Incorporating postponement in an offshoring strategy a case study of a Singapore-China cross border manufacturing supply chain

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a case study on incorporating postponement in an offshoring strategy at a Singapore-based manufacturer. Two stock keeping units (SKUs) are identified as being suitable candidates for postponement and several decoupling points along the SKUs´ supply chain are investigated. The results show that while offshoring has been found to offer much larger potential savings, the impact from postponement can still be significant. As manufacturing costs increase in today´s “low-cost countries”, postponement can offer companies a more sustainable source of competitive advantage in the long term.