Integrated supply chain division

The retail environment continues to increase in competitiveness, offering new formats such as e-retailing and mass customization. As competition increase, pressures for increased in stock without the corresponding increased prices have created the need for careful integration of the supply chain operation with the marketing divisions. 

Hewlett-Packard (HP) also found that the fluctuation in orders increased significandy as they moved from the resellers up the supply chain to the printer division to the integrated circuit division (ibid.). Once again, although product demand showed some variabiUty, orders placed with the integrated circuit division were much more variable. This made it difficult for HP to fill orders on lime and increased the cost of doing so. 

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