We said in the last issue that a good supply chain is the end point of industrial product e-commerce, so today we will talk about how to build a demand-driven supply chain.
Let me talk about a word first, called inventory. Did you shake your head after reading it? It may not only be industrial product e-commerce, but all walks of life look sad when they hear about inventory. Many people talk about reducing inventory in the future digitalization, or even reaching zero inventory. But those who say zero inventory are just claptrap, and it is impossible to have zero inventory. Some companies' zero inventory actually puts inventory pressure on manufacturers or agents in various places. It is the company's zero inventory, not the product's zero inventory.
For industrial product e-commerce, inventory is a good thing. The most important role is to balance the volatility of upstream and downstream. Today we mainly talk about demand, so the volatility of the purchaser needs inventory to solve.
mro Why it is difficult to forecast demand for industrial products is because you cannot predict when some machines will malfunction. This is the volatility that industrial product e-commerce will face. If you cannot predict the behavior of purchasers, you must ensure your own inventory. Once demand changes, you will have enough products to cope with it.
Do you remember a math question about a reservoir, water is discharged from the bottom, and there is a water pipe above to add water. The two speeds are inconsistent. When will the water be filled? The entire supply chain of industrial products e-commerce is the model of this mathematical problem. The supplier is the one who adds water, the warehouse is the reservoir, and the product is purchased when the water is released. If the pool is high, will there be a backlog of inventory? A buyer has piled up 5,000 boxes of goods, selling 100 today and 200 tomorrow. He will not place another order to replenish the goods in the short term. With a large inventory, the time for placing orders will become very random. High inventory will cause market fluctuations not to be well reflected to industrial product e-commerce and suppliers.
What is the actual inventory? Many industrial product e-commerce companies with a long history regard not accumulating inventory as a benefit or business, which is called liberating the operating funds of channel partners. So after reading this article today, I hope everyone can correctly understand inventory. It is an important data that reflects changes in market demand.
How does an industrial products e-commerce company build a demand-driven supply chain
