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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the application of postponement strategies in companies that produce tomato-derived products in order to identify the types of postponement adopted by these companies, the implementation process, and the major changes after their adoption.

Three exploratory case studies were carried out in manufacturers of tomato products, where interviews were conducted with general managers in the manufacturing and logistics sectors.

The application of time and form postponement was verified in the companies studied, and the implementation of the postponement strategy led to changes in the productive process of tomato-derived products. These changes involved the movement of the decoupling point and the increase in the make-to-order production, which had positive impacts on the businesses.

This paper analyzed the application of postponement in a specific sector of the food industry. Future research must analyze the application of this strategy in other segments of the food industry and other sectors as well.

The information acquired in this can contribute to a more adequate application of postponement in a little-known industry sector.

In addition to further discussion on the issue and verification of postponement application in food companies, this research presents information to assist the adoption, use, and consolidation of the postponement strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to evaluate the partial postponement strategy and compare it with postponement and make-to-stock (MTS) strategies in the production of table wine in wineries in the state of Minas Gerais (south-eastern Brazil).

An approach based on discrete event simulation was developed to support decision-making in the wine sector. Simulation models were used to analyse partial postponement, postponement and MTS strategies in wine production. These models were inspired by a typical table wine producer selected from an exploratory study conducted in 12 wineries of Minas Gerais state in Brazil.

Hybrid strategies, such as partial postponement, favour the advantages of postponement and MTS depending on the portion of semi-finished and finished goods adopted. Wine production characteristics favour postponement and partial postponement with high semi-finished product levels (customer order-driven product) because this allows companies to reduce their inventory of bottles, despite possible increases in lost sales and costs. MTS and partial postponement with high finished product levels (forecast-driven product) present higher costs with bottled wine storage; however, these strategies reduce lost sales and improve agility and reliability in deliveries.

Future research should analyse the production of table wines in other regions of the country and the production of fine wines.

The findings suggest promising perspectives for real-life applications in wineries in Brazil and other countries.

Simulation techniques allow the analysis of production strategies in little-known industries, such as table wine production in Brazil. The approach developed is flexible enough to support decisions and to be adapted to companies’ and markets’ characteristics and to test specific strategies.

This study is to propose a procedure to support decisions on which enablers should be employed to minimize the impact of barriers to implementing mass customization strategies in food companies.

Through interpretive structural modeling, the authors analyzed the relationships between barriers. Then, with an approach similar to the quality function deployment technique, commonly used in general product and process development, the authors clarified the relationships between barriers and enablers.

The results revealed 19 barriers and 17 enablers for implementing food mass customization. The analysis indicates that most of the barriers (16) present strong associations with each other. The barrier “products with non-customizable features” depends on the whole chain of associations and causes a minor impact on the other barriers. In turn, the barrier “ingredient incompatibility” causes impact over the whole chain, and its dependence on other barriers is very low.

The results were tested in a single Brazilian company in the food sector.

The findings can allow food manufacturing companies to focus their efforts on the improvement of enabling technologies, such as smart packaging, Internet of Things and additive manufacture.

This study would help food companies to improve their business and provide better products to society.

There are few recommendations in the literature to how to implement mass customization strategy in companies from the food sector. This study fills in this gap presenting a procedure to guide managerial staff to develop this promising approach for food companies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the application of the postponement strategy by wineries in the state of Minas Gerais (Southeastern Brazil), in order to identify the types of postponement adopted by these companies, the implementation process and the results obtained after their adoption.

Twelve exploratory case studies were conducted in wine-producing companies, as well as on-site visits and semi-structured interviews with the managers of the companies surveyed.

The adoption of form postponement was verified in the companies studied mainly for table wine production, occurring most commonly during the bottling and labeling stages.

This paper analyzed the application of the postponement strategy in Southeast Brazil. Future research should analyze the application of this strategy in other regions of the country and abroad.

The information acquired in this research can contribute to a more adequate practical application of the postponement strategy in a little-known industry sector.

In addition to discussing and verifying the application of the postponement strategy in the wine industry, this research presents information to assist in its implementation, use and consolidation.