Postponement: an inter-organizational perspective

Abstract

Abstract\n In view of the slow rate of postponement applications, this paper attempts to examine postponement strategies from an inter-organisational perspective. The paper first reviews the literature on different postponement strategies (including logistics postponement, production postponement, purchasing postponement and product development postponement) mainly within the context of supply chain or supply network. Then, two research questions are formulated. This is followed by the investigation into the intra-organisational structure and capacity planning in postponement applications. The paper concludes with some suggestions for further research.