Beginning of Essay
In the article, “Are distributors going the extra mile?”, the author relays her findings of a survey she initiated. The questions were posed to 2,000 people in the purchasing profession and sought to determine whether or not distributors were “committed to ....

Middle of Essay
.... their products pricing and margin structure deteriorates the ability of the representative to offer other low cost substitute items. The new purchasing environment consists of trying to have the parts on the floor when needed, not too early, and never late. Extra stock ends up in inventory, and although labeled as an asset in the books, it is actually a liability. This drives the agent to search for creative ways to control materials. One key way to accomplish this is to utilize distributors that are “committed to long term relationships in which they take on more of the responsibility of managing activities up and down the supply chain” (Aver ....