ARTICLE TITLE

Garg, Amit, Tang, Christopher S., "On postponement strategies for product families with multiple points of differentiation", IIE Transactions, Vol. 29, No. 8, Aug 1997, pp. 641-650.

 

ABSTRACT

Several researchers have studied the benefits of product and process design that calls for delaying the differentiation of products. Previous research has focused on products having only one point of differentiation. However, in reality most product families have several points of differentiation. Two models are developed to study products with more than one point of differentiation. In each model, the benefits of delayed differentiation at each of these points are examined, and the necessary conditions are derived when one type of delayed differentiation is more beneficial than the other. The analysis indicates that demand variabilities, correlations and the relative magnitudes of the lead times play an important role in determining which point of differentiation should be delayed.