The Bottleneck of Distribution in Supply Chain's Manufacturers

Distribution is a form of supply and demand management. Suppliers send the raw materials to producers, where they are transformed into finished products. Likewise, producers distribute their products to consumers. This situation shows that distribution is an important activity in trade or business, and any obstacles to this risk disrupting the performance of the supply chain; one of its stakeholders are the producers. However, previous research has not examined the distribution problems experienced by producers. For this reason, this study aims to identify the obstacles that occur for producers in their distribution activities. This research uses a case study approach, with three respondents from electronics, textile, and food manufacturing companies. Referring to the results of the interviews, the loading and unloading problems at ports implies additional costs. The result shows that distribution activities are inefficient, which results in much higher logistics costs. This research concludes that bottlenecks at ports have negative consequences for supply chain networks. Barriers to the distribution process in ports disrupt the activities of organizations in the supply chain's network.