Effective Distribution Networks

Effective Distribution Networks

  • Submitted By: mkoria
  • Date Submitted: 07/29/2010 6:28 AM
  • Category: Business
  • Words: 2128
  • Page: 9
  • Views: 555

EFFECTIVE DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS
This essay intends on giving a thronged elaboration on what effective distribution networks are, as well as giving relevant examples of them. An opinion on their effectiveness will also be objectively shared towards concluding.
Effective distribution networks are successful and advantageous channels or ways of dispensing products at different stages before reaching the consumer. These stages include the manufacturer, supplier and sometimes-insignificant stops in between. There are usually two imperative decisions that managers have to over come when designing a distribution network. The first decision revolves around the preordained site that is if at all the product will be delivered to the customer location or picked up from a determined place that in these terms is considered as a preordained site. The second decision is concerned with the product passing through a medium before reaching its final destination, in this context the medium here known as the intermediary or the intermediate location. Both these decisions are valid and are up to par, what makes it a task is mainly based on the nature of the firms industry. There are also specific distribution network designs suitable for the two decisions mentioned.
These specified distribution networks are categorized in the following manner:
1. Manufacturer Storage with Direct Shipping
2. Manufacturer Storage with Direct Shipping and In-Transit Merge
3. Distributor Storage with Package Carrier Delivery
4. Distributor with Last-Mile Delivery
5. Manufacturer/Distributor Storage with Customer Pickup
6. Retail Storage with Customer Pickup

1. Manufacturer storage with direct shipping
The products in this alternative of effective distribution network are shipped straightway from the manufacturer to reach the customer as a final destination. However these products bypass the retailer, at this juncture orders are taken and delivery requests are initiated. In some...

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