inventory-management – Ellery's Essays

What Do We Do with ‘Bad Orders?’

One of the most irritating things in supply chain management is handling returned items from customers. We spend plenty of our precious time & resources trying to get rid of them. ‘Bad orders’ or BO for short are otherwise known as unsaleable merchandise or trade returns. BO is a commonplace term in the consumer goodsContinue reading “What Do We Do with ‘Bad Orders?’”

Building the Supply Chain at Both Ends

A supply chain essentially has two (2) ends: the suppliers (e.g., vendors, service providers) and the customers (e.g., clients, consumers, users). We who manage our businesses work both ends at the same time as our suppliers see us as customers and our customers see us as suppliers. We multitask as both suppliers and customers. InContinue reading “Building the Supply Chain at Both Ends”

Why We Need Policies and Why They Can Make or Break A Business

A young businessman had set up a wholesale business selling consumer goods in downtown Manila. His competitors, however, told him he won’t succeed. Competition was indeed fierce. There were several wholesalers already established and they sold at cut-throat prices at razor-thin profit margins. To get market share, the new wholesaler would have to offer betterContinue reading “Why We Need Policies and Why They Can Make or Break A Business”

Why Does It Take So Long?

I looked at the bottom of a dog food can at the pet shop to check its expiration date. It said “10/26/2026,” but the production date said “10/27/2023.” I concluded the dog food was safe as I bought the can of dog food on May 25, 2024. I thought, however: why was the production dateContinue reading “Why Does It Take So Long?”

Flagships & Anchors

Every enterprise has a flagship. A flagship is an enterprise’s leading product. It’s the brand that customers identify with the enterprise or it’s the enterprise’s number one item in terms of customer popularity or sales. We know The Coca-Cola Company by its flagship namesake, Coca-Cola. Likewise, we know the Pepsico corporation from its Pepsi lineContinue reading “Flagships & Anchors”

Relationships are What Makes Our Supply Chains

Supply chains are models of the relationships within and between enterprises which govern the flow of merchandise and services from their sources to end-users. We build our supply chains based on these relationships. The systems and structures of our organisations and with the enterprises we do business with stem from strategies and policies resulting fromContinue reading “Relationships are What Makes Our Supply Chains”