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.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.