Respond to the posts of at learner. Compare and contrast your posting with theirs. How did their posts influence your thinking? What suggestions can you make to strengthen their posting?

How did their posting aid in your understanding of the topic? Include any additional points that would be constructive and supportive for your peers.

When a company has an effective supply chain, it will ultimately allow the business to run as smoothly as possible, creating a successful platform, and in turn, permitting the company to reach their ultimate goal(s) At the end of the day, the main goal a company should want to achieve is to fulfill the customer’s needs. By having everything in strategic place, from customers, manufactures, suppliers, retailers, transportation, technology, account management, and customer service; like FedEx, both the company and the customer(s) are left with peace of mind. Many companies choose to use third party logistics companies due to the costs of all the resources needed. Unless a company is a major corporation, with a substantial investment in the business, many other smaller companies do not have the financial resources to cover a lot of the needed resources, such as product development, distribution, account management, processing, and most of all, an actual distribution center, with the technological resources to manage inventory and so forth. Many small businesses rely on third party logistics companies to keep their business running smoothly, at an effective cost. The major components to ensure a successful supply chain would have to be, having the proper technology to support the business, and that will be most effective to support the customer’s needs. Customers do not want to wait, nor waste time, so time management is vital as well. I would also say another key component for a company to consider would be, “Go Green Technologies.” Customers these days want to see that a company is sensitive to the environment and is able to do anything possible that would eliminate energy consumption and anything carbon. If a customer sees that a company is sensitive in that area, then the company will be sensitive to the needs of the customer. These are just a small few of the major key components that I believe are important, to ensure a successful supply chain.