Map Supply Chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Map Supply Chain - Essay Example uiring an increasingly important role due to their ability to influence quality, identify inconsistencies that can be useful in process improvements, and ensure product safety. Many manufacturers receive raw materials from several suppliers and hence, suppliers are important nodes in the dense network of supply chain. Without even interacting with consumers directly, suppliers provide the resources – or more appropriately, the inputs – that manufacturers use to produce its outputs. A manufacturer is an entity that receives all the raw materials from the supplier and develops a finished product by using the inputs. Manufacturers are the producers of goods and services using inputs provided to them by suppliers. Manufacturers are involved in those activities and operates that process the inputs into finished outputs. Manufacturers are important to delivering value to consumers as they possess the resources required to produce a particular product. After production, manufacturers provide the stock for distributors to handle. Manufacturers serve the purpose of converting inputs and finished goods to be supplied to distributors to be sold to the resellers. Hence, manufacturers are concerned with producing finished products using raw materials that will then be supplied to the consumers through resellers. Distributors receive goods and products from manufacturers to be sold to the resellers. Distributors are vital intermediaries in the supply chain whose main task is to literally ‘distribute’ the goods to the resellers in a rather hub and spoke fashion. As it is, distributors are the hubs for distribution to retail stores. Distributors handle all the inventory and storage of products before they are supplied to the retail stores. A distributor therefore buys products from a manufacturer in order to sell it to the retail stores. Hence, distributors act as important intermediaries between the manufacturer and the retailer in terms of product logistics and