MORE THAN ONE SUPPLY CHAIN
The level of customer care Coca-Cola offers requires a specific model of supply chain structure, what Buffington calls “segmentation.” “Segmentation is the type of supply chain that you have based on your customers’ needs or your product attributes,” he explains. “More and more, we are understanding that we have to have different types of supply chains within our local operations.
“If we are in an area that requires refrigerated distribution, that is a very different supply chain than if it’s an ambient type of product. Some products require aseptic filling and packaging, which is very specialized and requires different platforms. Then, some products have high volatility and are hard to forecast, which requires a different supply chain.”
These variable conditions mean that the supply chain has to be modified depending on the particular attributes of both product and client. “For some products, the most efficient way to the market is for us to deliver to the store, yet for others, the most efficient way to go to market is through the customer’s distribution channel or through third-party distribution partners,” Buffington explains.
Segmentation allows Coca-Cola to understand and implement best practices and meet its customers’ requirements in relation to their individual portfolios. “There is efficient supply chain, there is responsive supply chain and there is agile supply chain,” Buffington says. “Depending on the customers’ needs and their portfolio, the supply chain can be efficient-dominant, agile or responsive-dominant. It depends on the attributes of the portfolio and the requirements of the client.”