Postponement Revisited – A Typology for Displacement

Abstract

Since its introduction, postponement as a supply chain strategy has received a lot of attention in the operations management and the supply chain management literature. Nevertheless, there are still mixed answers about the meaning of postponement and as such, about its operational benefits. For instance, while some scholars argue that postponement results in a shorter delivery lead time, others claim the contrary. To reconcile these apparently conflicting findings, the purpose of this study is to establish a typology that highlights the three key properties of displacement, which is a collective term for preponement and postponement. By breaking down postponement into the three dimensions of form, place, and time, as well as introducing its antithesis preponement, a typology for displacement is presented and illustrated using a well-known postponement case.