Postponed manufacturing supplementary to transportation services?

This paper empirically assesses the economic size (in terms of full time equivalent employees (FTEs)) of postponed manufacturing applications and related activities. Based on a survey among 782 companies, the differences in size and scope of applications between manufacturers, wholesalers and logistics service providers are assessed. Currently, relatively simple postponement applications are practiced in wholesale and logistics services as supplementary services. More complex, high value adding manufacturing activities are still the primary domain of manufacturers and these are not often outsourced to logistics service providers. Based on future expectations of respondents this need not stay this way.