A Value Chain

Buying and selling used products to make profit is not a new idea. It has been going on for years with all sorts of products. One example is the company Gazelle which buys people old electronic devices, like cell phones, and then re sells them for a profit. Here we are extending the idea to used CDs. This is going to be done through a website available to students. The first step of the value chain is the raw materials. Here we are not producing the items, simply buying and selling existing items, so this step does not really apply. Next is the inbound logistics which in our case will be receiving the CDs from the customers. We can let the clients track their outgoing shipments if we are able to strike a deal with one of the many shipping companies today. For example, UPS offers tracking off all of its packages. The next step is the warehouse. This can be done either in a filing cabinet if we are talking small scale or can expand up to a full size storage facility depending on the quantity of CDs we are going to be trading. All of the CDs can be databased or we can you an inventory control system. These three steps complete the upstream management. Next there is production which we can again skip since we are not producing anything. The next step is then finished product storage, which should be covered in the warehouse step and our inventory control system. Although it doesn't say it on the chain we will need some way for students to browse the selection of CDs we have and order them, so one options is to give everyone access to our database so they could pick a CD. Now the outbound logistics comes into play. Again we could use UPS or another carriers existing IS for the benefit of our customers. As a customer I would definitely want to know when my CD is going to be arriving. Next is the marketing and sales of our product. We could use traditional advertising in a campus newspaper or on Facebook while also implementing a promotion planning system that could help us target customers more directly. The final step in the value chain is the customer service. We have to insure that the clients are happy with our product and service to keep them coming back. We could use a customer service tracking system to keep track of reviews from various sources and use that feedback to better the company. These last four points are the downstream management phase of the chain. With the use of many different systems, we can build a strong and profitable company.