A survey of retailers by Retail Systems Research reveals continued strong interest in private-label manufacturing. Retail leaders have been most aggressive in growing their private-label business, while laggards took to private labels as a way to close the gap between the leaders and themselves.

The RSR report, Getting it Right the First Time: Designing and Delivering Merchandise that Sells, contains analysis of the business drivers, opportunities and organizational constraints surrounding private-label management, as well as recommendations for creating successful processes and controls.

RSR says the time has come for retailers to embrace product lifecycle management. It recommends a phased approach that includes the following steps:

• Begin scorecarding suppliers as often as possible. Every delivery should be evaluated for quality and compliance.
• Get into a "portfolio mindset" that treats PLM as a cohesive whole rather than a set of disparate functions.
• Get realistic about merchandise transit times. Understand bottlenecks and choke points in the supply chain and find ways to open them up.
• Work the "virtuous cycle" of supplier relationship management.

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