Supply Chain Management

Role of Supply Chain Management 

in Marketing...

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Supply Chain Management plays a dynamic role in the overall marketing process of a product.Supply chain is the backbone of the modern industrial world.Managing a supply chain in an effective and in an efficient way is a very tough job. Supply chain involves from the starting of the procurement of raw materials required for the manufacturing of a product till its final consumption.
SCM involves all the processes like choosing of the best suppliers via e-sourcing, e-tendering for the procurement of the raw materials,the processes involved in the production of goods termed as work in progress till the final product is made.
It's not only limited to this only,from the factories the movement of the product through various distribution channels like distributors-wholesalers-retailers-in a very cost effective way so that the product gets delivered to the end customer in an efficient and in a cost effective way constitutes our supply chain.
The more efficient and an effective supply chain an organisation is having,the more profitable it will be getting in future.

Have you ever wondered that how coca cola is able to sell its ₹ 10 INR bottle of coke at the same price across pan India when there are so many costs associated like transportation cost,distribution costs,govt.taxes.
How it is able to maintain its unique price when distribution channel partners have also a certain share in it.
From this example we all could have understood that how efficient and cost effective the coca cola must have its supply chain.
Managers of these companies often do a strong brain storming,many times they do fail but failure always leads to learning. It teaches in a more better way.As of till date there is no programmed book for managing a supply chain which will ensure you that your supply chain will get fully optimised but it is with the continuous,integrated and with the mutual  help of suppliers and the company.
So for this reason the Supply chain acts like the beads of the chain.if even one bead of a chain is broken,it will make the whole chain weak and  vulnerable to the external competitors. It.It can create a threat and no doubt your product will come in a huge crisis.

Let me try to give you some insight about this:-
I am going to take an example of a simple packaged mineral water."Aquafina".

You know that this bottle is being sold in indian markets at ₹ 20.
This is the final product price and it is entirely different from the actual costs that are involved in the manufacturing of a bottle.
I won't say that you will earn ₹ 15 INR per bottle,if i say this then next morning most of my viewers would start selling the same:-).
But the actual cost of the mineral water is very low and it would not more than ₹1.50 INR .But the manufacturing costs associated and  involved are more, as visible to the naked eyes of the consumers but we should know that there is a blueprint of processes that need to be followed step by step.

See what things we must need to manufacture a bottle.

You need a plastic bottle.You get this plastics from the suppliers of the plastic material.


Then you definately need a cap as a lid on the bottle.You get these from its own suppliers.

After it you would also need to label it and hence you need a labelling sticker like this:-



We also need our core product that is water to be filled in these bottles.So we need pure water that can be obtained by the water filtration plant.Hence cost of the machinery of the filteration plant is also involved.

                                                                            Not limited to only this,you need to put these bottles into big boxes so that they can be protected from breakage.

To do all things,we need employees,staff workers to do these jobs.
We also need workers for cleaning jobs to clean the untidy places so costs get involved over there also.
Cost of energy is also involved because machines require electricity to operate,even cost of the building where inventories are being stored add up to costs.

After all these things they need to be carried from the factory chambers to the trucks to be transported and hence we need fort lifts.



To operate these we need fuel and an operator too.



Even after that after the trucks are fully loaded,the bottles are transported and are handled to distributors-retailers and they have their own profits set in addition to the costs.

The costs associated with loading,unloading of materials,govt.taxes,cost of fuel,salary of employees,materials needed at the workplace,energy costs and other variable costs are involved in the supply chain.



You will also need a dedicated customer care number to answer the queries of the customers and as well as listen to their complaints as well.

Hence to optimise all these costs associated and to make the best use of the scare resources available with the organisation, companies do hard efforts to make their product survive in such a cut throat competitive world...