The first company has local businesses world wide that monitor their own input and output. They work closely with the main manufacturing offices for their product. They are different because they make their own products that they sell. There is no middle man or other company that needs to be watched because we manage our own TV’s, copiers, and other electronics. That helps tremendously when they need supplies for employees because they use their own created calculators, TV’s, and other things to save on costs.
The second company has a materials management department of its own in the corporate office. That department takes care of both the input and output. In terms of the input, the employees do extensive research about potential products. They compare prices and quality to find the lowest possible costs that has the highest quality for their customers. Even when they have chosen something, they check other companies often for any better prices and quality. The manager in that department negotiates prices all the time in order to get the cheapest price available without having to make their customers go down on quality. With output, this company manages the number of workers that modify products such as sewing and custom work. They always make sure that they have
References: HM (2009). Browse. Retrieved January 25, 2009 from http://www.hm.com/us/abouthmcom/customerservice/faq/aboutquality__faqcs2.nhtml