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Review on Article - What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Products

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What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product ?
Article by Marshall L.Fisher

INTRODUCTION
• Marshall L.Fisher is the Stephen J.Heyman Professor of Operations and Information Management and co-director of the Fishman-Davidson Center for Service and Operations Management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in Philadelphia. • His current research focuses on how to manage the supply of products with hard-to –predict demand.

Devising the Ideal Supply-Chain Strategy
• According to research by Marshall L.Fisher, before devising a supply chain, consider the nature of the demand for your products. • For example , product life cycle, demand predictability & patterns ,product variety & market standards for lead time & service. •
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• As such it slashed the delivery lead time , and hence can deploy supplies of each product where they are needed the most. • Campbell’s continuous-replenishment program embodies a model in which the manufacturer and the retailer cooperate to cut costs throughout the chain, thereby increasing the size of the pie.

Example Responsive Supply : National Bicycle
• National Bicycle a subsidiary of Matsushita Electric, prospered for decades as a small but successful division but by mid 1980’s it was in trouble due to high labor cost in Japan. • With new president ( Makoto Komoto) , he has seen that the division had many streghts : - technical expertise in manufacturing & computers - highly skilled workforce - strong brand name (Panasonic) - network of 900o dealers - Innovative product segment that enjoyed high profit margin - sports bicycles that affluent customers bought purely for recreation. .

• He hope that the company use the division’s strengths to develop a responsive chain that could supply sport bikes while the high risk of overproduction that resulted from their short life cycle and uncertainty demand. • His vision is customer would visit a Panasonic dealership and choose a bike from a selection of 2 million options for combining size, color and components using a special measuring stand to find the exact size of the frame that he or she needed. • Then the order would be faxed to the factory, where computercontrolled welding equipment and
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