Types of Product Supply

Supply Chain Management

• Customer demand is customized to a high degree, taking a long time to achieve, and examples include special orders, customized tools, and restaurant orders.

Types of Supply Chain Management

• Product supply starts before the customer enters a supermarket, involving daily commodities like milk, bread, and rice.

5 Steps in Supply Chain Management

• Plan: Finding the balance between supply and demand, and thinking about what to produce.
• Source: Identifying suppliers that meet expectations.
• Make: Manufacturing the product.
• Deliver: Sending the final product to customers, including warehousing and management.
• Return: Receiving returns associated with the product.

Supply Chain Architecture

• Short: Supplier -> Company -> Customer
• Broad: Supplier's supplier -> Supplier -> Company -> Customer -> Customer's Customer

Types of Customers

• Distributor: Buys from the manufacturer in large bulks and sells to customers, example: tank stations, airports.
• Wholesaler: Buys from distributor or manufacturer, specializing in a specific category, example: catering, hotels, and restaurants.
• Retailer: Stocks quantities in a smaller amount, selling to general customers.

Firms that Provide in Supply Chain

• Transportation
• Technology
• New design
• Warehousing
• Market research
• Sustainability
• Finance

Supply Chain Dynamics

• Supply chain reacts to external environmental and macroeconomic factors.

Placing and Handling Orders

• Order management: Placing orders with a good working system to handle large orders.
• Progress and delivery: Company monitors and splits into two teams: logistics and buying.
• Payment and review: Pays suppliers and reviews service quality.

Strategic Sourcing Initiatives

• Tactical sourcing: Efficient sourcing to achieve benefits and profits.
• Market research: Researching market trends for a specific item.
• Commodity analysis: Analyzing commodity products to save costs.
• Forecast requirements: Predicting future prices to get better deals.
• Supplier performance analysis and benchmarking: Evaluating supplier performance.
• Price and cost analysis: Comparing prices to get the best item.

Category Sourcing or Management

• Category management: Dividing products into categories, each with a dedicated team to manage purchasing and inventory.
• Category profiling: Determining supplier influence and market power.
• Segmenting category groups: Identifying routine, bottleneck, leverage, and critical items.

5 Steps in Category Sourcing

• Profile category group: Determining supplier influence and market power.
• Selecting sourcing strategies: Deciding on the best approach based on category importance and risk.
• Generating a supplier portfolio: Creating a list of potential suppliers.
• Following the purchasing process: Doing pre-order and post-order steps.
• Negotiation: Finalizing agreements with suppliers.

Supply Relationship Management

• Benefits: Breaking down functional barriers, promoting innovation, improving supply chain visibility, sharing assets, and forward thinking.

Manufacturing Strategies

• Just-In-Time concept: Producing only what is needed, when needed, to reduce inventory and waste.

Elements of Just-In-Time

• People: Informed at an early stage, with support and agreement.
• Plant: Driven by customer demand, producing only necessary items, and focusing on worker flexibility.
• System: Refers to technology and process used to connect, plan, and coordinate manufacturing activities.

Limitations of Just-In-Time

• Cultural difference: Difficulty adapting to cultural differences in regions/countries.
• Loss of safety stock: Risk of running out of stock due to producing only what is needed.
• Decreased individual autonomy: Employees need to stick to a strict management of manufacturing.

Unorganized Sector

• Characteristics: Less organized, few formal contracts, high volatility, and immature state.
• Challenges: Lack of information and skills, supply-driven nature, manual processes, and low margins.

Return Differences in Each Process

• Automotive: Advanced recycling processes due to high value of materials like steel and aluminum.
• Electronics: Challenging to make a profit due to high labor costs and lack of automation.
• Appliances: Unpredictable returns due to long lifespans, with recycling processes similar to vehicles.

Activities to Increase Business Return Efficiency

• Design for Disassembly: Prioritizing designs that allow for easy disassembly, facilitating reuse, recycling, or scrapping.