In summary then of the logistics-marketing interface, the four P’s of the marketing mix, namely
product, price, promotion, place, require that for a company to be successful, any marketing
effort must integrate the ideas of having the right product at the right price, publicised with the
proper promotion, and available in the right place. Logistics plays a critical role particularly in
support of getting the product to the right place as a product or service provides customer
satisfaction only if it is available to the customer when and where it is needed. (Lambert, et al.
1998).
2.3.4 Logistics and manufacturing
Logistics management also has a significant impact on other principal management
functions within an organisation. Apart from marketing and financial management, these
include manufacturing and product engineering.
The manufacturing function is basically
concerned with economy of manufacturing, of conversion of materials, supplies, and
energy into finished products and components at as low a unit cost as is feasible.
The
more time allowed to manufacturing to plan its activities, combine rounds of like
materials or items and assign machines and staff, the more economical the operation,
since machines and manpower can then be utilised to capacity. Thus, manufacturing
management usually prefers as long a lead-time as possible in planning replenishment or
order-filling operations. The manufacturing function characteristically also prefers to
have runs as long as possible for making individual products, thus delivering products to
the logistics system in relatively large unit quantities. Although these facets of
manufacturing are changing with the introduction of more flexible manufacturing
systems, they still serve to illustrate the important influence of the manufacturing
function and the logistics system on one another.
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