Lilly Ann went to the pet store with her mother to buy a gerbil. After choosing her gerbil, she and her mother went to look at cages and found that one of the brands makes several self-contained cage pieces that can be combined or interchanged by snapping them together. Lilly Ann chose a sleep component with a built-in hut, a play component with a built-in wheel, a food component with a built-in food dish and water bottle, and several tubes to connect all the components together. This type of cage is an example of

a) standardization.

b) customization.

c) mass customization.

d) mass production.

e) modular design.

The answer is "b" - Customization

Explanation:

Product Customization is a process of delivering customized goods and services to the customers as per their needs and desire. Customers can either approach a merchant to make certain customizations in a product or personalize the products themselves, exactly the way they want.

It is also known as product personalisation. This is evident in the given situation, as Lilly Ann can customize the cage according to her own preferences.

Standardization

Product standardization refers to the process of maintaining uniformity and consistency among the different iterations of a particular good or service that are available in different markets. It is a process of marketing a good or service without making any changes to itStandardization would be correct, if they brand offers the cage without any changes.

Mass customization:

Mass customization is a marketing and manufacturing technique which combines the flexibility and personalization of custom-made products with the low unit costs associated with mass production. Other names for mass customization include made-to-order or built-to-order.

Mass production:

Mass production is the manufacturing of large quantities of standardized products, often using assembly lines or automation technology. Mass production facilitates the efficient production of a large number of similar products.

Modular design:

Modular design is a design approach that creates things out of independent parts with standard interfaces. This allows designs to be customized, upgraded, repaired and for parts to be reused.

Acapitalist economy is when all goods are owned by the government or private industries.