The current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an immense and unforeseen increase in demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers worldwide. Amongst other products, respirator masks are crucial to protect the users against transmission of the virus. Decontamination and reuse of the existing stock could be a solution to the shortage of new respirators. Based upon existing studies, it was found that (I) a solid quality control method is essential to test product reuse, (II) in-depth evaluation of the different parts of the filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) should be considered, and (III) communication of the reuse cycle is essential to take track of the amount of reuse, as this is limited to ensure quality. The goal of this paper is two-fold. First, we identify the impact of decontamination on the different parts of the FFRs and how the quality control should be performed. Two different types of FFRs are analysed within this paper, resulting in the recommendation of combining quantitative respirator mask fit testing with a thorough sensory evaluation of decontaminated FFRs to qualify them for reuse. Secondly, the possibilities of communication of this reuse to the eventual user are mapped through in-depth reasoning.

Mass-Customization (MC) has been considered to answer diversifying customer needs and reshape the consumer product market. However, after about two decades of trials, MC has been largely far from success in practice. One of the major reasons for this is considered to be a lack of user engagement with customized products and the customization process itself. Therefore, this draws the attention from what is provided to the customer to how it is provided. The user involvement in MC is in the form of co-creation and often done through online tools, also known as product configurators. In practice, these product configurators for MC frequently fail in sales conversion. This study investigates the experience for customers throughout the co-creation process in an attempt to shed light on different aspects of this experience and provide a better understanding of all contributing factors.