Increase margins by reducing product cost or raising prices. Reduce overhead costs. He went on to say that customers are hard to attract and control, and while pricing is always a problem, a company can control its own costs. This is what supply chain partnership is all about. One way to think about this is to view the movement of goods through the distribution channel as moving through a series of loops.
Every enterprise is in the series.
If we reduce costs to the individual companies, it follows we will reduce cost to the entire channel. This requires all the related companies to attack costs related to the activities that occur where the loops connect. The technologies that attack costs in these areas are collectively called electronic commerce. This is where things like EDI, Internet, and bar code lend efficiency. Industry standards are required here because products move in and out of different companies, and each one has its own way of doing business.