BALANCING PROCUREMENT AND DISTRIBUTION

In addition to the problems of spare parts and maintenance which the CWS faced in its efforts to balance procurement and distribution, there were problems of property disposal and contract termination. No sooner had the CWS procured its initial equipment than problems of property disposal began to arise. By early 1S>44 delay in disposing of inventory and industrial property was leading to delay in contract terminations throughout all the technical services. ... 

Based on Croxton et al. (2002), the demand management process is concerned with balancing the customers requirements with the supply chain capabilities. This includes forecasting demand and synchronizing it with production, procurement, and distribution capabilities. A good demand management process can enable a company to be more proactive to anticipated demand. 

Greater emphasis on maintenance of materiel was a feature of the campaign to bring procurement and distribution into balance. In the period between the wars the quantity of chemical warfare supplies was extremely limited and consequently maintenance was not much of a problem. Most CW supplies were stored at the Edgewood Depot, which had access to the shops at the arsenal to do required maintenance. In the field the CW sections in division and company headquarters were responsible for first and second echelon maintenance while repair shops near the posts or at Ordnance Department depots carried on the higher echelon repairs. The CW sections normally consisted of one officer and several enlisted men. 

Distribution planning covers transportation and inventory planning in the global value chain network from a company perspective. Distribution planning has to balance volumes and flows in and between the respective sales, production, distribution and procurement locations. Significant lead... 

Distribution planning covers transportation and inventory planning within the network, as well as the material balance calculation between sales, production and procurement. Global transportation planning considers the lead times between continents resulting in transit inventories differentiation of sent and received transportation quantities as shown in the requirements in section 4.1.5. Inventories are managed at the defined transfer point locations either with static or dynamic boundaries. 

Distribution balances need to calculate all volume balances in all value chain network locations between sales, distribution, production and procurement. Material flows have to be balanced for all product-location combinations in the index set p, l e IVC1. 

Inventory indicators are of key interest for planners. Higher inventory on the one hand ensures delivery capability and hedges the risk of volatile procurement prices on the other hand, high inventories increase the capital employed and the capital costs. While transportation quantities are a result of distribution balances, inventory quantities can vary between minimum and maximum bandwidth boundaries. The relative inventory level IL1 measures the percentage of the total inventory ending quantity compared to the total absolute maximum bandwidth inventory. 

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