• 산업공학
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.56-70
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• 2004

Expanding product variety and high customer service provision place an enormous burden on demand forecasting and the matching of supply with demand in a supply chain. Postponement of product differentiation has been found to be powerful means to improve supply chain performance in the presence of increasing product variety. Delaying the point of product differentiation implies that the process would not commit the work-in-process into a particular finished product until a later point. This paper reviews the recent analytical models that quantify the value of delayed product differentiation. We conclude the literature review by summarizing and synthesizing the economic evaluation of the postponement and outline directions for future research.