A1.4 Value Chain

This is the business breakdown of my new campus venture to buy and sell used Music CDs to other students here at Ramapo College. Since it is a service and the goods are purchased and sold the only raw materials that come into play are to repair or enhance the core product (music CD), which in this case is just replacement jewel cases. The Inbound logistics consists of first locating a used CD, receiving it by meeting on campus in person, and than transporting it to warehouse. This is where an inbound tracking system will be utilized in the form of a spreadsheet/database. The new CD(s) will be added to this database as new, unsold inventory.

Warehousing and storage of the CDs will be done in a sectioned off closet in my apartment. Fortunately music CDs do not take up much space, so the designated closet can fit several hundred CDs at once comfortably. It is at this point where production would come into play, but since the goods are being purchased there is nothing to product. There are however repairs / enhancements that can be done, such as replacing worn jewel cases. Here will also be a quality control component to verify that the first 10 seconds of the first 5 songs play on my generic CD player without skipping. This repair and quality control process will be tracked in the logistics database mentioned earlier by updating each piece of inventory accordingly.

The distribution portion of this business consists of transporting and hand delivering of the inventory. Marketing and sales will consist of having a website up with current inventory showing all of the CDs currently for sale. A prospective buyer than can contact me directly and setup a time and place on campus to meet to make the transaction. I will than pull the CD from inventory, complete the transaction, and than update the database to record the transaction details and that the CD is no longer available for sale. This will instantly remove it from the website. Additional advertising will be in the form of flyers posted up around campus, which is simple and does not require a promotional planning system.

Customer service and feedback consists of issues being reported directly to me by email or phone. All CDs sold are guaranteed to work or your money back for 24hrs. This allows customers ample time to test and return and damaged goods (which should mostly by caught by quality control before the item makes it into inventory). Feedback will also be collected by phone and email.