Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the analytical models for evaluating the
postponement alternatives. The chapter introduces the three key postponement enablers …

Web-based group-buying mechanisms are being widely used for both business-to-business
(B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions. We survey currently operational online …

This article presents a comparative analysis of possible postponement strategies in a two-
stage decision model where firms make three decisions: capacity investment, production …

In a game-theoretic model of mass customization, we integrate consumers into a
manufacturer's production process and define the degree of company-customer interaction …

The value of delayed differentiation (also known as postponement) for a monopolist has
been extensively studied in the operations literature. We analyze the case of (imperfectly) …

We analyze the effect of price and order postponement in a decentralized newsvendor
model with multiplicative and price-dependent demand, wherein the manufacturer sets the …

Facilitated by a Collective Customer Collaboration (C3) system, the impact of customer
knowledge and demand information on supply-chain performance is examined. The basic …

This paper considers two independent firms that invest in resources such as capacity or
inventory based on imperfect market forecasts. As time progresses and new information …

Postponement—delaying the point of product differentiation in a production process—has
been found to be an effective strategy in face of increasing product variety. One value of …

Production postponement, the strategy to hold reserved production capacity that can be
deployed based on actual demand signals, is often used to mitigate supply-demand …