CUST.Reference:10.2 - Differentiation and its operating consequences

• Olhager, “Strategic positioning of the order penetration point” (2003), DOI 10.1016/S0925-5273(03)00119-1. The primary abstract and indexed introduction support the distinction between forecast-driven common work and order-driven work. No complete algorithm is claimed from that bounded reading.
• Harfeldt-Berg and Olhager, “The customer order decoupling point in empirical operations and supply chain management research: a systematic literature review” (2024). The primary indexed abstract establishes a broad empirical review and multiple contextual factors; it is not used as a fully read taxonomy or a universal selection rule.
• Naldi, Galizia and Bortolini, “Balancing storage cost and customization time in product platform design: a bi-objective optimization model” (2025). Its model and stated assumptions make competing time and storage objectives concrete. Deterministic demand, cost and time, just-in-time custom components, sufficient warehouse space and the treatment of production cost bound the result. CUST.4 retains the tradeoff but does not transfer the model unchanged to software or services.

The serious alternative is early differentiation or entirely order-driven work. CUST.4 compares these with a shared base and later differentiation using the actual delay, resource and variation constraints. The most recent model is not declared best for a different operating setting merely because it is recent.