Expanding product variety and high customer service provision are both major challenges for manufacturers to compete in the global market. In addition to many ongoing programs, such as lead-time reduction, redesigning products and processes so as to delay the point of product differentiation is...

Many companies have embarked on initiatives that enable more demand information sharing between retailers and their upstream suppliers. While the literature on such initiatives in the business press is proliferating, it is not clear how one can quantify the benefits of these initiatives and how...

Products with high product variety are often made in a manufacturing process (or a supply chain) consisting of multiple stages, with products taking certain features or "personalities" at each stage. The product may start as a common single engine. As the product moves along manufacturing...