Distribution operation customers

Which warehouses to retain and which warehouses to eliminate in such a way that Beta s restructured warehouse network minimizes tottil cost associated with Beta s distribution operations while meeting current customers demand tmd dehvery service requirements... 

Customer service provides the single source of customer information. It becomes the key point of contact for administering the product/service agreement. Customer service provides the customer with real-time information on promised shipping dates and product aveiilability through interface with the organizations production and distribution operations. 

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems support the processing of orders and all related business operation (Gausemeier 2008). ERP systems are used to effectively plan and control all resources needed for the procurement, manufacturing, and the distribution of customer orders (Greef and Ghoshal 2004). Therefore, these software systems comprise all needed... 

A well run distribution operation is one operation that maximizes delivery asset (e.g., trucks) utilization at the same time that minimizes labor (e.g., drivers and delivery helpers) and delivers the expected customer service level (e.g., order or case fill rate). 

Distribution operation is not oriented towards customer service (e.g.. On time and In full delivery). 

Distribution operation is well executed with daily dynamic dispatching based on customer orders received. 

Distribution operation is fully oriented towards customer service with right truck types that maximize legal load limit, and meet customer requirements. 

Various types of coordination in a supply chain have been studied in the literature. We discuss the coordination of production and distribution in this chapter. Production and distribution operations can be decoupled if there is a sufficient amount of inventory between them. Many companies manage these two functions independently with little or no coordination. However, this leads to increased holding costs and longer lead times of products through the supply chain. Fierce competition in today s global market and heightened expectations of customers have forced companies to invest aggressively to reduce inventory levels across the supply chain on one hand and be more respon-... 

The interdependency between production and distribution operations, and the tradeoff between the costs associated with them can be illustrated intuitively by the following simple example. Consider a company producing multiple products for multiple customers. To save distribution cost, orders of closely located customers may have to be produced at similar times so that they can be consolidated for delivery right after they are produced. However, orders of closely located customers may require very different production setups, and producing them at similar times may incur a large production cost. Of course, in many cases, in addition to production and distribution, there are other factors such as inventory and capacity that also play important roles. 

It appears to be a popular practice to outsource warehousing and distribution operation. Discuss the implication of outsourcing on customer service and for competitive advantage. 

A third scenario might be that shown in Figure 18.6. This sphere is focused on the distribuhon chaimels for both products. Its scope includes all the customer segments. Its characterization is all products—all markets—distribution operations. Like the earlier example, partnership opportunities also lie in the distribution network, but on an expanded scale. 

Figure 47.1 shows the optimization in practice diuing operations. Customers, stores, or distribution centers in this case, generate demand for transportation services. The optimization step determines the preferred mode of transportation (LTL or TL). If it is a truckload shipment, it is scheduled and routed to minimize cost. A TL situation may require routing to cover several shipment requirements. The remaining steps track the shipment through deliver and billing steps. 

In retrospect, this company should have customized the audit form for each operation that would have fit the particular safety concerns of that operation. The corporate management did not want to deal with different audit forms they wanted consistency. They believed that using one audit form was the fair way to judge one facility against the other. What might have been an alternative would be to offer one type of audit for the repackaging operations and another audit for warehousing/distribution operations. The comparison then would have been closer to the apples to apples comparison. 

Other examples are beta tests or public testing conducted on software products where tens or hundreds of products are distributed to designated customer sites for trials under actual operating conditions before product launch. Sometimes, commercial pressures force termination of these trials and products are launched prematurely in order to beat the competition. 

Crystallization process control is desirable from a number of standpoints. The primary objective is often to meet customer requirements by achieving consistent product quality to a desired specification of crystal size, size distribution and purity. Secondly, process requirements often dictate maintenance of stable crystallizer operation, the avoidance of fines and encrustation, and the minimization of subsequent downstream processing. 

An Post is Ireland s national postal service provider. As the parent company operating Ireland s largest communications, distribution, logistics, and financial-related service networks. An Post provides a wide range of services to both business and personal customers. 

The authors provide selection criteria, by which the suitability of a process for a distributed production can be assessed [139]. These are explicitly given for the categories of feedstock, processes, customer products, and waste products. This is completed by a list of suitable device types for distributed production such as plate heat exchangers, pressure and temperature swing units, electrostatic dispersers, and membrane units. The various operations often rely on the use of electricity and therefore are said to be particularly suited for operation at the mini scale. 

Chemical companies are also weak at looking for opportunities downstream of their own operations. Whilst most would recognise the need to understand the business of their customers, few look further downstream and try and understand their customer s customer. However, if your materials can reduce energy consumption or waste production in a final product, you reduce the costs further downstream and potentially change the value distribution across the entire supply chain. If you understand how your products are used downstream, you can share that value with your customers. 

---