Business English Vocabulary: The Production Cycle & Supply Chain

So, in this lesson, I'm going to be going over some business terms.

Sounds a bit scary.

What am I talking about?

Well, particularly, we're looking at the production

cycle from something that gets made in a very

base sense, like a potato, and then how that ends up being bought in a supermarket.

So, who's involved, the middlemen, because lots of different people will oversee that

process.

So, this is a video if you're...

I think I didn't know this stuff when I was a kid, I wasn't particularly interested in

geography and business studies, those kind of subjects.

So, if you're studying at school, you might learn something.

If you're working in business field, in sort

of sales and distribution, then this could

be good revision for some of the words I expect

you are using if you're working in English.

And outside of that, it can provide useful listening practice because it's basically

a comprehension with a quiz at the end, and a quiz during my lesson as well.

So, let's get started, okay?

Right, we've got some nouns here to describe

different jobs in the production cycle.

So, the producer collects goods to turn into

products, or kind of creates the goods in

the first place.

I've got a friend who's a farmer back in England,

it's a gorgeous farm, and I actually met my

wife kind of very near his farm.

He's an old friend of mine, he's called George.

George is a dairy farmer, that means a farmer

who principally is looking after cows, etc.,

for their dairy products.

Dairy, you're looking at milk, cheese, cream, that kind of stuff.

So, George is a producer.

The collection of the goods, in the old-fashioned

sense, it would be like this, milking the

cows, yeah?

Get a bucket underneath, have you done that?

Anyone tried?

It's quite good fun.

Squirts everywhere, normally.

Okay, but now it's done sort of with more

of a system, and the pumps go on to the cows

at about 5 o'clock in the morning, and it's kind of automated.

So, we've got the product.

What happens next?

Well, it will go into a sort of a vat, which

means like a storage tank for milk, which

is controlled at a certain temperature, it's

about 37 Fahrenheit or under, and there will

be something keeping the milk moving.

It will only stay there for a limited amount of time.

The manufacturer will send a tanker, a large

lorry, to come and collect the milk, and off

the raw materials go to a factory.

Raw materials is like the basic ingredient, yeah?

Before it has been changed or any chemicals added, anything like that, or any processes

done to it.

Okay, so the manufacturer will then change the milk into a sellable product.

Now, you could just drink that milk straight

away, but to conform to certain regulations,

it has to go through a series of procedures.

So, when the milk arrives at the factory,

they will test the protein levels, they will

test the fat content, they will test the temperature

to ensure that it's absolutely right for human

consumption.

Okay, so the manufacturer is turning it into a sellable product.

Then, along comes the supplier.

Now, I'm not saying that these stages are in every single production cycle.

I know that maybe some supermarkets will do all of this, so it won't be like a separate

supplier and a separate manufacturer.

It will be done by the same people, but sometimes

you'll have a supplier, and what the supplier

does is they will get the product, the milk,

from the manufacturer, from the factory where

it has been treated and it's all good, and

they will get it to a distributor or straight

to a retailer.

Sometimes, suppliers actually provide services,

so there is a different sense of meaning with

supplier.

So, maybe they are providing water in the office, yep, that is a supplier.

They supply the water.

Or maybe they collect the rubbish, a private rubbish collection, okay?

That would be a supplier.

Okay, so we have the milk, and it's either here or here.

The distributor, they buy a product in large volume, okay?

And sell it in much smaller volumes.

That's how they make their profit, because they

buy it for cheap in this huge great volume,

and once it's in a smaller, sort of more packaged

individual way, then they can charge more

for it.

Distributors only have a focus on a few products,

whereas a wholesaler, they will have lots

of different products.

Now, I don't know if you know anyone who works

as like a handyman, but if they are in the

trade, if they work as doing like carpentry

or plumbing, then they can go to a wholesale

place, which is somewhere which is for people who are working in that industry.

It's for businesses, okay?

So they get cheaper prices than normal shops, okay?

So, distributor, they have a big volume, and then they sell it on wholesalers.

They also have big volume, but lots of different things that they will be selling.

Retailer, that's where - what we're most familiar

with, I expect - that's where your normal

shop, yep, on the high street.

So it's gone all the way from the cow, it's

gone to the factory, it's found its way onto

a shelf in a shop near you, okay?

Let's look at a few more key aspects of vocab.

So, "in stock" or "in storage".

So, where would something be in stock?

The producer, not for very long.

It will be - if we're still talking about the milk here, the milk is kept on the farm

for a limited amount of time.

It goes into the factory, they're trying to turn it around as quickly as possible.

In stock and in storage, they want to get it out to where it's being sold as quickly

as possible.

So, if it's in stock, it means they have it.

Let's think of a less perishable item, that means that it won't go off so quickly.

Let's think about maybe some potatoes, yep, because they last longer than milk.

So it's going to be a very similar process, but maybe they will stay - they might stay

at the distributor or in wholesale for a little

bit longer because there's less of a rush.

Okay.

"Dispatched", that means sent out.

Who is doing the sending out?

Well, the producer is dispatching the product,

and the supplier is dispatching it either

to - straight to the retailer or the distributor.

"Purchased", it's purchased either here or here, yep.

So, businesses buy from here, consumers tend to buy from here.

To "buy in bulk" means in a huge, great volume,

yeah, but it doesn't have to be huge, huge,

but in, you know, big, okay?

Who is buying in bulk?

Well, the distributor buys in bulk, and the

wholesaler buys in bulk, and you can actually

kind of buy in bulk from there as well.

Where do we get the bargains?

Tends to not be here, yep, more up here.

"Delivery", who does delivery?

Well, suppliers deliver, retailers may deliver.

If you think about a newsagent, they might distribute newspapers through someone doing

a paper round.

"Return", that's what we don't want in this cycle, is the product being returned.

Well, if the milk is not of a high enough standard, the manufacturer will not accept

it.

If the consumer is not happy with the product, they will not accept it.

Okay, I've got a few more terms to look at,

and then we're going to go over this by doing

a short fill-in-the-gap exercise.

A "warehouse" is a large place for storing a product, okay?

So, in our production cycle, you're probably

looking at warehouses being used by either

the manufacturer or the distributor, kind of before it goes out to the consumer.

"Exchanged", exchange, so I give you one thing and you give me another.

This refers to if a consumer is not happy with a product, they may take it back and

exchange it for something else.

"Sale", so either the wholesaler or the retailer

may offer different items on sale, so a reduced

price, which is very similar to the word "offer".

This is on offer at the moment.

It means it's a special price.

Okay, let's see if you can remember these terms.

I've written them down here so we can fill in the gaps.

The "farmer" is a something of milk.

Is it a wholesaler?

That's the person that sells in big, the manufacturer, they sort of transform...

Yes, "producer", "producer", someone who makes

something, even though it's the cow, but farmers

overseeing it.

Okay, so "producer", we've done that.

Then, the "milk" is collected and prepared for consumption, so consumption is when you

consume, when you eat or drink something.

It's prepared for consumption by the.

What is after the "producer"?

This is about selling.

This kind of moves it from one place to the other.

This is selling.

That's it, has to be the "manufacturer", "man-you-fac-ture-er", yeah?

So, maybe one way you can remember this is

"man" is talking about, like, the hands, Latin,

so still doing something, like, with their hands in the production.

You know, they're doing things with milk,

turning it around, putting things in, making

sure it's good.

Okay, we've got that, we've got that.

Next, "businesses use regular somethings for

products and services they need", so they

have regular people coming in and supplying them

with what they need, so it's the "suppliers".

A supplier makes sure they have a ready stream of what they need.

"Supplier", "suh-puh", "supplier", "supplier".

Okay, got that.

So, what is this?

"Somethings focus on a few products", "somethings

focus on a few products", so it's, like, one

of those big places, but they don't have everything.

It's not for the builders coming in and saying they need some cement.

It's more sort of factory-like.

"Wholesaler", "retailer", "wholesaler", so we are missing one.

So, what should it be?

Can you think?

Can you remember?

That's right, I heard someone say it, the "distributor".

Well done.

"Distributor", I'm glad someone remembered.

Okay, that was a bit of a test, wasn't it?

Right.

"Somethings sell in bulk largely to businesses",

the bigger one, yep, "whole", because they're

selling in bulk, all of it, not in little pieces.

The "wholesaler", "wholesaler", good, selling it together.

And then "shops" are referred to as "retailers", "retailers".

So, where I live in the UK, there's a "retail outlet".

Let's write that down, a "retail outlet".

What that means is that you've got these clothes

companies, and they have their shops that

are actually selling at quite cheap prices

in a town center, somewhere between this and

"wholesale".

Okay.

Hope that has been enjoyable, useful, hope you remember some of these and that you're

able to use them in your studies or at work,

and I hope to see you in the next video.

Make sure you subscribe, and then I'll see you then.

Cheers. Bye.