Four years ago, Caribou coffee's supply chain was managed with spreadsheets. Their only method of gauging demand was the order-fill numbers of product leaving the warehouse - basic replenishment. The team knew they were missing a big opportunity - accurate visibility to drive a more efficient operation, right-size inventory, improved customer service, as well as the expansion of product sales. The supply chain team also knew they were faced with a lot of risk. Could they respond to demand variability?
After working from 2007 to 2011 to transform its own supply chain, Celestica took what it learned to the market, offering managed supply chain services that complement its contract manufacturing business. Erwin Hermans, vice president of supply chain solutions, explains Celestica's strategy.
Amazon announced plans to open a new million-square-foot, fulfillment center in Tracy, California, which the company says will create hundreds of full-time jobs with benefits at the site.
Back in the fall, Macy's spokesman Jim Sluzewski said his company would consider further expansion of its ship-from-store initiatives after it evaluates its 2012 holiday sales figures. The chain already expanded the project to more than 290 stores before the holiday season began.
Mike Landry, president of Barkawi Management Consultants, North America, explains the "control tower" approach to supply chain management and why he believes this approach can enable companies to go beyond incremental improvements to real transformational change.
Even in today's data-hungry analytics environment, collecting and keeping every tiny granule of retail data - down to the level of each individual transaction and web click - might seem like overkill. But Sears Holdings has discovered that data storage costs have gotten low enough, and analytical tools have grown powerful enough, that this approach to Big Data has shortened the time needed for analytics projects by 60 percent to 70 percent, while also improving promotion conversions, lowering inventory levels and boosting sales.
Multi-tier supply chain visibility is no longer just a pipe dream -- market leaders in every industry segment have visibility not just into their important tier 1 suppliers, but at least a limited cross-section of their tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers as well.
When integrating its two major business units, First Solar partnered with Kinaxis to provide supply and demand planning capabilities, says Shellie Molina, vice president-global supply chain.
In one of the biggest flops of the dot-com era, Webvan went bust less than two years after its $375m initial public offering in 1999. That's because it built a warehouse and distribution system for products that are already available within three miles of most consumers, says Rich Tarrant, CEO of MyWebGrocer.
Putting Albertsons back together again won't be as easy as it looks. The grocery chain was split in 2006 between Supervalu and private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, with both chains using the same logo in different geographic regions. But on January 10, the two owners decided to reunite what will now be a 650-store chain in a complicated deal that leaves only one thing very clear: These money managers aren't thinking about IT when it comes to reassembling the chain.
