Marshall Fisher. What is the right supply chain for your product Assignment

Marshall Fisher. What is the right supply chain for your product - Assignment Example Fisher argues that in some instances, performance has significantly worsened as a consequence of costs rising to unprecedented levels (Fisher, 1997). Based on his ten years’ research on the topic of supply chain in different industries ranging from fashion, food and apparel to automobile, Fisher devised a framework aimed at assisting managers to settle on the best supply chain for their specific products and situations. Fisher’s article aims at assisting managers comprehend the nature of the demand of their products and services and create a supply chain, which can best suit this demand. Fisher begins by arguing that a lot of brain power and technology has been applied with the view of improving supply chains. Organizations have the capacity o acquire and retain the voices of their customers using sophisticated marketing tools. The primary aim of a successful supply is to accurately identify and respond to market demands. According to Fisher, the first and perhaps most important step in developing and effective supply chain strategy is to appreciate the nature of demand for one’s company’s products. In order to attain this objective, companies typically make use of agile manufacturing, automated warehousing and mass customization (Fisher, 1997). However, these efforts continue to prove ineffective as supply chains worsen with each passing day. A notable symptom of this problem is the notable excess of one product and the scarcity of another. This begs the questions of why firms are unable to develop the performance of their supply chains and how these problems can be tackled in an effective manner. Fisher shows that if an individual classifies products and services on the basis of their demand patterns, these products fall into two major categories: the products are either primarily innovative or functional. Each of these categories calls for a distinctly unique form of supply chain. A primary problem arises from the mismatch between the type of product category and form of supply chain utilized. Therefore, an effective supply chain must first identify the type of product through criteria such as demand unpredictability and lifecycle. Functional products fulfill basic needs and have long lifecycles and stable and predictable demand. Innovative products have short lifecycles and it is relatively difficult to predict their demand since they depend on prevailing fashion and lifestyle causing uncertain market reactions. Fisher argues that after ascertaining the type of product being supplied, a company should determine whether the company’s supply chain is responsive to the market or physically efficient before using a matrix to determine the ideal supply chain strategy (Fisher, 1997). Functional products typically need effective supply chain processes while innovative products require responsive processes. Companies dealing in functional products are presently realizing the detriments of focusing on cost re duction, which causes diminishing returns. Consequently, firms are shifting towards sustaining coordination with corporate stakeholders such as distributors and suppliers who play a pivotal role in the supply chain processes. This coordination presents growing opportunities especially in light of the development of electronic networks, which enable closer coordination. However, companies often use the cooperative and competitive strategies to their detriment since the two approaches need dramatically diverse behaviors (Fisher, 1997). On the other hand, companies dealing in innovative products seek systems that provide high levels of product availability