This upside is justifiable if Apple is able to sell iPhone 5 at a higher price point and curb its manufacturing costs while ensuring smoother distribution and management of its supply chain.
Greenpeace asks companies to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions throughout the life cycle of their products: supply chain, manufacturing, distribution, customer use, and end-of-life, using a combination of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy policy advocacy.
Therefore, distribution must be delivered through a multi-layer supply chain that ends in thousands of mom-and-pop storefronts.
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While other business processes like distribution have improved by leaps and bounds thanks to supply-chain technology innovation and that old stalwart, Six Sigma, the revenue process is still one of the most inefficient areas of enterprise today.
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So why would Apple, known for meticulous control of its supply chain, stay quiet when someone has invaded its distribution network in China?
Given the uncertainty in the demand environment, we decided to aggressively and proactively adjust our supply chain now to maintain lean inventories, especially in the distribution channel.
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Outsourcing of manufacturing, for instance, is feasible only if it can be separated from other supply chain activities: product development, branding, marketing, distribution, and after sales services.
As I discuss in The Business Strategy in a Semiglobal Economy, for instance, outsourcing of manufacturing is feasible only if it can be separated from other supply chain activities: product development, branding, marketing, distribution, and after sales services.
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They provide an alternative, virtual supply chain, one where the costs of creation, marketing, distribution and use of information goods have plummeted to something close to zero.
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Since 2006, HD increased its operating margin through efforts such as developing its supply chain management, which reduced cost of transportation and inventory, and developing a formal distribution channel which increased bargaining power over suppliers.
As a business model, there is a lot of inefficiency built into the supply chain and replenishment process for these street vendors, since they reside a few notches down in the distribution system from the regular brick and mortar merchants with whom they compete.
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