Dependability of distribution systems in the reality of mass customization of steel produts

Logistic distribution systems' dependability is a highly significant matter in today's understanding of system's ability to satisfy customer requirements, which usually are excessive and much individualized. A solution to such demands more and more often is the customization of offered goods, due to adapting postponement strategy. Steel products market is characterized by a constant, large fluctuations of demands, as well as by a high degree of requirements' differentiation in terms of products variants. The situation in which a steel products distributor has to face the problem of meeting consumers' specific requirements is getting more and more common. Commonly used service centers are main example of the idea of mass customization, based on postponing the differentiation in the supply chain. Nevertheless strategy of postponed differentiation is increasingly popular also among trading companies, which are operating without specialized, typical for service centers, technical infrastructure. Lack of adequate production equipment does not prevent the possibility of implementing the strategy of delayed production. Due to condition of owned infrastructure and the presence of qualified personnel specialized in the performance of differentiation operations, enterprises may use different variants of strategy of delayed differentiation and mass customization. The article presents the results of studies designed to compare the benefits of using different variants of postponed production strategy.