In the competitive world of manufacturing and distribution of finished products, it is imperative that companies need to have a strong management system to run their business. But most of the time it seems that manufacturers and their distributors have difficult times coordinating and working on the same grounds. They often are found to be disconnected.
Manufacturers on one hand have owned their interests to stay motivated. These factors are:
- Higher production volumes: Manufacturers always want their products to be ever-growing. One of the main reasons for the same is that they need high levels of production to earn profits.
- Gain from the market share.
- Manufacturers want distributors to be more focused on sales and marketing: Higher sales and better marketing mean higher sales and better profits.
- High distributor inventory: Manufacturers like their distributors to be loaded and loyal.
- No competition with their product lines.
- Support from distributors with new product lines, and
- Payments in time.
On the other hand, distributors stay motivated when they:
- Have higher margins of profit.
- Returns on their capital investments.
- Quicker inventory turns.
- Exclusive and protected territories.
- Return of inventory on the goods that don’t sell or do not sells well.
- Regular new product lines that have higher margins of profit.
- Product demands and quality products.
- Regular and uninterrupted supply of products.
How can this gap be managed efficiently and things are on the same page for the manufacture and the distributors?
The answer is Distribution Management System. A distribution-based growth is considered as the traditional way to grow and improve your brand quickly and reach the far ends of the market. In business, there is an old say – ‘it is easy to create but, difficulty to sustain’. The biggest challenge that every manufacturer comes across is ensuring adequate inventory with the distributors and settling claims that create tension between the brand and the distributors.
What is Distribution Management System?
Markets today are huge and complex. They have thousands of distributors, innumerous outlets, and millions of customers to cater to. All these have to be managed efficiently by the manufacturers. The vast network of big, small, and tiny distributors has its own set of conflicting needs. The only way manufacturers can manage all of this with limited insight and data, and take control and manage everything from promotions to inventory and cost control is through the Distribution Management System.
The DMS or the Distribution Management System helps you take control right from your down-supply chain to the control of promotions, improved productivity, inventory management, sales process, and distributor claims. You get accurate and reliable data of all your primary and secondary sales. In simple words, DMS is an engine that drives your total sales and distribution activities.
The Distribution Management System aids your business with:
- Trends and Sales Analytics
- Order Management
- Stock or Inventory Management
- Price Control and Circulation
- Movement of Stocks
- Stock-Out Situations
- Better Procurement and Planning, and
- Implementing and Regularizing Scheme Management
