Behind every product manufactured there are parts, fasteners, gloves, welds, holes that are drilled, and maybe a headache or two. These are all products that are sold and manufactured by the companies W.W. Grainger and Fastenal Company. Both of these companies are in the top ten in revenue for the industrial supply industry and I just so happen to work at one of them, that being Fastenal Co. The industrial supply industry generates about 73 billion dollars in revenue and has a growth rate of 4.4% a year and employees about 95,000 people according to IBIS World. The interesting part of this industry is the fact there is no company with a dominant market share. Even though some revenue numbers might be higher for some companies, each company One of the main costs is to manufacture their products. A major reason the companies are moving manufacturing plants to Asia and South America is to lower manufacturing cost. This will lower the cost for the customer and keep each company competitive and allow them to keep a high margin. Another cost is the inventory cost for each company. Each company needs major capital to store their broad catalog of products. This is especially true for Fastenal because one of their niches is time of delivery. Since Fastenal has more distribution plants we as a company are able to get a customer an order in a shorter period of time. The problem for both companies is since the catalog is so broad many products end up staying in inventory for too long raising inventory costs. Also another cost is product development and management. Each company has many products that need to be developed and the customer seems to always want something else. Both companies spend capital to satisfy their customer’s product needs and each company needs to manage product After each order is made the product is either picked from the store or ordered from one of the central hubs. If a product is ordered from a hub an employee needs to track down the part, count out the correct amount of pieces, and ship the product. Once the product is shipped to the store employees need to receive in the parts and then deliver them to the customer. Behind every part bought there is an extensive amount of labor time put into getting that product to the customer. Not only do the companies need to have labor to produce and distribute products they need high end technology to develop and distribute their
General Motors is a long established corporation, which has had a profound affect on the American people and the American economy. The corporation has prided themselves on producing automobiles at the lowest cost, while remaining a style leader of the industry. Bankruptcy with a government buy out in 2009 caused reorganization, a battle to transform, reinventing a new GM corporate culture. In 2014, Generals Motors topped the list as one of the nine most damaged brands. What caused General Motors to get such a tarnished reputation, was it a scandal-laden culture and mismanagement, putting profit over safety with massive cover-ups, or a combination of both?
Large players can offer competitive prices if they buy in bulk. Smaller players can differentiate themselves by offering niche products and superior customer delight at a premium price.
Suppliers must maintain good relations with the companies in the industry. This is low because there are multiyear service contracts and the delivery industry uses items such as vehicles, employee benefits, general goods and airline contracts associated with overhead of running business, but all contracts are rewarded through an RFP process. There are enough players in the market and had high fixed cost and thus have substantial buying power.
Per Kalogeropoulos (2016), the company is better able to ensure product availability while managing their costs because of their latest logistics initiative. They have recently created a network of deployment centers that reduces the time between when the product leaves a supplier to when it hits the shelf at the Home Depot store which drives profits higher. Parnell (2014), relays that companies who use low-cost strategy seek distribution channels that minimize cost. Home Depot’s new logistics initiative provides the company with economies of scale and a market advantage because it adds to their low-cost
We have all been there. We walk into the garage of our mechanic’s shop, taking a quick glance; we see the huge elaborate toolboxes that each mechanic owns. Most of them are from Mac, Matco or Snap-On. Unless you work in the tool industry most people do not realize what the real cost of each of these boxes is.
The cost advantages related to raw materials may be explained by better negotiated agreements with suppliers (perhaps due to the larger volumes of purchases – comp. Fig. 5) and possibly less shipping and distribution costs that stem from the fact that Samsung’s fab facilities are geographically collocated (while competitors’ facilities are spread world-wide). In terms of labour productivity only Chinese SMIC outperformed Samsung, but that came hardly unexpectedly: low labour costs in China had been and were to remain unbeatable for some time yet.
Adding to overseas sourcing so that lead time could be faster for design and production they could also divide the business up and have different locations for orders and new products to make business faster and
Other competitive activities included sales promotion, advertising, and product differentiation. Larger companies have a much greater financial ability to be able to invest more into advertising than a new business starting out would be able to. Shelf space and competitive pricing were two major issues that affected sales. Because they are already recognizable brands, they can afford to purchase the best shelf space. Consumers will see their products before noticing other, not so well known products.
Like Walmart, Apple uses its purchasing power to control suppliers and their costs. Both businesses invest in new supply chain management technologies and are always looking to improve their current processes. The efficiency of both supply chains leads to time and cost savings. Both organizations deal directly with manufacturers, leading to more regular inventory flow and is a major advantage in their supply chains. They focus on forecasting the demand in order to determine inventory needs. Collaboration and cooperation are key in both supply chains, with the creation of partnerships that secure high volume delivery at lower costs. Both Walmart and Apple keep very close and open communications with their suppliers – while Walmart is basically the creator of direct computer management, Apple sends representatives to work with their suppliers in person until they achieve the necessary efficiencies. Both companies basically reach out to their suppliers as if they were part of the same firm. Both businesses avoid the use of third-parties,
For example, occasionally M&S has products shipped to Asia to be created, then back to the UK for packaging and labeling, and back once again to Asia to be sold in their retail stores. This increases production costs and time, placing them at a disadvantage to Zara. Zara uses two main centers for their products, a supply center in Beijing and it’s manufacturing center located in Spain. M&S also creates collections in mass numbers compared to Zara, therefore, failed designs cost the company far more money. Zara’s success in inventory turnover lies in the process of creating far less product, keeping its exclusivity, and decreasing its risk of profit
The large initial capital investment needed for new entrants is another major barrier. The cost of machinery and manufacturing is expensive. It is hugely important and costly to have a global presence in manufacturing as it is extremely expensive to ship machinery to clients around the globe.
Relocating parts of company’s manufacturing plant from New Zealand to Malaysia would definitely have cost reducing effect on company’s manufacturing operations due to cheaper labour cost and plant. However, there are downsides to what seems like a utopia for manufacturers. This essay will cover some important market and non-market environments in Malaysia that would have an impact on firm’s manufacturing operations.
High price in imports. Because our main ingredient is imported from the U.S., the exportation and freight costs are higher than those compared to a local company.
All choices made by Seven-Eleven are structured to lower its transportation and receiving costs. For example, its area-dominance strategy of opening at least 50 to 60 stores in an area helps with marketing but also lowers the cost of replenishment. All manufacturing facilities are centralized to get the maximum benefit of capacity aggregation and also lower the inbound transportation cost from the manufacturer to the distribution center (DC). Seven-Eleven also requires all suppliers to deliver to the DC where products are sorted by temperature. This reduces the outbound transportation cost because of aggregation of deliveries across multiple suppliers. It also lowers the receiving cost. The information infrastructure is set up to allow store managers to place orders based on analysis of consumption data. The information infrastructure also facilitates the sorting of an order at the DC and receiving of the order at the store. The key point to emphasize here is that most decisions by Seven-Eleven are structured to aggregate transportation and receiving to make both cheaper.
The decline in Profit margin in 2014 was because of their less revenue in the North American market where they make good margins with their larger vehicles as shown in Figure