Supply Chains: A Manager's Guide

Communicating Demand

The way orders are transmitted from customers to their suppliers has changed many times over the years, constantly moving toward faster media, but the information contained in orders is as old as business. Essentially, an order answers the classic W questions: Who is doing the buying and selling, what is being requested, where is it to be delivered, and when is it supposed to arrive?

Although simple to state, all of these questions can have complex answers. In the case of who, there may be just two parties—the customer and the supplier. As described in Chapter 2, however, the three different flows involved in an order—demand, supply, and cash flow—are usually handled by different groups within the buying and selling organizations, ...