Postponement and supply chain structure: cases from the textile and apparel industry

George Hodge

58 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Fashion Marketing and Management

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Supply Chain and Inventory Management Quality and Supply Management Product Development and Customization

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the applications of postponement strategy in the textile and apparel industry, with a particular focus on the supply chain structure, relationships and enabling activities supporting postponement strategy across the supply chain. Design/methodology/approach For this research, a case study approach, supported by structured interviews, was adopted. The purpose was to explore the application of postponement with the objective of gathering considerable data from an organization or multiple organizations to develop the clearest possible picture of the phenomenon. Findings The nature of product, downstream demand and the supply chain structure impacts the choice of postponement strategy. Companies operating with manufacturing and logistics postponement share data across their supply chain extensively, while companies adopting purchasing postponement work towards enhancing suppliers’ capabilities and fostering relationships across their supply chains. Research limitations/implications The case study method limitations include lack of rigor and statistical generalization, small sample size and convenience sampling and lack of establishment of causal relationship. However a thorough study design and process can make case‐based research more rigorous and reliable, but caution still needs to be exercised while applying findings on differing scenarios. Originality/value The case studies depict the application of postponement and the enabling supply chain structures. Previous studies have either looked on the organizational perspective or supply chain perspective with regards to the power and dependence attributes. These cases look at the interaction routines and structures among the supply chains.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 58 citations exist upstream.

References

2004Case Study Research 2002Case research in operations management 1993Conducting case study research in operations management 2004Lean or agile: A solution for supply chain management in the textiles and clothing industry?2003Strategic positioning of the order penetration point 1998Supply Chain Postponement and Speculation Strategies: How to choose the right strategy 2005Designing supply chains: Towards theory development 2005Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management

Cited by

2018Impacts of lead time reduction on fabric sourcing in apparel production with yield and environmental considerations 2015Logistics performance management in textiles supply chains: best-practice and barriers 2020Postponement Strategies for Global Downstream Supply Chains: A Conceptual Framework 2019A Historical Review of Postponement Research 2022The moderating role of supplier relationship on the effect of postponement on supply chain resilience under different levels of environmental uncertainty

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.