Poor product design basically means producing goods and services not satisfying the needs of the customers. It is highly important issue for a producer. Considering that the product with the poor design is produced through a supply chain, and then we might think that the supply chain dynamics have a fallacy in understanding the customers. The supply chain management is based on managing the relations among the stakeholders in the supply chain. The customers are assumed to be essential stakeholders in the supply chain.
Therefore, if the products do not satisfy the needs of the customers at a high level, and then it is possible to think that the supply chain management has an approach problem which ignores the customers in the supply chain.
Coping with this problem is truly difficult. The solution in words is easy: “the supply chain should be aware of the customers’ needs and the products should be designed by taking the customers’ needs into consideration”. However, transferring this simple strategy in words into action is truly difficult. Because, the supply chain management should be synchronized and the proper designs for the products should be generated. Hence, the customers appreciate the products and the supply chain can be sustainable. But the management of the supply chain should understand that their product design is not good enough for the customers.
A supply chain consists of a large number of stakeholders from producers to logistics companies and to customers. The customers send signals to the other stakeholders in the supply chain by expressing their unsatisfaction from the products. If the other stakeholders in the supply chain can pass this information of unsatisfaction to the other stakeholders and if they can evaluate and digest this information as the whole supply chain stakeholders, then the supply chain stakeholders can develop a solution naturally.
Otherwise, if the message of the customers is not disseminated to the other stakeholders or if the message is not comprehended by the stakeholders properly, then it is high possibility to observe no change in the product design or another unsatisfactory product design. In this case, the supply chain for this specific product with the poor design will not be sustainable. In this case, another product with a supply chain that can substitute the product with the poor design will take its place in the market. In another word, not taking thoughts of any stakeholder in the supply chain might end up with an unsustainibility in the market.
