Postponement and the Reconfiguration Challenge for Food Supply Chain: Case Report

Ans. Food industry contributes 16% of total manufacturing sector contribution in India. Indian customers are also becoming demanding in terms of customization of food products. For example, urban consumers would prefer bigger quantity pack and rural consumers would prefer smaller quantity pack of the same food products. Quality requirement of food products also varies with different customer group. Hence postponement in the food supply chain is very much relevant in Indian context but at the same time postponement in food supply chain is difficult, mainly because of the low value and perishable nature of the products.What is the relevance of food supply-chains to the Indian context?

Ans. Food industry contributes 16% of total manufacturing sector contribution in India. Indian customers are also becoming demanding in terms of customization of food products. For example, urban consumers would prefer bigger quantity pack and rural consumers would prefer smaller quantity pack of the same food products. Quality requirement of food products also varies with different customer group. Hence postponement in the food supply chain is very much relevant in Indian context but at the same time postponement in food supply chain is difficult, mainly because of the low value and perishable nature of the products.

Q2. What are the forms of postponement? Give examples?

Ans. Postponements can be subdivided into 3 generic types:

Form postponement. e.g. Asian paints. Final color mixing of paint is done at dealers’ end

Time postponement. e.g. Fitting of car accessories at dealers end as per customers’ request

Place postponements. e.g. Centralized warehouse

Q3. Explain the impact of outsourcing and spatial layout of supply-chains on postponement.

Ans. Impact of outsourcing on postponement: Time postponement means delaying the forward movement of goods until customers’ orders are achieved and this can be achieved by repositioning of inventories, outsourcing of logistics activities and outsourcing of some final manufacturing activities to third party. This postponement helps in achieving more customization but it requires very good supplier relationship and strict quality control measures for the outsourced activities.

Impact of spatial lay out on postponement: Place postponement refers to the positioning of inventories upstream in centralized manufacturing or distribution operations, to postpone the forward or downstream movement of goods. Positioning of inventories, repositioning of final