Ah, the joys of being the “middleman.” For decades, distributors have been responsible for efficiently passing products from manufacturer-based suppliers to customers. During the 1990s, we actually got pretty good at taking costs out of our system. Into the 2000s, our customers tasked us with assisting them in removing extra expenses from their interactions as well. Without really being aware of the situation, we have improved the “supply chain,” whatever that is.
To be honest, I often overhear industry buzz words and phrases; things like best practices, channel management, value stream and targeting come immediately to mind. After hearing the word used often enough, human nature pushes us to add it to our own lexicon. I have even found myself using phrases whose meanings are not 100 percent clear.