Question

( Answer should be around 500 words)

Taking a recent purchase as an example, write an essay to discuss the supply network of your product from raw material until it arrives to the consumer. You are required to cover the following points in your essay/presentation:

Company overview, product overview, major competitors.

Stages of the product supply chain or network design, location of raw material in relation to the manufacturer, distributor, retailer and consumer, etc.

The relationship between suppliers and customers (first tier, second tier, etc.., horizontal or vertical integration (if any), levels of inventory and where it’s held.

Explanation of any problems and suggestions for further improvements of the supply chain

Answer 1

A supply chain is a process of moving and storing goods from the supplier stage to the customer stage. Its a five-step process that involves - plan, develop, make, deliver and return.

We are launching a product - Organic Lemon water - "O-La”

1. Why are we launching the product?

- Organic Lemon Water is the most preferred drink among people across various countries/

- It includes various nutrients which are good for the human body.

- Low maintenance and packaging cost.

- Easy manufacturing and low capital.

Competitors - The soft drink industry is a competitive and revenue generating industry. Many soft drink companies have acquired a considerable segment of the market. The unique product “O- La” will give a competitive edge among the competitors, as no one has yet thought about selling organic lemon water in an innovative and specialized way. Some of the competitors include Coca cola, Sprite, Mojo, Frooti, Pepsi etc.

Strategies against competitors -

• Providing the best service to create high customer engagement and satisfaction
• Promising and delivering the best quality product
• Creating and maintaining long-term customer relationship
• Acceptable and reasonable pricing
• A continuous innovation of the product to acquire the market.

Raw materials - The basic raw materials used in the preparation of Organic Lemon Water include Salt, Sugar, Citric Acid, Lemon Pulp, Vitamin C and Stabilizer.

The sources of these raw materials include both national ( ABC Supermarkets, Saint Martin ) and international ( Mexico, Brazil, Argentina etc ) units.

The machinery used to develop the product is - Extracting Machine, Filtering and Purification machine, Mixing and Blending, Bottling and packaging machine.

Process -

A supply chain management process will be initiated by appointing managers, supervisors and various supplying agents. The communication mediums used will be Emails, Calls and Video calls, Messages, Audio/ video conferencing and social media outlets. The transportation of the product will be carried out by trucks, boats, and ships.

Delivering orders and schedules to the supplier ----Sending supplying agents to collect the raw materials----Bringing raw materials and machinery to the port through boats and ships-----Transferring the units to factory and warehouses by trucks.

In the initial stage, there is a need for huge sales for the product. An increase in distributor’s number in the whole country is required, for which we need to identify the major wholesalers and retailers in the remote area of Bangladesh. An evaluation of their capacity will be done and a word shall be put forward to sell our product in their distribution network more frequently. The company can also cover Dhaka by dividing it into 20 operational zones, each zone having a separate distributor. Superstores which are located in Dhaka, the product will be directly delivered to them at a wholesale price. When the market will spread out, products will be distributed through our own agents. For mass marketing, we will supply our product nationwide in both urban and rural areas through our distribution agents. Our agents will take the products to each and every place of the country. “O-La” will be available in all retail stores of the country.

Relationship - The buyer and seller will have a transactional relationship, which means the focus relies on the timely exchange of O-La at a competitive price, There is a little interest to extend relationship, Transactional relationship preferred when there is availability of many suppliers, there is a stable supply market, the purchase decision is not complex.