60-Second Lesson On Supply Chain Logistics
As any commercial enterprise will tell you, the ultimate success of a company depends on the value and popularity of the output they are merchandising. In the end , if it’s an item that everybody wants, sales go up and everyone is happy. Although having the right product at the right time is key, it’s really supply chain logistics that determine the success or failure of a product.
How are supply chain logistics involved?
Well, you only have to flip on the TV and watch any commercial to get a snapshot of shipping and fulfillment and supply chain direction at work.
It doesn’t matter what type of product is being advertised, the mere fact that you are watching that commercial means that product is standing by for you to purchase it in some form. Maybe it is a new line of laundry detergent. The reality is the product is indeed for sale. And that means you, as a consumer, can go out and purchase the product–whether it is today, or at a pre-determined date in the future. Which further means the supply chain logistics have already been creating to make sure the product you buy is delivered to you.
Let’s take the example of buying a new car.
You might be in the market for an upgrade or trade-in, or just curious. That newspaper adconvinces you to check out a local dealer and go for a test drive ride. After you’ve done a little research as to the closest auto dealer in your neighborhood, you head out and hopefully see the car that was advertised.
This means that a certain number of those particular cars needed to be transported to that car lot from as close as the next town over, to as far away as Japan or South Korea.
Supply chain and its associated management logistics provide for the mechanisms to get that car into the showroom at on a timely schedule.
Distributors already know when those cars are going to be ready to be shipped. Now it becomes just a question of moving them from point “A” to “B.” But unlike smaller items , you can only transport so many cars at one time! A typical trailer will hold maybe ten cars, for example. So, that’s ten cars per trip.
How many trips to stock all the dealerships in a given zone? It could be large. But the ultimate end result of how many can be found through the application of supply chain logistics.
