We have attempted to explore the role of postponement in supply chain risk management from a complexity perspective. To achieve this, we draw insights from NAT that addresses the system characteristics of catastrophic accidents and apply them to supply chain disruptions. NAT supports the notion that companies can mitigate supply chain disruptions by altering their levels of coupling and interactive complexity. When it is not economically feasible to reduce tight coupling, companies are encouraged to simplify their systems to protect them against disruptions. We also suggest that companies should examine the complexity of their supply chains prior to adopting commonly recommended supply chain risk mitigation strategies. In certain circumstances, the introduction of those strategies may add to the complexity of a system and thus become inherently infeasible. Further research may need to focus on the implications of complexity on performance metrics, when assessing the degree of complexity in supply chains and the ability of their organisations to ameliorate the complexity.