By drawing on insights from NAT, we have attempted to explain how postponement serves to avoid supply chain disruptions. In doing so, we have brought to light many practices embraced in postponement which can reduce interactive complexity. When explaining postponement as a supply chain risk mitigation strategy, the current supply chain literature tends to only look at its elements of commonality, standardisation and modularity in products and processes, i.e., broadening the base of supply and increasing inventory pooling with other sites (Lee and Wolfe 2003). We argue that, by understanding how postponement overcomes the complexity present in a system, we can interpret the role of postponement in supply chain risk management in a more complete manner.