business topic 3

• supply chain

  a supply chain consists of the group or firms that are involved in the various processes required to make a finished product a service available to customer

  chain begins with provider of raw materials`, and ends with firm that sells product

  all supply chain members need to be dependable
• choosing suppliers

  price- firms need to think about how much they are paying

  quality- quality of suppliers needs to be consistent

  reliability- suppliers need to be reliable
• procurement and logistics

  procurement means finding and buying things needed from suppliers

  logistic means getting goods or services from one part of the supply chain to another

  having effective procurement and logistics improves business efficiency
• benefits of managing supply chain 1

  good relationship with supplier

  finding best price and value

  reduces waste and unnecessary costs
• job production

  is making one thing at a time

  used when a firm manufactures unique/individual products

  each product has unique design, based on customers specification

  products often require highly skilled labour

  usually expensive
• flow production

  making loads of things continuously

  as products are identical, aims to produce as many as possible
• lean production

  is a strategy businesses can use to make production more efficient

  aims to use as few resources to have as little waste
• just in time (JIT)

  a way of managing stock

  aims to keep stock levels to bare minimum

  reduces costs of having to keep stock

  requires alot of co ordination between firm and suppliers
• just in case (JIC)

  means having extra stock

  if problem with delivery they have spare

  firms can be left with big stock piles of items, which can be costly to store them
• maintaining quality

  benefits:

  higher price - customers prepared to pay more money

  increased sales

  better reputation

  problems:

  staff training-can cost money and time

  inspection- takes time and money
• measuring quality

  can do this buy specifying physical quality

  monitor refunds and complaints

  customer surveys
• checking quality during production

  checked at three different stages:

  1. raw materials are checked
  2. random samples
  3. random samples taken of finished product
• total quality management(TQM)

  aims to make quality every employers main responsibility

  employers are asked to think about customer needs

  the focus is getting things right the first time, reduces cost of waste

  employers will need a lot of training
• customers want good service through sales process

  sales process:

  1. finding new customers
  2. approaching
  3. assessing customer needs
  4. presenting
  5. closing deal
  6. making sure customer is happy
• how o have good customer service during sales process

  engaging well with customers

  offering post-sales service
• ways firms interact with customers

  websites and e commerce

  social media
• pros and cons of customer service

  good customer service:

  higher levels of customer satisfaction

  more likely to remain loyal

  customers persuaded to spend more

  bad customer service:

  customer dissatisfaction

  bad news spread