Supply Chain Management

The answer is an obvious yes. In eCommerce or in multi channel retailing the focus is on cost of effective fulfillment options, reducing working capital and inventory.  In the last 6 months there has been no extreme step such as eCommerce program put on hold due to the ongoing crisis. While long term strategy will be intact but eCommerce investment is likely to be spread over longer horizon. There is definitely much more emphasis on prioritizing eCommerce platform technology investments. 

Continue reading "Will there be impact of economic downturn on eCommerce platform investments?" »

Posted by Vinayak Hegde at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As an emerging trend over last year or so, retailers are warming up to the idea of store level collaboration with the suppliers. Supplier collaboration can enable retailers to improve the three most important store level metrics - availability, cycle times, and cost. When the retailers start sharing the POS and inventory data to the vendors in a near real time view and define business processes to support action on the data, that allows the supply chain managers at both ends collaborate to make decisions.

Continue reading "What is selling in my stores?" »

Posted by Amarpal Sanghera at 05:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is my third blog which is an extension of my previous one, "Channels to Leverage Warehouse Revenue". In this blog, I will explain what a WMS software needs to scale up to in order to capture revenue related information.

First, it must be able to capture costs for warehousing tasks carried out or space utilised. Having said this, tasks carried out will be treated under activity based costing, wherein each activity carried out within a WMS transaction will have an certain cost associated to it.

Continue reading "Capturing Warehouse Costs and Margins" »

Posted by Lokmanya Rawat at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

While reading a thought provoking blog on a speech by David Allen, famous author of “Getting Things Done”, I could not help but find a corollary between capabilities, what he calls as five “I’s” , of  personal productivity software and an ideal supply chain visibility solution. A day in life of an executive is a quite interesting corollary for Supply Chain. There are constraints, demanding customers, reluctant suppliers and unforeseen meetings/happenings that continuously disturb the meticulously planned schedules. Executives pay a lot of attention to their personal planning gadgets and hire great assistants who help them maximize their day’s worth. Just goes to explain how much would be the worth of a supply chain visibility solution that allows the supply chain managers similar control over their processes.

Continue reading "Five 'I's' of Supply Chain Visibility" »

Posted by Amarpal Sanghera at 05:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Brick and mortar retailers have focused on the customer experience; store layouts, customer amenities, sales people, returns policies all contribute to the customer experience. There are retailers for whom the customer experience is an integral part of what they mean to their customers. So, when such retailers start selling through multiple channels, how do they ensure that the customer has a seamless experience across channels? Even more difficult to understand is, if one of the cornerstones of the experience is the “nice” feeling customers get in the stores. Over the phone I could still take orders and leave you with a nice feeling. How do I ensure a nice online experience? As a retailer, I can be fast and efficient. But when I can’t see you (and usually can’t talk to you) how do I be nice to you?

Continue reading "I can’t see you but I want to be nice to you." »

Posted by Chandradeep Bandyopadhyay at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The other day, I had someone requesting me on package comparison in the DOM space on “key” functionalities.  The so called “DOM”  or “distributed order management “ can  be misunderstood, generally because it can be confusing to demarcate the DOM process boundary! Interestingly, even package vendors interpret and draw their own boundaries, often overstate when it comes to DOM package functionality. 
The first and the foremost, people confuse DOM offering as the process that covers the entire functionality from customer (or partner) “Inquiry for the product or services” to “Cash” business process. However, what I have seen in the past, the product leaders in this space always focus on providing functionality that compliments the existing infrastructure that supports customer order lifecycle process.  Anyone implementing DOM will encounter the question - do I really need DOM?

Continue reading "How distributed is DOM?" »

Posted by Vinayak Hegde at 01:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is in continuation to my previous blog on "Considering Warehouse as Profit Center".

http://infosysblogs.com/supply-chain/2008/09/considering_warehouse_as_profi.html#more

Now let's look into how a warehouse can transform itself into this new found 'avtaar'. One such aspect would be to have multiple business units within the same organization utilize the services of a single warehouse. In such a setup, business units store their goods in the warehouse in dedicated zones allotted to them. The warehouse, in turn charges each business unit for storing their goods based on activities carried out and storage space utilization, thereby creating revenue for itself.

Continue reading "Channels to Leverage Warehouse Revenue" »

Posted by Lokmanya Rawat at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

As one of the bloggers (Chandradeep) posted earlier, companies look to optimize their inventory levels (or "Sell Nothing") while maximizing their sales per customer footfall/click through. (http://infosysblogs.com/supply-chain/2008/09/how_to_sell_nothing.html#more)

One key aspect is to define the ‘Available to Sell’ Strategy. In layman's term, ‘Available to Sell’ is what the company can promise for a delivery in a specified time window. This includes the current uncommitted inventory at a fulfillment location and any open purchase orders. This can even be extended to supplier finished inventory, WIP inventory and scheduled plans.

Continue reading "What is your Available to Sell Strategy?" »

Posted by Amarpal Sanghera at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Consolidation has been traditionally looked as a mechanism to bring in economies of scale. Of late, organizations that operate across geographies are investing to standardize processes, execution models and technology in the warehouses. The context of warehouse processes and information resident in there, has changed in the supply chain architecture. Warehouse level information now is being "consumed for efficiency and better customer response" correlating to order/demand and inventory position information in more real time. Consolidation programs that embed process, technology and operational standardization therefore can greatly simplify journey towards this "enhanced warehouse awareness" in their supply chain and help differentiate the fulfillment execution.

As an architect, I have been involved with a number of such programs and have seen that warehouses being execution centric, a standardization approach needs to consider factors specific to every warehouse like working policies, use of automation and robotics technologies, handling of specific goods and delivery of value added services apart from warehouse layouts. Given such local dependencies, WMS consolidation initiatives must allow reuse or adoption of local mature practices while conforming to the template of global practice and design.

Continue reading "Warehouse consolidation: managing effectiveness" »

Posted by Satadal at 06:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In the good old days shopping trips were simple. I lived in town A, went to a store in town A and bought whatever I needed. Sometimes I would go all the way to big city B. If they didn't have what I wanted in big city B, the people at the store might order it for me.

Today (in these convenient new times) I am in town A, log onto an ISP in city B, that connects to a site hosted in country C; the site belonging to a company headquartered in country D; that fulfills my order from a distribution center that could be anywhere in the world.

So the question is: When tax laws require triangulation between point of order capture, point of sale and final ship to address, how do we figure these out? When nearly everything is electronic, which tax jurisdiction do my bits live in?

Continue reading "Where is this bit from?" »

Posted by Chandradeep Bandyopadhyay at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Corporations are increasingly focusing on the systems that help them manage their demand, their sales and ensure every connect converts to a sale and every sale is fulfilled. 

As a supply chain consultant I discuss optimal processes and practices with companies. In meetings and solutions we propose lean inventory, order on demand and efficiency of process. As a consumer I go to multiple stores, e-stores looking for what I want, at the best possible cost and with the fastest in hand time.

How do various companies marry the conflicting needs of "right" inventory levels with the real time fulfillment demands of an increasing finicky customer? In a limiting case, how do I keep nothing on stock but still sell everything and get it to customers before they look elsewhere? (Of course, "nothing in stock" is hyperbole for optimal inventory levels)

Continue reading "How to sell nothing?" »

Posted by Chandradeep Bandyopadhyay at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With multi channel retail becoming the latest buzz about the retail town, most retailers today allow their customers to interact via multiple channels, offering a combination of stores, call centers, and web sites. Surveys have indicated that customers want to be engaged in a consistent way in all channels, else the retailers risk losing them. Many retailers do claim a "Shop anywhere, Pay anyway and Return anywhere" offering, however due to the disparate infrastructures that typically underlie these individual channels, consumers who cross over the channels as part of their shopping cycle often face an experience that is fragmented, inconsistent, and annoying to the customer.

Continue reading "Multi Channel Sales - All Green, Cross Channel Experience - Blinking Red !!" »

Posted by Amarpal Sanghera at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Warehouses have come of age. So have the technologies that run them.
Not so long back, warehouses were treated as cost centres, always taking the back seat when it came to formulating business strategies for revenue generation. But times are changing.

Continue reading "Considering Warehouse as Profit Center" »

Posted by Lokmanya Rawat at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

In this age of matured collaborative supply chains, E-Marketplace exchanges are being fast adapted by increasing number of Supply Chain leaders ranging from Manufacturing to Retail Industries. Also the new advancements in IT like SOA and Saas enables these companies to offer their suppliers, customers, and other ecosystem participants—a safe & secure access to parts of their IT architectures and hence their operational excellence.

On one hand, this business model best suits the asset intensive business – factories, truck fleets, data centers, networks to achieve high utilization rates and therefore their returns on invested capital. On the other hand, it helps the entrepreneurs and companies scale up their business with quick access to these assets at no fixed investment cost and hence achieve a competitive equity. In effect business are getting to run on the variable costs with no/less fixed costs and hence keeping their balance sheets light.

 All is well as long as these leaders can match up their supply with the demands. However what happens when the demand exceeds the supply, will the single supply chain powerhouse be able to promise indefinite/endless supply capacity to its suppliers & eco system. A competitive advantage through scale may be hard to maintain when many players, large and small, have equal access to resources at low marginal costs.

Posted by Sujatha Shanmugam at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)