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The customer order decoupling point (CODP) is the point in the supply chain where the product is linked to a customer order and is, by definition, the last stock point along the supply chain. The CODP decouples the upstream operations that are made to stock from the downstream operations that are triggered by customer orders. We employed a systematic literature review of the empirical research on the CODP in operations and supply chain management (OSCM). We identified 40 articles that explicitly contributed with empirical results concerning factors and characteristics for the operations upstream versus downstream of the CODP, or between make-to-stock (MTS) and make-to-order (MTO) operations. The 32 factors that were identified were grouped into four main categories: market and product factors, operations factors, supply chain factors, and performance measures. Based on the content analysis, we propose a framework that provides a holistic view on the CODP. The distinctive differences between MTS and MTO characteristics strongly suggest that there are two configurations: one for the upstream MTS-type operations and another for the downstream MTO-type operations. We discuss implications for research and practice and provide suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In sequential auctions, all the sub-orders from a buyer need to be sorted and consolidated within a short time window for shipping. Buyer demands and sub-order arrival times are uncertain. The current auction order fulfillment is facing several challenges. Based on a re-engineered Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT)-enabled automation system, this paper introduces an order batching approach with forecasting and postponement. Such an approach generates batches considering time interval and buyer completion rate to minimise the total processing time of the auction orders and system response time. The buyer completion rate refers to the ratio of current cumulative and predicted purchase quantity. We use the forecasting method proposed by Kong et al. (2021) to estimate the purchasing quantity. Through a series of computational experiments using real-life data, the proposed order batching method achieves a shorter order processing time and system response time. Results show that the number of auction buyers poses no effect on the performance of the proposed approach. Key parameters of order postponement rule influence on performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elective surgeries were postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic to alleviate healthcare strains, affecting majority of elective orthopaedic surgeries such as total knee arthroplasties (TKAs). The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact on knee function and quality of life of patients who had their planned TKA postponed due to the pandemic. This is a retrospective analysis of data collected in a tertiary hospital. Patients included were diagnosed with primary knee osteoarthritis and they were initially scheduled for primary TKA between January to April 2020 but surgery was postponed by at least 6 months from the initial operative date. 160 patients were included in this study (53 males and 107 females, mean age 68.0 ± 8.1). Patients were assessed prior to initial surgery date and assessed again, prior to the postponed surgery date. Clinical scores included Knee Society Function Score (KSFS), Knee Society Knee Score (KSKS), Oxford Knee scores (OKS) and Short-Form 36 Physical and Mental Component Scores. (SF36 PCS and MCS). Paired T-test was performed for parametric data whereas Wilcoxon signed-rank analysis was performed for non-parametric data. Comparing initial preoperative versus postponement preoperative scores, the cohort had significantly poorer KSKS (38.4 ± 15.4 and 36.5 ± 15.4, p = 0.034), SF36 PCS (34.3 ± 9.2 and 32.7 ± 8.6, p = 0.02) and OKS (34.9 ± 0.77 and 35.8 ± 8.6, p = 0.02) scores respectively. The postponement of elective TKAs has resulted in a significant deterioration of knee scores and physical quality of live scores of patients in a short span of 6 months. Further studies can evaluate if there are repercussions on long term TKAs outcomes. Retrospective study, Level III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased gender equality in the labor market and the home are both cited as stabilizers to income inequality between households, but shifts in the economic organization of families over the life course instead appear to amplify household income inequality. Using the case of Sweden, where men have taken longer parental leave in recent years and the age at parenthood continues to advance, we analyze between‐family income inequality for couples with a young child. Based on income data from population registers, we decompose how changes in family dynamics, pre‐ and postparenthood, contributed to income inequality in families with children between the years 1995 and 2018. Analyses show no evidence that assortative mating has increased and that a minor decline in inequality between couples over this 24‐year period resulted from two opposing trends: Dis‐equalizing changes related to women's postbirth income advancements were eclipsed by equalizing changes related to the postponement of parenthood. Postbirth income trends reveal how between‐family inequality increased through women's income development and decreased through men's. Our findings confirm the importance of family processes to household inequality and show the complex effects of both changes in the timing of parenthood and improved gender equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coalition policymaking concerns not only who decides what in which jurisdiction but also when, how speedy and in what rhythm. Due to the limited time budget and shadow of future elections, parties in charge of respective ministerial portfolios have to strategically organize their policy agendas to trade off between policy and electoral incentives in the face of coalition partners who monitor and control ministerial autonomy. However, despite the burgeoning literature on coalition governance, the temporal dimension of ministerial agenda control is less well understood. I advance this research by proposing a model to directly account for the influence of time budgets on timing decisions of ministers in policy initiation. In this model, I distinguish between different timing strategies of policy initiation a ministerial party may possibly adopt and identify in equilibrium a conditional postponing strategy by which ministers facing high scrutiny of coalition partners will postpone bill initiation till the end of the term. The empirical examination lends support to my argument and further demonstrates that the timing strategy of ministers can also be influenced by coalition conflict and policy saliency of bills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem definition: In a multistage model of a bilateral supply chain, we study two postponement strategies that the downstream retailer may adopt to mitigate the supply yield risk originating from the upstream production process. The retailer could either postpone the procurement payment until after the yield is realized and pay only for the delivered amount; postpone the pricing decision to better utilize the available supply; or do both. Although both strategies have been separately studied in literature, there is little research on their combined effect and system-wide implications in a decentralized setting. Methodology/results: Taking a game-theoretic approach, we formulate a Stackelberg game and solve for the equilibrium in four scenarios, respectively, in which the retailer uses different combinations of the postponement strategies. There are three main findings. First, when the production cost is low and the yield loss is highly likely, the retailer never strictly benefits from either postponement strategy; with relatively high production cost, the retailer is more likely to adopt payment, rather than pricing, postponement. Second, we uncover a situation where postponing payment and postponing pricing are strategic complements for the retailer. That is, the use of one strategy may increase the benefit of using the other. Third, we identify conditions under which the postponement strategies can be Pareto optimal to the entire supply chain, making the firms' profits and the consumer surplus simultaneously higher. Managerial implications: These results can be applied in many practical settings to provide guidance for firms to better design the procurement contract and properly use marketing instrument (pricing) to effectively mitigate supply risk and increase profit. Funding: G. Xiao acknowledges financial support from the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong [General Research Fund Grant PolyU 15503920]. X. Guo acknowledges the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 72293564/72293560]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0198. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a new two-stage stochastic programming decision model for assessing how to introduce some new manufacturing technology into any generic supply and distribution chain. It additionally determines the optimal degree of postponement, as represented by the so-called customer order decoupling point (CODP), while assuming uncertainty in demand for multiple products. To this end, we propose here the formulation of a generic supply chain through an oriented graph that represents all the deployable alternative technologies, which are defined through a set of operations that are characterised by lead times and cost parameters. Based on this graph, we develop a mixed integer two-stage stochastic programme that finds the optimal manufacturing technology for meeting each market's demand, each operation's optimal production quantity, and each selected technology's optimal CODP. We also present and analyse a case study for introducing additive manufacturing technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between postponement and supply chain resilience (SCR), as well as to explore the separate and combined moderating effects of supplier relationship (SR) and environmental uncertainty (EU) on that relationship. Based on the survey data from 261 manufacturing SMEs in the Sana’a and Taiz regions in Yemen, the proposed relationships in the research model were tested. Our empirical results reveal that postponement positively and significantly affects SCR. Furthermore, SR strengthens the postponement–SCR relationship under a lower level of EU. The results of this paper provide useful insights for managers and decision-makers of SMEs, who are expected to show a greater interest in building long-term relationships with suppliers. This has implications that by building a strong SR, SMEs are expected to be able to leverage the full potential of postponement to enhance SCR at a low level of EU.

Many demographic challenges and new trends have been observed across formerly state socialist countries after embarking on their political and economic transition. Including countries that range from Eastern Europe to Central Asia, this study explores whether some family-related events were more sensitive to the transformation that occurred in the 1990s than others, and whether the disruption was immediate or delayed across this wide range of contexts. Based on year-specific hazard ratios over four decades, results point to changes in fertility patterns being clearly linked to the transition. Second birth rates reacted almost immediately to societal disruption, whereas a more delayed change occurred for first births. Although abrupt changes in marriage and divorce rates also occurred, these changes often began before the transition and therefore may be part of longer-term developments. That second births were the most sensitive family event to the immediate change in conditions may be due to economic costs, but also unique characteristics related both to its lack of conferring a new social role on the individual, such as in the case of marriage and parenthood, and the narrower window of time in which this event usually occurs. The delayed changes in first births may instead reflect changes in norms and culture that influenced younger individuals when they reached childbearing ages. * This article belongs to a special issue on “Demographic Developments in Eastern and Western Europe Before and After the Transformation of Socialist Countries”.

A growing body of research has argued that the traditional categories of stopping and spacing are insufficient to understand why individuals want to control fertility. In a series of articles, Timæus, Moultrie, and colleagues defined a third type of fertility motivation-postponement-that reflects a desire to avoid childbearing in the short term without clear goals for long-term fertility. Although postponement is fundamentally a description of fertility desires, existing quantitative research has primarily studied fertility behavior in an effort to find evidence for the model. In this study, we use longitudinal survey data to consider whether postponement can be identified in standard measures of fertility desires among reproductive-age women in rural Mozambique. Findings show strong evidence for a postponement mindset in this population, but postponement coexists with stopping and spacing goals. We reflect on the difference between birth spacing and postponement and consider whether and how postponement is a distinctive sub-Saharan phenomenon.

Many demographic challenges and new trends have been observed across formerly state socialist countries after embarking on their political and economic transition. Including countries that range from Eastern Europe to Central Asia, this study explores whether some family-related events were more sensitive to the transformation that occurred in the 1990s than others, and whether the disruption was immediate or delayed across this wide range of contexts. Based on year-specific hazard ratios over four decades, results point to changes in fertility patterns being clearly linked to the transition. Second birth rates reacted almost immediately to societal disruption, whereas a more delayed change occurred for first births. Although abrupt changes in marriage and divorce rates also occurred, these changes often began before the transition and therefore may be part of longer-term developments. That second births were the most sensitive family event to the immediate change in conditions may be due to economic costs, but also unique characteristics related both to its lack of conferring a new social role on the individual, such as in the case of marriage and parenthood, and the narrower window of time in which this event usually occurs. The delayed changes in first births may instead refiect changes in norms and culture that influenced younger individuals when they reached childbearing ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim This study evaluated the level of fear and anxiety related to the COVID-19 outbreak, in infertile women whose ART cycles were delayed due to the pandemic. Materials and methods An online survey was sent to women whose ART cycles were postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak between April and May 2020. The study population were 101 participants. The main outcome measure is to determine the levels of fear and anxiety in infertile women by using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T and STAI-S) and Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S). The relationship of the COVID-19 outbreak with the willingness to go ahead with the desire for pregnancy was also assessed. Results The state-anxiety levels were significantly higher in women above 35 years (45.0 ± 5.2 vs. 42.2 ± 4.5, p = 0.006). Women with diminished ovarian reserve had a higher state-anxiety compared to other causes, but were not found to be significant (44.7 ± 5.2 vs. 42.5 ± 5.0, p = 0.173). Women who thought that the possibility of not being able to get pregnant was more important than being infected with the COVID-19 had higher anxiety levels than women who thought just the opposite. The diminished ovarian reserve and high duration of infertility were found to be significantly associated with higher anxiety levels (OR = 2.5, p

This paper examines the effects of short-term economic stress, captured by general price volatility and a negative wealth shock on short-run fertility behavior in the rural pre-transitional society of the Cape Colony. First, we link complete birth histories of settler women from the South African Families database to consumer price index data to examine the effect of price volatility on conceptions. Next, we link the same birth histories to slave owner and slave emancipation data to examine the effect of a negative wealth shock on conception. Upon slave emancipation in 1834, former slave owners received on average only between 40 and 50 % of the market value of their slaves as compensation, resulting in a substantial reduction in their wealth. Relying on event history models that look simultaneously at stopping and spacing, we do not find strong evidence in support of fertility control in response to general price volatility. We do find greater variance in birth interval lengths for former slaveholding households during and immediately after emancipation, suggesting that a negative wealth shock is associated with increased fertility limitation through postponement in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to assess the value of postponement as strategy for mitigating supply chain disruptions. To accomplish this objective, we develop a real option computational model that quantifies the value of postponement in mitigating both supply and demand disruptions by taking into account the value of managerial flexibility to decide whether exploiting or not the strategy, if and when disruptions occur, and whenever product differentiation proves valuable based on information available at that time. Numerical experiments show the importance of incorporating an option valuation method when pricing the value of postponement. This ensures managers implement postponement only when it is valuable, thus avoiding burdening the company with its initial sunk costs. By modelling the postponement implementation under different conditions, we identify the situations in which postponement performs better as supply chain disruptions mitigation strategy. We derive the operational configurations, in terms of decoupling point position, and external conditions, in terms of riskiness of the environment, which make the postponement an effective mitigation strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supporting wine production operations in an increasingly global market has grown ever more challenging. Export-focused wineries supply many foreign clients, often requiring different labels for the same kind of wine. Order forecasts tend to be highly inaccurate, and wineries must be able to quickly react to changes, making lot-sizing an important consideration. One tool to reduce product misallocation is postponing product differentiation, where the natural decoupling point for premium wine is the labelling process. However, the double handling involved incurs additional costs and time penalties. We analyse the performance impact of postponing the labelling of bottled wines by developing a multi-stage mixed-integer stochastic programming model with full recourse for demand scenarios. The underlying data and policies are based on an unnamed Chilean export-focused winery. The model supports lot-sizing under several winery production policies. We experiment with different levels of capacity tightness, demand variability and demand correlation between wines, optimising for reducing order backlogs, inventory levels and line set-ups. While we find that some amount of postponement will always be recommended, the exact mix and degree depend on these external factors. Postponement has the most benefits when production capacity is moderately tight, demand variability is high and wines have negatively correlated demands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to determine if service firms can profitably perform postponement. We develop a general model to identify the optimal location of the push--pull boundary, or extent of postponement. While previous literature discusses the benefit of applying postponement to the service industry this is the first paper to-date that mathematically models the benefit of service postponement. This paper illustrates how service companies can balance the trade-off between increased responsiveness and increased costs. The single-stage newsvendor model is iteratively applied to each stage of the service process to determine the optimal level of postponement. Two examples demonstrate the value of postponement and the impact of changes in service characteristics are investigated. Finally, this paper provides guidance for service industry professionals on policy-level decisions and applications of postponement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between postponement and supply chain resilience (SCR), as well as to explore the separate and combined moderating effects of supplier relationship (SR) and environmental uncertainty (EU) on that relationship. Based on the survey data from 261 manufacturing SMEs in the Sana'a and Taiz regions in Yemen, the proposed relationships in the research model were tested. Our empirical results reveal that postponement positively and significantly affects SCR. Furthermore, SR strengthens the postponement–SCR relationship under a lower level of EU. The results of this paper provide useful insights for managers and decision-makers of SMEs, who are expected to show a greater interest in building long-term relationships with suppliers. This has implications that by building a strong SR, SMEs are expected to be able to leverage the full potential of postponement to enhance SCR at a low level of EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of industrial production technologies and market economy, Postponement is increasingly being adopted by continuous production enterprise as a method that enables multi-product, mass customization production. In order to make use of the Postponement in manufacturing production enterprises need to achieve customized production and reduce enterprise costs. A modeling is conducted in the production process of Postponement in iron and steel enterprises in this paper. With the goal of minimizing total costs on a specific customer service level, mixed integer nonlinear programming and particle swarm algorithms are adopted for modeling and solving, to determine the optimal location and optimal semi-finished product inventory of PDP and CODP. Finally, taking an iron and steel enterprise as an example, the feasibility and effectiveness of the model and algorithm are verified. The study shows that the change of the optimal locations of PDP and CODP is affected by the change of customer service level and delay penalty coefficient, but the speed of change of the optimal location of PDP shows longer delays. In addition, the size of the capacity of semi-finished product inventory corresponding to CODP has a direct influence on whether the semi-finished product inventory corresponding to PDP participates in production, which in turn affects the optimal semi-finished product inventory on all levels. Through the analysis, it is found that the model constructed in this paper can better describe the overall situation and the influence relationship of the Postponement, and the study supplements the deficiency of the research on Postponement in the continuous manufacturing enterprises and enriches the content of the quantitative research on the Postponement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem definition: In high-product-variety businesses like fashion, mass production (MP) systems create environmental waste in the form of overproduction on a colossal scale. Mass customization (MC) has been proposed—without solid evidence—as a solution. In this paper, we analyze whether MC can indeed offer a win-win solution that helps both the bottom line and the environment. We also study the impact of three real policy options: promoting MC, charging a disposal fee for overproduction, and recycling. Academic/practical relevance: There is increasing interest in mass-customizing fashion goods, not only because consumers value customization, but also because MC is perceived to be environmentally friendly. Our paper puts this advocacy for MC to the test. We contribute to the literature, which has been largely silent on the issue, by uncovering when MC offers a win-win and relating such market outcomes to policy ideas. Methodology: We develop an analytical model of an MP firm adopting MC (going hybrid). The firm's profit-maximizing variety, price, and inventory decisions then form the basis of our understanding the environmental impact of adopting MC and assessing various policy options. Results: Adopting MC can be a win-win, but it can also increase overproduction and hurt the environment. Our policy analyses reveal two kinds of insights. The first kind is about whether a policy expands win-win outcomes—encouraging sustainable adoption of MC. Among the policy ideas we explore, only promoting MC so as to increase consumers' tolerance for waiting for mass-customized products can do that unambiguously. The second kind of insight is about whether a policy reduces the hybrid firm's environmental impact. Only a disposal fee and costly recycling programs can do that unambiguously. Managerial implications: For MC adoption to be a win-win, policy makers must (1) work on convincing consumers to wait for bespoke fashion; (2) target MP firms with low cost of variety (high product-mix flexibility) with disposal fees or costly recycling programs; and (3) encourage those with relatively higher cost of variety to develop/acquire technology that would make recycling profitable. History: This paper has been accepted for the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Special Section on Responsible Research in Operations Management. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1088. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers a multi-item production lot-size problem incorporating postponement, an external source for common parts, and an adjustable-rate for end products. Dealing with product variety, timely requirements, and limited in-house capacity has led production managers to seek manufacturing schemes and utilization-reduction strategies that can help them meet customer needs, smoothen fabrication schedules, and lower overall manufacturing expenses. We propose a two-stage manufacturing scheme. The first stage produces common parts for multiproduct incorporating a partial supply from an outside contractor to reduce utilization/uptime. Stage two fabricates all end products using an adjustable-rate to reduce the uptime further. We build a model to characterize the problem’s features and use optimization methods to derive the optimal rotation cycle time in order to help managers make cost-effective lot-size decisions and allow manufacturers to gain competitive advantages. A numerical illustration validates the model’s capability and applicability. This study makes two important contributions: (1) It offers a decision-support model for studying such a particular batch-size problem and deciding the optimal rotation cycle time, and (2) it identifies the individual/collective influence of dual uptime-reduction strategies on the operating policy and various performance indexes to help facilitate managerial decision-making.

Aim: This study evaluated the level of fear and anxiety related to the COVID-19 outbreak, in infertile women whose ART cycles were delayed due to the pandemic. Materials and methods: An online survey was sent to women whose ART cycles were postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak between April and May 2020. The study population were 101 participants. The main outcome measure is to determine the levels of fear and anxiety in infertile women by using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T and STAI-S) and Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S). The relationship of the COVID-19 outbreak with the willingness to go ahead with the desire for pregnancy was also assessed. Results: The state-anxiety levels were significantly higher in women above 35 years (45.0 ± 5.2 vs. 42.2 ± 4.5, p=0.006). Women with diminished ovarian reserve had a higher state-anxiety compared to other causes, but were not found to be significant (44.7 ± 5.2 vs. 42.5 ± 5.0, p=0.173). Women who thought that the possibility of not being able to get pregnant was more important than being infected with the COVID-19 had higher anxiety levels than women who thought just the opposite. The diminished ovarian reserve and high duration of infertility were found to be significantly associated with higher anxiety levels (OR = 2.5, p<0.05). The diminished ovarian reserve and previous ART failure significantly predicted the presence of clinical state-anxiety. Conclusion: The state-anxiety was found to be higher in women whose cycles were postponed due to the outbreak and the presence of diminished ovarian reserve also significantly affected anxiety levels. Further research is needed to assess whether COVID-19 will have any impact on ART treatments in the next few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the eruption of the worldwide SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in late 2019/early 2020, multiple elective surgical interventions were postponed. Through pandemic measures, elective operation capacities were reduced in favour of intensive care treatment for critically ill SARS-CoV-2 patients. Although intermittent low-incidence infection rates allowed an increase in elective surgery, surgeons have to include long-term pulmonary and extrapulmonary complications of SARS-CoV-2 infections (especially "Long Covid") in their perioperative management considerations and risk assessment procedures. This review summarizes recent consensus statements and recommendations regarding the timepoint for surgical intervention after SARS-CoV-2 infection released by respective German societies and professional representatives including DGC/BDC (Germany Society of Surgery/Professional Association of German Surgeons e.V.) and DGAI/BDA (Germany Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine/Professional Association of German Anesthesiologists e.V.) within the scope of the recent literature. The current literature reveals that patients with pre- and perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection have a dramatically deteriorated postoperative outcome. Thereby, perioperative mortality is mainly caused by pulmonary and thromboembolic complications. Notably, perioperative mortality decreases to normal values over time depending on the duration of SARS-CoV-2 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study seeks to revisit the analysis that attributes the infelicity, in all varieties of English, of strings like (1) '*He gave the man it' and (2) '*He gave to him it' to "the clash between the topical character of the pronoun "it' and the focality associated with end position in English", in addition to the "breach of the short-before-long principle" (Siewierska & Hollmann, 2007: 86f.) The string in (1) is a double object construction (DOC), while that in (2) is a prepositional construction (PPC). In contradistinction to the above constraints, the present study shows that the pronoun 'it' can felicitously appear in the end position in DOCs, as in e.g. "He gave him it" (cf. Huddlestone, 2002: 248), besides the fact that the so-called 'short-before-long principle' is clearly violated in that sentence without rendering it ungrammatical. Hence, end position and the "breach of the short-before-long principle" are not tenable constraints. Thus, the current study maintains that for a DOC to accommodate a personal pronoun theme, its goal argument must be realized as a lexically unstressed constituent (cf. Antilla, 2008), specifically as a pronoun (e.g. He gave him it). On the other hand, postponing a personal pronoun theme in the PPC is not possible (e.g. *He gave to him it) because a postponed theme involving non-heavy NP shift is only possible if it is a nominal constituent, since nominal constituents are both contrastively and lexically stressable (cf. Antilla et al., 2010), as in e.g. He gave to him the book -- a construction that has been reported to occur in the northern dialect of British English (cf. Siewierska & Hollmann, 2007). Any attempt to postpone a personal pronoun theme will render the sentence ungrammatical (e.g. *He gave to him it), even where there is an unequivocally contrastively stressable pronoun like 'them' (e.g.*He gave to him them), since, while 'them' is no doubt contrastively stressable, it is not lexically stressable. Both lexical stressability and contrastive stressability are a requirement for this kind of postponement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research effort has been dedicated to investigate the nature and determinants of and the differences between temporary and continuous consumer rejections of innovations. To shed light on both types of consumer rejection behaviours and their underlying psychological processes, this paper applies a mixed-method approach. First, we conducted a qualitative study to investigate whether known determinants comprehensively cover reasons for both types of consumer rejections. Based on the qualitative study's evidence, we introduce a new type of innovation resistance (transactional innovation resistance) to complement the well-known concepts of active and passive innovation resistance as drivers of rejection behaviour. Second, we validated the derived framework using a large-scale quantitative study to empirically determine each determinant's relative importance for temporary and continuous consumer rejection of innovations. Our results demonstrate that consumers who continuously reject an innovation are primarily driven by a combinatory effect of passive and active innovation resistance. In contrast, consumers who only temporarily reject are largely motivated by a combinatory effect of transactional and active innovation resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses queer and transgender voices that took part in the South Korean Candlelight Protests of 2016–17 but became sidelined during the special election that followed Park Geun-hye's impeachment. Drawing from theories of queer temporality and feminist critiques of homogenous time, the article argues that idioms of postponement (najunge) and prematurity (sigisangjo) have significantly shaped liberal political discourses regarding the timing and timeliness of social change and minority politics in South Korea. These normative idioms of temporality articulate the stakes of being out of place in time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a postponement model for the multi-item replenishment decision featuring commonality, an overtime strategy, and product quality reassurance. A single machine is used to meet the steady demand for multiple products wherein product commonality exists among these end products. The proposed postponement model assumes that all pertinent common parts are fabricated in Stage 1 and the finished products are sequentially fabricated in Stage 2. Random nonconformance rates are associated with both fabrication stages, the repairable nonconforming common parts are separated from scrap, and reworking in each cycle helps ensure product quality for each completed batch. An overtime strategy is used to reduce the lengthy fabrication and rework times for common parts. Mathematical analyses and derivation allow us to obtain the total system costs. The optimization method helps find the optimal replenishment decision. We provide a numerical illustration to show (1) how our model works; (2) the individual impact of the system features (e.g., the overtime factor, commonality in terms of the common part completion rate and its relative value, and the issues pertaining to scrap/rework) on the optimal decision, utilization, and the total system cost; and (3) the collective influence of system features on the highlighted problem. This proposed decision-support model helps production managers achieve the operating goals of lowering total system expenses and cutting the length of the production cycle.

Abstract In the last decades, Western societies have been involved in huge demographic changes, amongst which one of the most important has been the increasing postponement of the transition to parenthood. This paper aims at analysing the consequences of later motherhood and fatherhood on children’s participation in upper-secondary schools in Italy, considering both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of education. It also aims at highlighting the role of father-mother age difference and heterogeneity in the effects by parental SES and birth order. Using Italian labour force survey data (2005-2014), results show that late parenthood is positively associated with educational attainment, whereas teenage and early parenthood negatively affect children’s educational outcomes, net of detailed information on parental SES. Age at parenthood affects the educational achievement mostly for children of low- and middle-educated parents, who are more penalized by early childbearing and more favoured by late parenthood than the offspring of the tertiary educated. Moreover, only children are less affected by age at parenthood, especially in comparison with later-born children. Finally, children’s educational outcomes are worse when the mother is older than the father, independently from the educational outcome considered, whereas they are better in case of parental age homogamy or when the father is slightly older than the mother.

The literature on demand-driven supply chain operations management strategies (DDSCOMSs) is excellent in describing when, where and how the strategies can be used. However, managers of manufacturing companies usually employ more than one DDSCOMS when designing and operating their supply chains, thus needing to understand when, how and why two or more DDSCOMSs can be used in combination. The answers to these questions are not stated well in the literature. The purpose of this study is therefore to explore the relations among the DDSCOMSs, using a combination of a structured literature review and analytical conceptual research. The study identifies and establishes both direct and indirect relations among the five studied DDSCOMSs. These results assist in nuancing the complex and dynamic relations between the DDSCOMSs, by showing the effects different decisions have on operational performance. The study also points out further research directions, such as the DDSCOMS relations that are under-studied.

Postponement strategy and platform-based production are common practices of mass customisation to address supply chain challenges due to the requirement of product variety. This paper focuses on implementing mass customisation through development of semi-finished forms of products (vanilla boxes) to reduce supply chain cost and facilitate the production process. The challenge is that the possible number of vanilla box configurations grows dramatically with the increase in number of product variants. In the solution approach, the basic information of product variety is captured in a matrix format, specifying the component requirements for each product variant. Then, hierarchical clustering is applied over the components with the considerations of demands. The clustering method consists of three major stages: similarity analysis, tree construction and tree-based analysis. The key stage is similarity analysis, in which problem-specific information can be incorporated in the clustering process. Two numerical examples from the literature are used to verify that the clustering approach can yield good-quality solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The commercially exploited ecoraces, Daba BiVoltine (DBV) and Daba TriVoltine (DTV) ecoraces of the Indian tropical Tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury pupae remain in diapause from November to Mid-June and from January to May, respectively. During the termination of facultative diapause and the initiation of moth emergence period due to temperature fluctuations, DBV and DTV moths emerge erratically and lay eggs. The eggs laid by these erratically emerged moths get wasted as these do not coincide with the brushing schedule and there is no valid egg preservation technology developed so far. In this scenario, a short-term Tasar egg preservation schedule of egg preservation at 15°C for 15 days with 03 days of post preservation duration is reported in this paper. The hatching performance of treated and control eggs were found on par. The preservation technology can be effectively utilized for utilization of the eggs laid by erratically emerged moths during Grainage operations thereby improving the productivity in Tasar seed sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An integrated multi-tier reverse supply chain network (RSCN) system is developed. • The RSCN handles multi-period, multi-component, multi-quality return products. • Three postponement strategies are developed to address RSCN with uncertain demand. • Postponement strategy enables profitable takeback, reuse, and recycling operations. In recent decades, issues of resource depletion and waste piling have grown at an alarming rate, which are happening in the cases of product wastes with significant residual values, such as e-waste. To address these issues, stakeholders have focused to develop a reverse supply chain (RSC) system that can sustain profitable takeback, reuse, and recycling operations in the long-term. Such a system requires efficiency in handling complex operations involving various players while being responsive to demand uncertainty and changes. One way in realizing these capabilities is by incorporating postponement concepts to the integrated RSC network, allowing the delay of operations susceptible to demand uncertainty. This study pioneers the formulation of a two-stage stochastic mixed-integer model of a multi-player RSC with speculation-postponement strategies. The sample average approximation method is used to solve and verify the proposed model that has an uncertain demand. Various speculation-postponement strategies, namely, disassembly, reconditioning, and reassembly strategies are developed to configure forecast and demand-driven RSC operations, including the purchasing, product takeback, production planning, inventory, and item speculation decisions. Numerical examples of the notebook computer RSC demonstrate that utilizing the right operation postponement can increase the network's flexibility, allowing better economic performances even under high demand uncertainty risks and stricter environmental regulations. In various cases, the RSC performs better with speculation-postponement strategies than without postponement strategy, demonstrating the proposed model's superiority. This study can provide insight to decision-makers to improve RSC sustainability through postponement. Moreover, the model is generic and can be applied to other products as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]