Fundamentals of supply chain management

In addition, the system is applied in improving customer satisfaction levels. Given its extensive operations, Amazon requires a system that is adequately developed to cater for its needs (Eadicicco, 2015, p. Its system comprises of other complex subsystems that expedite operational processes from ordering by customers, issuing of receipts, data collection for forecasting purposes and data storage for future use. Figure 1: Depiction of IMS system at Amazon As indicated in figure 1, circulation of data at Amazon is recurrent. Particularly, sharing with partners such as manufacturers assists them in anticipating the performance of their products within different market segments hence allowing them to make production decisions accordingly (Levy, 2016, p. How does the IMS help coordinate between supply chain partners? Coordination between different partners is done through the fulfillment centers where the software system comes into play.

The IMS is particularly applied for pushing products off the shelf especially when the said product is slow moving. The IMS signals such products hence allowing Amazon to take corrective action. In such situations, prices will be discounted resulting in such products moving among top searches by customers (Loeb, 2014, p. Supply chain partners gain from activities since products move fast hence creating higher profits. The prompt is sent to the management for corrective action. Such action includes restocking from suppliers or shifting of products from one center to another. In the latter case, inventory is shifted to where it sells better from locations where it is slow moving (Chopra & Meindl, 2016, p. The IMS also creates room for determining the products that will be sold at specific locations.