feet traced (for the proper fit), and the cobbler would custom-make the shoes." With mass production, he says, those days ended. "People couldn't afford to pay the price (after the advent of mass production)."

Henry Ford, he said, started the concept of production lines. "You could have any colour you wanted, as long as it was black." Instead of "mass production," per se, Mr. Wilson refers to his innovative approach as "mass customization."

Guild Interiors borrows from Ford and from Dell, as well as from others at international seminars on the topic to enable it to mass produce while customizing such things as kitchen cabinets to suit specific needs.

By combining all the principles and taking advantage of computerization, Mr. Wilson says, Guild can match any market price and you're getting precisely what you want or need.

Size, for example, doesn't matter in this instance. You have an odd-sized corner where you'd like to place a cabinet? The computer and the advanced machinery (AutoCam) at Guild would deliver a perfect fit.

Mr. Wilson didn't just dream up his new approach. He trained for it with a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design, followed by an MBA in the discipline at the University of Toronto. As well, several of his relatives are computer specialists, so he says he has plenty of resources to call on.

Ms. Harrison also has a degree in Industrial Design.

Mr. Wilson, with the help of his computer-specialist cousin, designed a fail-safe system for stamping vital information on MedicAlert bracelets 15 years ago. Then, he says, his cousin recommended reading "Agile Product Development for Mass Customization."

From that, he decided that the principles he'd applied to bracelet stamping could be applied to designing and building custom interiors. More than one furniture manufacturer told him he should be expanding his existing business instead of branching out into what they considered to be an unproven venture.

He said he has proven them wrong. He sees mass produced furnishings coming in from China and elsewhere, and doesn't think Canadian manufacturers can compete by conventional means.

With mass customization, he says, he can be price competitive as well as tailor making the product.

"If [Canadian] manufacturing is to survive, mass customization is how it will survive," he said.