Burger King’s advertising jingle during the 1970s was, “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce. Special orders don’t upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way!”

In late August, Sarah E. Needleman profiled in the Wall Street Journal that entrepreneurial manufacturers are experiencing a demand for made-to-order goods. In her feature titled, “‘Custom’ is Customary,” Needleman hop-scotches through a variety of businesses from Create-a-mattress.com to Panraven, a 3-year-old customer photo-scrapbooking business.

Along with these customized products and one-at-a-time customer orders comes not only the opportunity for increased profit margin but also the potential for dissatisfied clients if the fulfillment process is lacking or mispicked. Returned materials, and the corrective actions and express shipping that result, can consume all the profit-margin benefits of a customer build-to-order operation.

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