Supply chain information management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Supply chain information management - Essay Example In the initial stage, distinctive procurement strategy of the company relied on three principles such as, maintain optimal amount of inventories such as books, rely on local wholesalers such as Ingram Book Company and also take help of the selected wholesalers to design and source the electronic catalogue of the book. For example, during late 1990s, Amazon maintained only 5% inventory level of its total order in its relatively small warehouses. Rest of the 95% of orders were sourced after receiving orders from customers. In such situations, Amazon quickly submits the purchase order to wholesaler for the book title which was not included in its own inventory. After receiving the purchase order from Amazon, wholesaler quickly sent the shipments and the shipment had arrived within 2-3days (Hammond 2005). In later years, when the volume of order had increased, Amazon established tie ups with book publisher to get better discount on shipment (48% on selling price) in contrast to discount rate (41% on selling price) by wholesaler (Hammond 2005). ... ater to the growing demand for books, e-books in cost and time efficient manner and another important thing was that, Amazon had realized the potential of online selling after witnessing the success of competitor eBay. After realizing the potential of selling in white space, Amazon transformed its business model in order to change the service-profit equation and offer superior value proposition to customers. The company included all sorts of easily shippable consumer goods along with books in its service portfolio in order to increase choice for customers and revenue margin by selling these items. Then Amazon started offering commission-based brokerage service to participants in online auction and also included third-party sellers in their value proposition list (Johnson 2010). Amazon has created a virtual market place in its website, where buyers and sellers can meet and bid for a particular while Amazon earns the brokerage from the participants in the online bidding process. Hence it can be said that, Amazon has transformed itself from direct sales company to a company which is able to provide sales and service in simultaneous manner. During late 2007, Amazon has enhanced the potentiality of its web service platform and offered Lab126 which was basically Kindle e-book reader. At that time, the concept of e-book was relatively new among customers and players in publishing industry but such obstacles never haltered the growth Lab126 platform. Amazon had created a seamlessly integrated iTunes like online platform for readers to subscribe, read and transact e-books which was widely successful. It is evident from the business model transformation of Amazon that the company never hesitated to take risk to launch innovative and high-margin offerings and created market for

GPS and Fuction on the field on construction Term Paper

GPS and Fuction on the field on construction - Term Paper Example A global positioning system (GPS) receiver ensures that scrapers and graders are able to identify accurate courses with minimum reference to in ground markers. The field of view of the operator is built with light bars that give a signal of a proper angular view of the blades while the machine is in motion. The video display gives a proper cut view of the job site. The operators use a computer screen to keep track of the positions of their blades. The advantages of this include; accuracy, speed, improved productivity and a result which is of high quality. GPS ensures that the foremen and supervisors do not rest stakes but instead monitor work, cycle time and haul routes. Later on in the evening, the GPS-equipped vehicles are moved to where they are supposed to send progress data to the head office. The actual progress can then be checked and compared to the original schedule by the estimators. The automatic heavy equipments such as scrapers for instance use the GRS technology. GPS antenna is mounted on the scrapers bowl which enables the operator to differentiate the site plan and the depth cut. The earthmoving operations are safer because minimal time is taken on the work and few people take part. Road graders for instance have steel blade beneath the vehicle that are adjustable thus allowing the operator to control the angle and height of the blade when in operation. Graders that are equipped with GPS enables operators to control area they grade and where do not. The technology enables the operator to work on specified lengths instead of estimating the area to grade. Its blade is designed to grade a flat surface for the road construction, and it also levels surface of uneven ground, its blade can also be used to create ditches beside roads and drainage paths. This is done by the grader lowering the blades to the set height, and it pushes off the dirt until the road is