WASHINGTON, DC — In tomorrow’s world of vendor-managed inventory (VMI), manufacturers will look into the shelves of their distributor customers and replenish parts and pieces.
In this upside-down world, manufacturers will even issue purchase orders in the name of their customers. This new buy-sell dynamic is in place between Johnson Controls and its key distributors around the country.
Now, this revolutionary process may migrate to the end of that supply chain, where the wholesaler manages the inventory of its contractor customers. In concrete terms, this process would automatically replenish the stocks that go into service trucks, thus telescoping the time needed for service techs to get the jobsite.