Increasing competitiveness through supply chain management

In this era of LPG, it is the survival of the most competitive enterprise. Competitiveness is the buzz word. Every organization therefore, in order to survive and exist has to be most competitive, and there are many ways in which one can increase competitiveness. Supply Chain management is one of them. In fact, every aspect of business is important for success. With constant addition to our knowledge, changing perspectives, every function of marketing needs a re-look now and then and definitely a watchful eye ever. Even a simple act of making the product available to the customer is not that simple anymore. Obviously it is simpler than conceiving a product, designing, manufacturing, packing, promoting etc. however; in spite of above activities if the product is not available in the right time or in right quantity, the business suffers by way of profit opportunities lost or lost sales. Gone are those days when customers used to wait for the right product or the required quantity. Now time is money and speed- may kill on the road but, wins in the market place. The customer now days not only wants instantaneously but wants it most comfortably or delightfully i.e. he looks for the pleasure the 5th P of marketing mix. Hence in my opinion, designing of the logistics or supply chain should start with this in mind- the 5th P- pleasure i.e. Customer Delight. When we say logistics or supply chain it actually has two distinct systems. One- the material management system concerned with the goods and services flowing into the firm and also known as In-bound logistics, using MRP (Materials Requirement Planning) and JIT methods and Two- the Distribution Management System, implying the flow of goods and service3s from the firm to the customers and also known as Out- bound logistics using DRP (Distribution Requirement Planning), QR (Quick Response) or ECR 9 Efficient Consumer Response) methods. This paper discusses the distribution system from the Supply Chain perspective.