Archive for Retail
This was one of the assessment questions presented in “Succeeding in a Volatile Market—2018: The Future Value Chain”, a report published late last year by the Global Commerce Initiative (CGI), Capgemini, SAP, and HP. The report highlights several key trends that will impact CPG-Retail value chains in the near future, including a changing society (e.g., urbanization, ageing population, low income, and a new middle class); rising cost and… Continue reading
Last year, my colleague Steve Banker wrote a few postings about Walmart’s “Project Impact” initiative and the retailer’s quest to simplify its SKU selection (see “SKU Reductions in Consumer Goods Supply Chains” and “Walmart’s ‘Win-Play-Show’ Assortment Strategy”). At a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference yesterday, Walmart U.S. Chief Operating Officer Bill Simon provided a quick summary… Continue reading
How Objective are Category Captains?
· CommentsAs I’ve mentioned before (here and here), I’ve been researching the ROI associated with consumer goods (CG) companies using downstream data (e.g., POS, store level inventories, and DC-to-store shipments). One of the conclusions that I have reached is that Category Managers get a better ROI from their investments in this area than other consumer goods manufacturers.
Category Management might be new to many supply chain professionals, so… Continue reading
This Week in Logistics News (Feb 15-19)
· CommentsI’ve been on the road these past two weeks, so it’s been a bit difficult keeping up with everything that’s been going on. But here are a few items, from this week and last, that escaped my delete button:
- Transplace Provides Retailers Efficient Supply Chain Operations for Fixtures and Displays
- Retail Container Traffic to be Up 25 Percent First Half of 2010
I’ve been researching the ROI associated with consumer goods (CG) companies using downstream data (e.g., POS, store level inventories, and DC-to-store shipments). As part of this research, I recently spoke with a supply chain director at a very large CG company who asked, “Why can’t my supply chain team think like my category managers?”
A little background will help you understand his lament. Large CG manufacturers generally have account teams… Continue reading
The Perfect Order Metric is Not Sufficient
· CommentsThe Perfect Order is often recognized as the highest level of customer service. It can be defined in different ways, but the traditional definition includes four elements: order completeness, timeliness, condition, and documentation. In other words, to be considered perfect, an order must be delivered to the customer’s distribution center (DC) complete, on time, free of damage, and accompanied by the correct invoice and other documentation.
[caption id=”attachment_2808″ align=”aligncenter”… Continue reading
At the end of every year, Walmart holds a meeting for the investment community. Because so much of Walmart’s core strategy revolves around excellence in supply chain management, I always enjoy hearing about the company’s plans. What interested me the most this year was Walmart’s multichannel strategy.
Here are some key points from Raul Vazquez, the CEO of Walmart.com:
- Amazon is the company’s
We are coming up on February 1st 2010, the day that Walmart starts enforcing the penalties associated with its Supply Chain Reliability Program. If you are not familiar with the program, below are excerpts from the letter that Walmart sent to suppliers on Oct. 15th, 2009.
Dear Valued Supplier,
Walmart and Sam’s Club are continually seeking to improve our supply chain efficiency…Therefore, in order to better serve our customers… Continue reading
