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Strategy

things, optimization of production planning and forecasting. It brings greater understanding of lead times, quality metrics, and potential risks. Upto-the-minute data about inventory levels, bottlenecks, price changes, or quality control information about raw materials enables manufacturers to adjust production schedules and their own distribution, sales, and marketing channels for greater efficiency. The availability of tracking data will give total transparency to shipments, so manufacturers are never caught out by early arrivals or delays. Downstream data between the manufacturer and the distributors, sales channels, and end-users or customers is vital for manufacturers to understand demand fluctuations so they can adjust production accordingly. This makes production more closely demanddriven while optimizing inventory and distribution management – all areas which significantly impact the bottom line when not operating to maximum efficiency. The kind of data that should be circulating in the downstream phases of a supply chain will typically include inventory levels at distribution and retailer locations, along with point-of-sale data and information from sales departments including advanced orders and customersatisfaction metrics. Manufacturers need all this information to anticipate what

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