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Customisation trends
I am keen to understand whether my colleagues in the technology distribution market agree that there is an increased trend towards earlier configuration and customisation at source in the supply chain, rather than late customisation?
83 months ago
2 answers
Paul,
That's a rather complex question to answer. There are many different types and velocities to supply chains, but I'll give you my opinion in two kind of extreme cases.
One is from the manufacturers perspective and invovled the diea of postponement. Bascially the idea is to never assemble, modify or kit a prodcut to final level until the last reasonable moment becuase demand is highly varialble. I would opine that yes this is increasibg but the concept is at least 10 years or older so most of the gain for this stratgey has been win.
The other is from the final seller or distribution perpsecitive - retail being the prime example.
they want the ifniahed product to be in the right place, right time, right status (promised or not), right config(color...) but do not wnat to own it if they can (Consignment, VMI...) and only wnat to pick it and kit it for the store or consumer at the last possible moment. Thius area with Amazon, Jet/Walmart and the omni-channel revoltuion that is exoploding is definatley increasing and much of the cost is bron by the origin manufacturer and intermediate distribution.
Neil OConnell
83 months ago
As Neil notes, there's inevitably, and necessarily a variation depending up on the product and market you're addressing.
That said, I'm a true believer in the value of looking at any process from end-to-end, with a holistic and over-arching view into what's your goal, what are you trying to achieve, and thereby can begin to determine where changes might be of value towards achieving that end.
83 months ago
