Management of uncertainty through postponement. (English) Zbl 1175.90243
Summary: It has long been recognized that one of the most important tasks for any organization to cope with is uncertainties. However, uncertainty in the business environment has still been the main cause of failure in industry. The paper investigates the role of postponement in the management of uncertainty. The concept of postponement is developed to include product development postponement, purchasing postponement, production postponement and logistics postponement. These postponement strategies are all presented to cope with different levels of uncertainty. Finally, conclusions are drawn and some remarks about further research are made.
MSC:
| 90B50 | Management decision making, including multiple objectives |
References:
| [1] | ALDERSON, W., 1950, Marketing efficiency and the principle of postponement.Cost and Profit Outlook,3,15–18. |
| [2] | ALDRICH, H. E., 1979,Organizations and Environments Process(Englewood Cliffs: Prentice- Hall). |
| [3] | ANONYMOUS, 2000, Service please.Business Week, 23 October. |
| [4] | BALDWIN, C. Y. and Clark, K. B., 1997, Managing in an age modularity.Harvard Business Review, 75, 84–93. |
| [5] | BOWERSOX, D. J. and CLOSS, D. J., 1996, Logistical Management: The Integrated Supply Chains Process (New York: McGraw-Hill). |
| [6] | BROWN, A. O., LEE, H. L. and Petrakian, R., 2000, Xilinx improves its semiconductor supply chain using product and process postponement.Interfaces, 30, 65–80. · doi:10.1287/inte.30.4.65.11650 |
| [7] | BROWN, S. L. and EISENHARDT, K. M., 1995, Product development: past research, present findings, and future directions.Academy of Management Review,20, 343–378. |
| [8] | BURNS, T. and STALKER, G. M., 1961,The Management of Innovation(London: Tavistock). |
| [9] | CHRISTOPHER, M., 1998, Logistics and Supply Chain Management (London: Financial Times Pitman). |
| [10] | CHRISTOPHER, M., 2000, The agile supply chain: competing in volatile markets.Industrial Marketing Management,29, 37–44. · doi:10.1016/S0019-8501(99)00110-8 |
| [11] | COOPER, R. G., 1990, Stage-gate system: a new tool for managing new products.Business Horizons,33, 44–54. · doi:10.1016/0007-6813(90)90040-I |
| [12] | COREY, E. R., 1978, The Organizational Context of Industrial Buying Behaviour (Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute). |
| [13] | COURTNEY, H., KIRKLAND, J. and VIGUERIE, P., 1997, Strategy under uncertainty.Harvard Business Review,75, 67–79. |
| [14] | DAFT, R., 2000,Organisation Theory and Design(Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing). |
| [15] | DAVIS, S., 1987,Future Perfect(Reading, MA: Addison Wesley). |
| [16] | DAVIS, T., 1993, Effective supply chain management.Sloan Management Review,34, 35–46. |
| [17] | DUNCAN, R. B., 1972, Characteristics of organizational environments and perceived environmental uncertainty.Administrative Science Quarterly,17, 313–327. · doi:10.2307/2392145 |
| [18] | FEITZINGER, E. and LEE, H. L., 1997, Mass customization at Hewlett-Packard: the power of postponement.Harvard Business Review,75, 116–121. |
| [19] | FISHER, M. L., 1997, What is the right supply chain for your product?Harvard Business Review,75, 105–116. |
| [20] | GALBRAITH, J., 1973,Designing Complex Organisations(Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley). |
| [21] | GATTORNA, J. L. and WALTERS, D. W., 1996, Managing the Supply Chain – A Strategic Perspective (London: Macmillan). |
| [22] | GERWIN, D., 1993, Manufacturing flexibility: a strategic perspective.Management Science,39, 395–410. · doi:10.1287/mnsc.39.4.395 |
| [23] | HAUSER, J. R. and CLAUSING, D., 1988, The house of quality.Harvard Business Review, 66, 63–73. |
| [24] | HERSCH, W. S., 1998, Does advantage go to channel distributors?Computer Reseller News,12 October, 139–140. |
| [25] | HESKETT, J. L. and SIGNORELLI, S. (1985), Benetton,Harvard Business Review, case No. 9–685–020. |
| [26] | HOWE, V., MATHIEU, R. G. and PARKER, J., 2000, Supporting new product development with the Internet.Industrial Management and Data Systems,100, 277–284. · doi:10.1108/02635570010301197 |
| [27] | JAUCH, L. R. and KRAFT, K. L., 1986, Strategic management of uncertainty.Academy of Management Review,11, 777–790. |
| [28] | LAWRENCE, P. R. and LORSCH, J. W., 1967,Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration(Boston, MA: Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration). |
| [29] | LEE, H. L., 1998, Postponement for mass customization: satisfying customer demands for tailor-made products. In J. Gattorna (ed.),Strategic Supply Chain Alignment(Aldershot: Gower), pp. 77–91. |
| [30] | LEE, H. L., BILLINGTON, C. and CARTER, B., 1993, Hewlett-Packard gains control of inventory and services through design for localization.Interfaces,23, 1–11. · doi:10.1287/inte.23.4.1 |
| [31] | LEE, H. L. and WHANG, S., 2001, Winning the last mile of e-commerce.MIT Sloan Management Review,Summer, 54–62. |
| [32] | MASON-JONES, R. and TOWILL, D. R., 1998, Shrinking the supply chain uncertainty circle.Control,September, 17–22. |
| [33] | MILLER, D. and DROGE, C., 1986, Psychological and traditional determinants of structure.Administrative Science Quarterly,31, 539–560. · doi:10.2307/2392963 |
| [34] | MILLIKEN, F. J., 1987, Three types of perceived uncertainty about the environment: state, effect and response uncertainty.Academy of Management Review,12, 133–143. |
| [35] | PYKE, D. F., JOHNSON, M. E. and DESMOND, P., 2001, eFulfillment – it’s harder than it looks.Supply Chain Management Review,5, 26–32. |
| [36] | ROSAS-VEGA, R. and VOKURKA, R. J., 2000, New product introduction delays in the computer industry.Industrial Management and Data Systems,100, 157–163. · doi:10.1108/02635570010291775 |
| [37] | SMALL, A. W. and DOWNEY, A. E., 1996, Orchestrating multiple changes: a framework for managing concurrent changes of varied type and scope.Proceedings of the IEMC 1996 Conference on Managing Virtual Enterprise,Canada, pp. 627–634. |
| [38] | SWAMIDASS, P. M. and NEWELL, W. T., 1987, Manufacturing strategy, environmental uncertainty and performance: a path analytic model.Management Science,33, 509–524. · doi:10.1287/mnsc.33.4.509 |
| [39] | TAKEUCHI, H. and NONAKA, I., 1986, The new product development game.Harvard Business Review,64, 137–146. |
| [40] | THOMKE, S. and REINERTSEN, D., 1998, Agile product development: managing development flexibility in uncertain environments.California Management Review, 41, 8–30. · doi:10.2307/41165973 |
| [41] | THOMPSON, J. D., 1967,Organisations in Action(New York: McGraw-Hill). |
| [42] | TUCKER, D. and JONES, L., 2000, Leveraging the power of the Internet for optimal supplier sourcing.International Journal of Physics Distribution and Logistics Management,30, 255–267. · doi:10.1108/09600030010326000 |
| [43] | TWEDE, D. T., CLARKE, R. H. and TAILT, J. A., 2000, Packaging postponement: a global packaging strategy.Packaging Technology and Science,13, 105–115. · doi:10.1002/1099-1522(200005)13:3<105::AID-PTS503>3.0.CO;2-9 |
| [44] | UPTON, D. M., 1994, The management of manufacturing flexibility.California Management Review,36, 72–89. · doi:10.2307/41165745 |
| [45] | VAN HOEK, R. I. and VAN DIERDONCK, R., 2000, Postponed manufacturing supplementary to transportation services.Transportation Research – Part E,36, 209–217. · doi:10.1016/S1366-5545(99)00028-9 |
| [46] | WARD, A., LIKER, J. K., CRISTIANO, J. J. and SOBECK, D. K., 1995, The second Toyota paradox.Sloan Management Review,36, 43–61. |
| [47] | WILDING, R., 1998, The supply chain complexity triangle: uncertainty generation in the supply chain.International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management,28, 519–616. · doi:10.1108/09600039810247524 |
| [48] | YANG, B. and BURNS, N. D., 2002, Postponement in new product introduction. Proceedings of the 10th International Manufacturing Conference in China, Xiamen, P. R. China. |
This reference list is based on information provided by the publisher or from digital mathematics libraries. Its items are heuristically matched to zbMATH identifiers and may contain data conversion errors. In some cases that data have been complemented/enhanced by data from zbMATH Open. This attempts to reflect the references listed in the original paper as accurately as possible without claiming completeness or a perfect matching.
