Managing Product Variety Through Postponement: Concept and Applications

Venkatesh, S.; Swaminathan, Jayashankar M.

doi:10.1007/0-387-27275-5_9

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…This in turn depends on two factors engineered in the product structure namely parts commonality and product modularity (Venkatesh & Swaminathan, 2004). Parts commonality is achieved through standardizing some key components that are shared by multiple products in the product line thus making it easier to create semi-finished products that could cater to multiple end products.…”

Section: Product Enablersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Postponement can also be achieved through two types of process changes namely process standardization and process re-sequencing (Venkatesh & Swaminathan, 2004). Process standardization encompasses standardizing process steps related with the different product variants in a product line so that all the product variants in the product line (or a subset of it) pass through the same process step.…”

Section: Process Enablersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, demand for increased product variety within short delivery lead-time reduces the ability of companies to take advantage of scale economies, therefore making component procurement and product manufacturing difficult to be done in a cost-effective manner. All these factors, coupled with increased competition, put a negative impact on profit margins (Venkatesh & Swaminathan, 2004). Additionally, McCutcheon, Raturi, & Meredith, (1994) presented through a case study that a firm may lose market share to competitor if the firm is unable to meet the demand for product variety in a cost-effective manner while its competitor can.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alderson, (1950) pioneered the visionary term postponement and believed is one of the most effective strategic mechanisms to manage the risks associated with product variety and uncertain sales and contributes to improve the efficiency of a marketing system. Lee, Billington, & Carter, (1993), Venkatesh & Swaminathan, (2004) and Yang, Burns, & Backhouse, (2004) stated that by postponing/delaying final processing or manufacturing, the commitment of semi-finished inventories to a differentiated end product in terms of form and identity could be postponed to the latest possible point in time/marketing flow until a customer order containing precise order requirements is received. This solves the problem of risk associated with product variety and sales uncertainty and allows filling demand for product variety through mass customization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Postponement Application in the Fast Fashion Supply Chain: A Review

Aftab¹,

Qin²,

Kabir³

2017

IJBM

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The successful implementation of push-pull supply chain management strategy has an important role in improving the competitiveness of an organization. The objective of a push-pull strategy is to minimize the holding of inventory level in finished form and rather produce finished goods from semi-finished inventory only upon receiving final order. One of the vital building blocks of push-pull supply chain strategy is postponement. The main objective of this review paper is to discuss the concept of postponement and its sub-categories such as product postponement and process postponement and their benefits. Then it is investigated how two prominent fast fashion retailers who are also categorized as original brand manufacturers in the apparel value chain apply the two variants of process postponement e.g. process standardization and process re-sequencing in their manufacturing operations to activate push pull supply chain strategy. The push-pull supply chain strategy in turn helps to reduce their order-to-delivery lead time to stores, reduce inventory holding level and minimize both physical costs and market mediation costs. The paper ends with concluding remarks. A framework is developed to illustrate the push-pull supply mechanism. This paper is a useful resource for practitioners in apparel supply chain willing to remove inefficiencies, costs and risks in their operations.

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Section: Product Enablersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Process Enablersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Postponement Application in the Fast Fashion Supply Chain: A Review

Aftab¹,

Qin²,

Kabir³

2017

IJBM

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show abstract

“…For manufactured products, firms have moved to a build-to-order environment or have adopted postponement (also called delayed differentiation). Venkatesh and Swaminathan (2003) describe successful implementations related to postponement across industries and discuss costs and benefits associated with alternative types of postponement. Swaminathan (2001b) describes examples that illustrate the increase in customization due to the Internet.…”

Section: Customization and Postponementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Models for Supply Chains in E-Business

2003

Self Cite

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S upply chain management is likely to play an important role in the digital economy. In this paper, we first describe major issues in traditional supply chain management. Next, we focus our attention on the supply chain issues of visibility, supplier relationships, distribution and pricing, customization, and real-time decision technologies that have risen to importance with the prevalence of e-business. We present an overview of relevant analytical research models that have been developed in these areas, discuss their contributions, and conclude with a discussion on future modeling opportunities in this area.

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Mass Customization

Parlaktrk¹,

Swaminathan²

2011

Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science

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Mass customization aims to provide individually customized products with near mass production efficiency. We give examples of different types of mass customization. We then discuss the benefits that make mass customization attractive. This includes ability to charge price premiums, stronger relations with customers, better market understanding, and ability to operate without finished‐goods inventories. Mass customization leads to some challenges due to the variability it introduces to a firm's operations. We discuss some enablers of mass customization that can help firms overcome these challenges.

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Managing Product Variety Through Postponement: Concept and Applications

Cited by 15 publications

References 16 publications

Postponement Application in the Fast Fashion Supply Chain: A Review

Postponement Application in the Fast Fashion Supply Chain: A Review

Models for Supply Chains in E-Business

Mass Customization

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