Postponed manufacturing supplementary to transportation services?

This paper empirically assesses the economic size tin terms of full time eq uivalent employees (FTEs) of postponed manufacturing applications and relat ed activities. Based on a survey among 782 companies, the differences in si ze and scope of applications between manufacturers, wholesalers and logisti cs service providers are assessed. Currently, relatively simple postponemen t applications are practiced in wholesale and logistics services as supplem entary services. More complex, high value adding manufacturing activities a re still the primary domain of manufacturers and these are not often outsou rced to logistics service providers. Based on future expectations of respon dents this need not stay this way. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.