Using Assembly Postponement

Assembly postponement refers to maintaining a product in a given state for as long as possible and customizing it after demand is realized. Thus, a set of products is replaced by a common platform product that is manufactured and customized only after demand is realized. Such an approach is also called design for logistics. This approach involves designing the product to reduce supply chain costs. 

Consider the impact of redesign of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) DeskJet printer sold in Europe ([39],[79]). Before the project started, HP produced a separate model for each market in Europe and sent the manufactured product to its warehouse in Amsterdam for distribution to the retail 

But this change required that the designs maintain the product performance and reliability as well as result in reliable operation of the warehouse, whose new role included both light manufacturing as well as 

There are many other examples of assembly postponement. The salad bar at a restaurant is a classic example of making the customer assemble their desired salad on demand. Hardware stores claim to carry over 30,000 colors of paint. But in most cases they carry only a small number of primary colors and additives and create the color on demand with the aid of software. Such assembly postponement permits lowering of supply chain costs while maintaining customer choice. 

an important question for an existing supply chain is Can assembly postponement, through product design changes, enable supply chain improvement  

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DFT could prove useful in extensions to the supply chain. Our conclusion is that DFT techniques must move back into the supply chain to have the greatest impact. Dealing with final assembly, particularly in a complex supply chain, is the "tip of the iceberg." The roots extend backward into the supply base. This also includes design for commonality to maximize the potential for postponement. 

One strategy that is increasingly being adopted is the idea of postponement discussed earlier in this book. Postponement, or delayed configuration, is based on the principle of seeking to design products using common platforms, components or modules but where the final assembly or customisation does not take place until the final market destination and/or customer requirement is known. 

The HP s narrative on postponement is well-known to many. They used the notion of core plus peripherals , which is a variation of modular design. HP built a core printer with a large number of common modules that did not vary with customers. They also created peripheral components, each with specific functionality, that could be assembled to the core at the distribution centers or at customer sites. This allowed HP to postpone customization of printers for its European customers, who needed multiple language support. Lucent Technology used the same principle for successfully bidding on a Saudi contract. By building the core in advance of the order, they could satisfy a stringent delivery time constraint in the Saudi contract (Hoyt et al. 2007 Chakravarty 2010). 

Modular designs offer less WIP and a considerably downsized process for the assembler, and greater variety for the customer. Downsizing of the assembly process means that it is shorter, and can be positioned closer to customer demand. Complexity can then be added later in the pipeline between customer order and delivery of the specified car into the customer s hands - a concept called postponed variety. The term synchro supply has been used to describe the delivery of modules not just at the correct quality and correct time, but on a real-time basis with the assembler and with the added challenge of zero safety stock. 

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