Postponement, Another Collaboration-Based Tool of Risk Management

Postponement
Postponement predates the SC and SCM paradigm by several decades. The earliest mention appears to be Alderson (1950), followed by Bucklin (1965). Alderson argues that differentiation of goods directly affects cost and risk. Waste is reduced by delaying accretion of inventory until, ideally, the stage preceding customer contact. Upstream, generic goods, unimpeded by complication incurred by change to form, continue to flow. At the customization point, inventory consists of modifiable goods whose demand is known. In this light, postponement resembles the zero waste principle of lean thinking.

According to Bowersox et al (1999), postponement is rarely practiced due to inadequate information sharing. This supports the SCM maxim that utilisation of tools such as leanness, agility, postponement, and QR yield maximal cost benefits only when operated within an ecology of mutuality.