The terms push and pull are used to describe a number of similar business strategies of production and marketing. Push strategies generally involve producers acting in anticipation of, or in response to, consumer demand, while pull strategies generally involve producers acting in response to expressed demand. Push and pull strategies are widely used in logistics, supply chain management, [1] and marketing. [2] [3]
There are several definitions on the distinction between push and pull strategies. Liberopoulos (2013) [4] identifies three such definitions:
Other definitions are:
With a push-based supply chain, products are pushed through the channel, from the production side up to the retailer. The manufacturer sets production at a level in accord with historical ordering patterns from retailers. It takes longer for a push-based supply chain to respond to changes in demand, which can result in overstocking or bottlenecks and delays (the bullwhip effect), unacceptable service levels and product obsolescence.
In a pull-based supply chain, procurement, production and distribution are demand-driven rather than to forecast. However, a pull strategy does not always require make to order production. Toyota Motors Manufacturing is frequently used as an example of pull production, yet do not typically produce to order. They follow the "supermarket model" where limited inventory is kept on hand and is replenished as it is consumed.
A supply chain is almost always a combination of both push and pull, where the interface between the push-based stages and the pull-based stages is sometimes known as the push–pull boundary. [6] However, because of the subtle difference between pull production and make-to-order production, a more accurate name for this may be the customer order decoupling point . An example of this is Dell's build to order supply chain. Inventory levels of individual components are determined by forecasting general demand, but final assembly is in response to a specific customer request. The decoupling point would then be at the beginning of the assembly line.
Harrison summarized when to use each one of the three supply chain strategies:
Hopp and Spearman consider some of the most common systems found in industry and the literature and classify them as either push or pull
Liberopoulos (2013) [4] also classifies common systems according to different definitions on the distinction between push and pull.
An advertising push strategy refers to a situation when a vendor advertises its product to gain audience awareness, while the pull strategy implies the aims to reach audiences which have shown existing interest in the product or information about it. [9]
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