For those of you that have turned to solar energy in order to power something in your home or business Foster Moreau Camo Jersey , then you are doing your part in saving the earth. Do you realize that you can harvest the energy from the sun in order to power your entire house? If you have not already done so, this is definitely something you should look into. There are many advantages to using solar energy to power your home. Of course, where there are advantages Isaiah Johnson Camo Jersey , there always seems to be disadvantages. Get ready to learn solar energy advantages and disadvantages.
Would you like to start with the good news or the bad news first? We’ll start with the disadvantage. You are in luck, because we can only think of one disadvantage to using solar energy. The only disadvantage would be the upfront cost. However, once you install it Maxx Crosby Camo Jersey , you will no longer have that big electric bill to pay to the electric company. Take note that the system has a life span of 40 years, which may also be a disadvantage.
It’s free! Sure, you have to pay the upfront cost for the panels and to have it installed (if you do not do it yourself) Trayvon Mullen Camo Jersey , but after that, it is free. You will finally get to say goodbye to the electric company. In fact, if you produce more energy than you need Johnathan Abram Camo Jersey , the electric company may be interested in buying that extra energy from you. There is no pollution. When you run energy with the electric company, there is a great deal of pollution. When you use the sun to power your home, there is not going to be any pollution. This means you are doing your part in preserving the earth. Most systems will not require any maintenance during their lifetime. This means that once you purchase it Josh Jacobs Camo Jersey , for at least forty years, you will not have to put any money towards your electricity. Most systems, depending on the one you purchase Clelin Ferrell Camo Jersey , will carry a warranty that will last for twenty to thirty years or more. It is always a good idea to go for a system that has a longer warranty hooked to it.
I write smoker cooking recipes and gas grill reviews so why am I writing about supply chain? It's not only because I have a Masters degree in logistics and supply chain management it's because I see so many of our beloved barbecues and smoker manufacturing operations moving from being "made in America to "made in China" and the extended supply chain forces manufacturers to think differently about how they satisfy the market and that impacts both you and me.
Generally speaking an area of low cost labor is usually a significant distance away from the point of sale and this means that the time from manufacture of the product to actually selling it is a long time. Let's assume that it take two months to ship a container from point of manufacture to the point of sale and there's a shift in customer demand from (for example) charcoal barbecues to gas grills? You're stuck with upwards of 3 months stock (taking into account the buffer stock at the point of shipment and the point of sale) and nowhere to sell. There's only one thing to do and that's to reduce the price. Dependent on your margin, this could be the difference between making money and losing money.
Likewise a long transit time means that even with the most generous of credit terms, you're going to have to pay the full cost of manufacture before selling anything. Being able to finance this gap maybe dependent on the bank and should it increase due to factors beyond your control you may be going cap in hand to the bank to borrow more money just to finance your supply chain. Businesses that fail to appreciate this point often fail and that failure is usually described as "cash flow problems".
Consider this point in the barbecue business. Sales are booming in the summer and orders to the manufacture are going out to ensure that demand is covered. The last thing that you need is to have all your new stock arriving in September and the end of the season. Accurate demand forecasting is an absolute priority.
To summarize this supply chain point Antonio Brown Camo Jersey , if you have large volumes of a constrained product range and minimal seasonality then a long supply chain is sustainable. If you have low volumes, high product differentiation and high seasonality then maybe a long supply chain will cost you more than the benefits of outsourcing to a low cost country.
How do manufacturers manage this complexity?
One way to manage complexity is to postpone the point of final assembly until it's closer to the customer. In other words wait until the demand is known and then assemble the product that's required rather than on that isn't. This could be handled in the barbecue business in the following way:
Imaging you are buying a grill and can't decide between one with three burners and one with four burners. Rather than have two fully assembled grills (and the cost associated with them) sitting waiting for your to choose, the manufacturer simply has one carcass common to all grills and two cooker tops Derek Carr Camo Jersey , one with three burners on and one with four. When you make your decision, the final assembly is made and then the product is shipped.
Now think about this on a national scale, the big grill retailers such as Amazon and BBQGuys can use postponement to dramatically reduce their cost of inventory. Have you ever wondered why so many grills are starting to look similar to each other and why some have common parts? They're probably even made in the same manufacturing plant.