IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/ijbmjn/v12y2017i7p115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Postponement Application in the Fast Fashion Supply Chain: A Review

Author

Listed:
  • MdAfzalul Aftab
  • Qin Yuanjian
  • Nadia Kabir

Abstract

The successful implementation of push-pull supply chain management strategy has an important role in improving the competitiveness of an organization. The objective of a push-pull strategy is to minimize the holding of inventory level in finished form and rather produce finished goods from semi-finished inventory only upon receiving final order. One of the vital building blocks of push-pull supply chain strategy is postponement. The main objective of this review paper is to discuss the concept of postponement and its sub-categories such as product postponement and process postponement and their benefits. Then it is investigated how two prominent fast fashion retailers who are also categorized as original brand manufacturers in the apparel value chain apply the two variants of process postponement e.g. process standardization and process re-sequencing in their manufacturing operations to activate push pull supply chain strategy. The push-pull supply chain strategy in turn helps to reduce their order-to-delivery lead time to stores, reduce inventory holding level and minimize both physical costs and market mediation costs. The paper ends with concluding remarks. A framework is developed to illustrate the push-pull supply mechanism. This paper is a useful resource for practitioners in apparel supply chain willing to remove inefficiencies, costs and risks in their operations.

Suggested Citation

  • MdAfzalul Aftab & Qin Yuanjian & Nadia Kabir, 2017. "Postponement Application in the Fast Fashion Supply Chain: A Review," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(7), pages 115-115, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:ijbmjn:v:12:y:2017:i:7:p:115
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijbm/article/download/67065/37387
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ijbm/article/view/67065
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frederick H Abernathy & Anthony Volpe & David Weil, 2006. "The Future of the Apparel and Textile Industries: Prospects and Choices for Public and Private Actors," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(12), pages 2207-2232, December.
    2. Suresh Kotha, 1995. "Mass customization: Implementing the emerging paradigm for competitive advantage," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(S1), pages 21-42.
    3. Hau L. Lee & Christopher S. Tang, 1998. "Variability Reduction Through Operations Reversal," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(2), pages 162-172, February.
    4. Olivier Cattaneo & Gary Gereffi & Cornelia Staritz, 2010. "Global Value Chains in a Postcrisis World : A Development Perspective," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2509, December.
    5. Marshall Fisher & Ananth Raman, 1996. "Reducing the Cost of Demand Uncertainty Through Accurate Response to Early Sales," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 87-99, February.
    6. Hau L. Lee & Corey Billington & Brent Carter, 1993. "Hewlett-Packard Gains Control of Inventory and Service through Design for Localization," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 1-11, August.
    7. Nebahat Tokatli, 2008. "Global sourcing: insights from the global clothing industry—the case of Zara, a fast fashion retailer," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 21-38, January.
    8. Gereffi, Gary & Frederick, Stacey, 2010. "The global apparel value chain, trade and the crisis : challenges and opportunities for developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5281, The World Bank.
    9. Hau L. Lee, 1996. "Effective Inventory and Service Management Through Product and Process Redesign," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 151-159, February.
    10. Sen, Alper, 2008. "The US fashion industry: A supply chain review," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 571-593, August.
    11. Chung Yeh & Yu-Tang Lee, 2016. "Designing Pre-Reaction Production Mechanism for Traditional and Postponed Dyeing in Apparel Supply Chain," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(02), pages 1-20, April.
    12. Hau L. Lee & Christopher S. Tang, 1997. "Modelling the Costs and Benefits of Delayed Product Differentiation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(1), pages 40-53, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Reimann, Marc, 2012. "Accurate response by postponement," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(3), pages 619-628.
    2. Işık Biçer & Florian Lücker & Tamer Boyacı, 2022. "Beyond Retail Stores: Managing Product Proliferation along the Supply Chain," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(3), pages 1135-1156, March.
    3. Christopher S. Tang, 2017. "OM Forum—Three Simple Approaches for Young Scholars to Identify Relevant and Novel Research Topics in Operations Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 338-346, July.
    4. Gilbert, Stephen M. & Cvsa, Viswanath, 2003. "Strategic commitment to price to stimulate downstream innovation in a supply chain," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(3), pages 617-639, November.
    5. Gunasekaran, Angappa & Ngai, Eric W.T., 2009. "Modeling and analysis of build-to-order supply chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 195(2), pages 319-334, June.
    6. Yossi Aviv & Awi Federgruen, 2001. "Design for Postponement: A Comprehensive Characterization of Its Benefits Under Unknown Demand Distributions," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 49(4), pages 578-598, August.
    7. Mila Nambiar & David Simchi‐Levi & He Wang, 2021. "Dynamic Inventory Allocation with Demand Learning for Seasonal Goods," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(3), pages 750-765, March.
    8. Alfaro, José A. & Corbett, Charles J., 2000. "The value of SKU rationalization: the pooling effect under suboptimal inventory policies," DEE - Working Papers. Business Economics. WB 9917, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Departamento de Economía de la Empresa.
    9. Ngniatedema, Thomas & Fono, Louis Aimé & Mbondo, Georges Dieudonné, 2015. "A delayed product customization cost model with supplier delivery performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(1), pages 109-119.
    10. Mabel C. Chou & Geoffrey A. Chua & Huan Zheng, 2014. "On the Performance of Sparse Process Structures in Partial Postponement Production Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(2), pages 348-365, April.
    11. Md Aftab & Qin Yuanjian & Nadia Kabir & Zapan Barua, 2018. "Super Responsive Supply Chain: The Case of Spanish Fast Fashion Retailer Inditex-Zara," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(5), pages 212-212, March.
    12. Daniel Granot & Shuya Yin, 2008. "Price and Order Postponement in a Decentralized Newsvendor Model with Multiplicative and Price-Dependent Demand," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(1), pages 121-139, February.
    13. Tang, Christopher S., 2006. "Perspectives in supply chain risk management," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 451-488, October.
    14. Kyle Cattani & Geraldo Ferrer & Wendell Gilland, 2003. "Simultaneous production of market‐specific and global products: A two‐stage stochastic program with additional demand after recourse," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 438-461, August.
    15. Yossi Aviv & Awi Federgruen, 2001. "Capacitated Multi-Item Inventory Systems with Random and Seasonally Fluctuating Demands: Implications for Postponement Strategies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(4), pages 512-531, April.
    16. Grumiller, Jan & Raza, Werner G. & Staritz, Cornelia & Tröster, Bernhard & von Arnim, Rudi & Grohs, Hannes, 2018. "The economic and social effects of the EU Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) with Tunisia," Research Reports 9/2018, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    17. Zhang, Juliang & Shou, Biying & Chen, Jian, 2013. "Postponed product differentiation with demand information update," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 529-540.
    18. Prema-chandra Athukorala & Raveen Ekanayake, 2014. "Repositioning in the Global Apparel Value Chain in the Post-MFA Era: Strategic Issues and Evidence from Sri Lanka," Departmental Working Papers 2014-17, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    19. Plank, Leonhard & Rossi, Arianna & Staritz, Cornelia, 2012. "Workers and social upgrading in "fast fashion": The case of the apparel industry in Morocco and Romania," Working Papers 33, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    20. Sharda, Bikram & Akiya, Naoko, 2012. "Selecting make-to-stock and postponement policies for different products in a chemical plant: A case study using discrete event simulation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 161-171.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:ijbmjn:v:12:y:2017:i:7:p:115. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.