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Supply Chain Management
The supply chain differs for a company that sells a physical product such as furniture, from that of a company that sells a service such as cellular services. Though both supply chains differ, with powerful strategies both companies were able to achieve the same result, profits within the organization. Ultimately for any organization, the main goal is to increase profits. Improving the supply chain is one way to reach this goal. According to Schneider, "When companies integrate their supply management and logistics activities across multiple participants in a particular product's supply chain, the job of managing that integration is called supply chain management. The ultimate goal is to achieve a higher-quality or lower-cost product at the end of the chain" (Schneider, 2004, p. 228). Lets attempt to show how Direct Buy, a furniture company, and Verizon Wireless, a cellular service company has achieved that goal.
Product
In a supply chain for an organization that provides a product the model would look like this.
"Supplier_Manufacturer_Wholesalers_Retailers_Consumers"
To prove this point, let's take a look at the Furniture Industry. In a typical supply chain model for the furniture industry, the suppliers would be any organization that provides raw materials for the furniture to be made of. The manufacturers would be organization that makes the furniture products in mass production. The wholesalers would be the organizations that store and sell the products to retail organizations. The retail organizations purchase these items in large orders for special pricing and resale them at a retail price in which the consumer pays for the items.
To illustrate how this model ...