Case studies of postponement in the supply chain

The thesis addresses the growing trend in business to offer a wide variety of products while maintaining customer order fulfillment expectations. This trend is happening at the same time the US is losing manufacturing jobs to overseas labor markets, namely China, India, and Central America. While it may not be possible for the US to compete with these countries on the basis of labor costs or even quality in manufacturing, it can compete in the area of faster delivery times and product-service interaction which must inherently take place onshore. Postponement is a strategy that allows businesses to take advantage of the offshore capacity and labor for manufacturing in addition to local finishing centers for final assembly, packaging, and distribution. Postponement is widely used in the automotive, apparel, and consumer electronics industries. Many companies produce products that are candidates for postponement but are unlikely to undergo the implementation changes necessary to support it. This thesis highlights some of the leading companies who are pioneers of postponement and includes case studies of additional companies who have followed their lead.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Rietze, Susan M. (Susan Marie)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Yossi Sheffi.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34601

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34601