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Dell's New Strategies And Techniques

Introduction

Dell Inc. is the largest computer-systems company based on estimates of global market share. It is also the fastest growing of the major computer-systems companies competing in the business, education, government, and consumer markets. Dell's product line includes Desktop computers, Notebook computers, Network servers, Workstations, and Storage products. Michael Dell founded the company based on the concept of bypassing retailers and selling personal computer systems directly to customers, thereby avoiding the delays and costs of an additional stage in the supply chain. Much of Dell's superior financial performance can be attributed to its successful implementation of this direct-sales model.
Dell has been adored because it is the very model of a flat-earth, New Economy business. It takes orders directly from customers over the phone and the Internet, sources components around the world, and assembles and delivers them with a hyper-efficient supply chain. No one has gone as far as Dell. It's well known, of course, for nearly eliminating finished-goods inventory by cutting out resellers and connecting directly to customers. What's less known is, how it has transformed the back end of its operations -- its assembly lines and supply chain -- into one of the fastest, most hyper-efficient organizations on the planet. Eleven years ago, Dell carried 20 to 25 days of inventory in a sprawling network of warehouses. Today, it has no warehouses. And though it assembles nearly 80,000 – 100,000 computers every 24 hours, it carries no more than two hours of inventory in its factories and a maximum of just 72 hours across its entire operation. Dell's vast, global supply chain is in constant overdrive. According to Dell ‘Speed' is at the core of everything they do. As Kevin Rollins had mentioned "The longer you keep it the faster it deteriorates -- you can literally see the stuff rot" and "Because of their short product lifecycles, computer components depreciate...