Postponement and Supply Chain Structure

The purpose of this research was to develop a decision support model for aligning supply chain strategies with regards to postponement applications in the US textile and apparel industry. A case study based approach was used for this research to understand the impact of interaction among supply chain partners upon the adoption of postponement strategies. Leading organizations in the NAICS code of 424320 and 424330 (men's/boys' and women's/child clothing and accessory merchant wholesalers) in North Carolina were approached to study their supply chain practices. Four case studies, using structured interviews, were developed for this research.;It was found that different types of postponement strategies were adopted in the industry. Lack of informational linkage was cited as the biggest barrier towards the adoption of a postponement strategy. The research found that commodity type products are supported by adopting manufacturing and logistics postponement strategies in combination which require the value chain to have access to the latest sales data and trends. Products which have new design elements in addition to some elements being repeated from a prior season are better managed with manufacturing postponement requiring information and data sharing across the value chain. In such kinds of products access to sales data would not add much unless the value chain partners operate at a higher level of relationship and integration with shared designing and operational responsibilities. For products which are highly seasonal and have a short life cycle are better supported by adopting purchasing postponement strategy requiring relational linkage among the partners.