A characterization of performance measures for measuring postponement strategies: case studies in food companies

Abstract

The postponement strategy is more and more used by companies with the increasing complexity and variety of products, currently required by the market. In essence, the postponement is used to delay as much as possible the final configuration and/or movement of products and services, until the demand known. Despite the increasing attention to the subject, little is known about is implementation, especially in the Brazilian food industry. This research aims to investigate how the postponement strategy is applied to food companies and what performance measures that can be used to evaluate the results of this application. To meet these goals were developed six exploratory case studies in orange juice and fruits processing companies. The results allow comparing the performance measures found in the literature with those obtained in empirical research and systematize them in order to obtain a list of performance measures for measuring postponement strategies.

Keywords

• Medidas de desempenho. Postergação. Postponement. Indústria de alimentos.