Supply Chain Management Essay

Food distribution is the second stage which involves the distributing parties supplying food to various destinations mostly the consumers, the distributors act as the connection between the farmers and the consumers since most consumers can't go directly in the farm to buy food at small quantities. Food consumption is the third stage whereby consumers purchase the already produced and distributed food either directly from the farms or from the suppliers. This is the most important stage in food supply since this stage involves the targeted people who are the consumers or the customers and since food is a perishable product it would go bad if not purchased at this stage. The consumption stage depends heavily on the type of food and how fresh the product is in the eyes of the consumer.

Food disposal involves disposing remnants or removing food which might seem to be inedible or not consumable from the supply chain. d. The product flow is also a systematic process that sometimes involves. In food supply chain management there is a supplier is involved, a distributor is also a part of the product flow, a wholesaler who sells the commodity to the retailer a wholesale price and finally the consumer completes the product flow. In the product flow, the goods and services mostly follow a downward flow (Noomhorm & Ahmad, 2008). In some cases, the situation seems to be the reverse appearing to least expected. There is also the supply of aluminum foils and labels in order to use them in the packaging of chocolate.

(Noomhorm & Ahmad, 2008) After the processing of chocolate is complete, the finished product is packed and the suppliers take over whereby they supply it to wholesalers at a cheaper price. The wholesale distributors' supplies the packaged product to retailers who later sell it to consumers. Part 2 The relationship between Logistics activities and organizational performance For any company or business organization to be successful they must practice logistics activities and supply chain management. The main objective of practicing logistics activities by any company is always to reduce the cost, promote efficiency and to increase competitiveness while ensuring they promote customer satisfaction (DRAŠKOVIĆ, 2009). In the inbound logistics, it entails activities such as procurement, storage, transportation and handling of goods or services while on the other hand outbound logistics involves the processes of maintenance, collection and the distribution of these products to the final consumers who are customers.

Logistics has been considered as the only way of responding to the various changes in customer's needs and it's, therefore, recommended that each industry or company must adapt their logistical values which will promote a company's corporate governance, in terms of asset management and financial flow (DRAŠKOVIĆ, 2009). Packaging and unitization play an important role in the various organizational performances. This is because packaging plays a major marketing strategy role because it's used to attract the attention of the customers. Many customers will judge products basing on their packaging before they decide to buy them. The inventory provides relevant information about the major stakeholders in a company; these stakeholders include distributors, producers, customers, and retailers. Inventory management reduces the high cost of holding inventories, these costs that are managed include the storage cost and other capital tied up to inventory management.

This promotes the organizational performance by reducing a company's expenditure and it also reduces time spent to access various relevant information found in the inventory storage area (Azmi, Hamid, Md Hussin & Ibtishamiah, 2017). Transportation is a logistic activity that entails the movement of products from the production point up to the consumption point. For any supply chain to be successful, then it must offer a transportation package to their customers. This is a broad area in supply chain management because it involves various activities from raw materials to finished products. Some companies have set up warehouse which is used to store raw materials before production or manufacturing. Some warehouses are also used to store finished products before they are distributed to the consumers (Kondratjev, 2015).

Warehousing is very important because it allows smooth production by ensuring there is a consistent supply of raw materials because of its availability. Additionally, it allows storage of finished products before they are transported to the consumers hence it keeps in check the fluctuation in the market price. Supply chain management plays an important role in the marketing strategies; these strategies are in terms of the development of new products, customer service delivery, and financial flow. Logistics generally focus on getting the right products, right customer and providing the right quality and quantity of products according to customer's needs. Supply chain management entails customer satisfaction from the production point to the consumption point which involves various stakeholders such as the manufacturer, supplier, wholesaler and retailer.

Various companies practice logistics activities with the main aim of reducing the cost of production while they attain service delivery and through this, they practice various activities such as warehousing, storage, inventory management, information control, packaging and unitization, transportation among other logistics activities. References Atieno, G. Retrieved from http://file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/JEEIR2017. pdf Bendeković, J. , Naletina, D. , & Nola, I.  FOOD SAFETY AND FOOD QUALITY IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN [Ebook] (pp. pdf Fugate, B. , Mentzer, J. , & Stank, T. LOGISTICS PERFORMANCE: EFFICIENCY, EFFECTIVENESS, AND DIFFERENTIATION.  Journal Of Business Logistics, 31(1), 43-62. Supply chain practices and organizational performance.  The International Journal Of Logistics Management, 28(1), 75-101. doi: 10. 1108/ijlm-06-2015-0090 GOSSAYE, A.  LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT PRACTICE IN AWASH BANK S. doi: 10. 1108/13598540810882206 Kondratjev, J.  Logistics.