Posts tagged ‘Retail industry’

Supply Chain Management for Retailers

February 23, 2011, 5:48 pm

The retail industry is challenged with fluctuating customer demand, ever-changing styles and seasonality, and the need to boost top-line growth through store expansion. A streamlined and efficiently run supply chain is a crucial piece of the puzzle when it comes to keeping overall costs down. As pointed out in World Trade Magazine’s article, Timely Ocean Transit for Retailers, inconsistent transit times can drive up total supply chain costs.

[Supply chain inconsistencies can force retailers to] either retain higher safety stock levels, which increases their inventory carrying costs; resort to airfreight to recover from delays, which balloons transportation costs; or use a combination of the two.

While the article references careful carrier selection as a way to ensure timely deliveries, there are GTM solutions out there that can help retailers with all aspects of supply chain and transportation management. By automating the following elements of the global supply supply chain operations, retailers will be able to reduce cash-cash cycles and lower total delivered costs.

Trade Planning
Develop optimal sourcing and distribution strategies by assessing the total landed cost of alternative decisions including product invoice, transportation, duties, VAT, excise as well as evaluating applicable import and export regulatory controls. With a complete picture of cost and risk, shared decisions can be made across sourcing, compliance and logistics functions.

Import Automation
Establish a global import compliance function that integrates all procurement activities. Manage product classification and admissibility reviews to ensure compliant purchase orders are issued. Streamline the entry process to reduce brokerage costs and reconcile entries to resolve issues before they become a costly Customs audit.

Supplier PO Management
Deliver compliant purchase orders to suppliers in a portal that confirms orders, creates invoices, and manages a buyer workflow to build shipments and generate key documents like the commercial invoice and packing list. Efficiently manage supplier compliance and integrate with origin logistics partners.

Origin Management
Manage origin logistics with a portal that coordinates full container load shipments from a supplier and less than container or air shipments. Use a collaborative workflow process to confirm and book shipments as well as collect bill of lading details to facilitate inbound visibility. Enhance compliance with new advanced notification regulations like Customs 10+2 by collecting relevant information at origin.

Global Freight Management
Negotiate seafreight and airfreight rates and implement a process for logistics providers and suppliers to book against your favorable rates. Use sophisticated rating tools to optimize carrier selection, pre-rate the booking and automate freight audit.

Supply Chain Visibility
Monitor global orders, shipments and in-transit inventory with a complete event management solution. Use milestone alerting to proactively resolve delivery issues and to trigger supply execution activities such as pickups or warehouse receipts. Use in-transit inventory information to enable postponement strategies and new, direct-to-store delivery strategies. Aggregate all operational data to establish scorecards and manage trade parties with a comprehensive set of key performance indicators.

For more information on the benefits automation can bring retailers, I recommend this new eBook: Direct Import Strategies for Retailers.

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Category: Global Trade Management, Supplier Portals, Supply Chain Visibility  |  Comment

Are You Ready For Black Friday 2k11? Walmart Is.

November 22, 2010, 1:07 pm

Here’s something to think about this Black Friday while you’re waiting in line in the cold at 4am, outside of Walmart, Best Buy, or Target: thank goodness for automated supply chain management systems! It wasn’t too many years ago that employees were doing inventory counts by hand and sending them to suppliers, leaving plenty of room for error, which could lead to either a shortage or overstock of a certain product. (I’d be pretty annoyed if I had gotten up at 3am to go get that flatscreen tv, only to discover someone had written down a wrong number, and not enough flatscreens were shipped to the store to satisfy the estimated Black Friday demand!)

However I don’t have to worry about that because thanks to automation, Wal-Mart’s supply chain acts as if every day is Black Friday! SupplyChainDigital explains in this article how Walmart’s supply chain is one of the most efficient ones out there because of IT solutions:Walmart Black Friday

The technology is ridiculous across all areas of the Wal-Mart supply chain. Individual distribution centers, for example, have benefited from the development of sortation systems, radio-frequency picking, automated cranes and miniload systems. Industry standards have also helped Wal-Mart’s efficiency in the collaboration with its suppliers and vendors. Standardization includes things like pallet size and truck dimensions. Wal-Mart gets real-time updates from when a customer buys a product, to how long it will be before it can replace that same product on the shelves.

So this Friday morning, while you’re waking up early, driving to the store, searching for a parking spot and battling crowds to get that good deal on a flatscreen, you can take comfort in knowing that at least Walmart’s supply chain is completely under control.

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New Expert eBook: Direct Import Strategies for Retailers

September 29, 2010, 3:04 pm

Check out this brand-new eBook from Management Dynamics - Direct Import Strategies for Retailers: How to Take Control Over Your Supply Chain.

The retail industry is challenged with fluctuating customer demand, ever-changing styles and seasonality and the need to boost top-line growth through store expansion. Margin pressure has led many retailers to source goods from low cost countries – initially through distributors or international procurement operations and increasingly through direct import strategies.

This new eBook can help get you started and soon realize the advantages of a direct import program including:

  • A centralized procurement function to ensure higher levels of import compliance
  • Improved coordination and reduced order cycles with overseas suppliers
  • Enhanced compliance with advanced security programs like Customs 10+2
  • Reduced inbound transportation costs
  • Lower product invoice by eliminating purchases through intermediaries/distributors
  • More flexibility to implement postponement and direct-to-store distribution strategies
  • Higher levels of automation to reduce brokerage costs upon entry

Download this eBook and get started on building a Direct Import Program today to reduce costs and take control over your supply chain.

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Category: Global Trade Management  |  Comment

Supply Chain Tips for Retailers

November 11, 2009, 12:51 pm

Inbound Logistics published a feature story a couple of months ago containing supply chain advice for retailers, namely: consolidation and collaboration. The article uses Stein Mart as an example of how supply chain consolidation can improve overall efficiency. Until recently, carriers were dropping off merchandise directly from vendors to Stein Mart locations daily, and it was up to the employees at each location to remove packing slips from each carton, enter data into the system, and do a count verification – all very time consuming. Now, Stein Mart uses three (soon to be five) consolidation centers operated by third-party logistics providers. Carriers pick up merchandise from the vendors, deliver to the facilities, where they are sorted and shipped to three distribution centers. There, workers attach tickets, check for missing hangers, and ship off to Stein Mart stores around the country. Each Stein Mart now receives shipments one to two times per week.

According to Stein Mart’s VP of Supply Chain, in the Inbound Logistics article, they have gained savings in transportation costs and store efficiency:

The first gain that Stein Mart expects from this consolidation strategy involves transportation savings. “We get the benefit of lower rates inbound from vendors to consolidation points via LTL or truckload, as well as savings from moving shipments in truckload quantities to store distribution centers,”Schart says.

The second benefit is greater store efficiencies. “This strategy allows for much larger consolidated store deliveries, which lets us schedule receiving staff in a more focused way,” he says.

The benefits and cost savings of implementing a strategy such as Stein Mart’s can be tremendous (the article states that Stein Mart estimates the initiative will save $20 million in 2010!). But with additional parties  now involved in the supply chain management process, it becomes more important to ensure that suppliers, vendors, forwarders and carriers all have access to the data they need when they need it. This can be complicated by the realities of the global network: multiple trading partners, all with different information systems and data definitions, and information that can flow at unpredictable times. Using a supply chain visibility software solution can address the complexity of the global network with the capabilities needed to provide users with consistent, reliable, and timely information.

Please go here to read the full Inbound Logistics article: Refashioning Retail Supply Chains

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Download Case Study: See how one company, Glazer’s Family of Companies, uses Management Dynamics Supply Chain Visibility solution to access real-time data on shipment dispatches and warehouse receipts. Users can now better manage safety stock levels at each distribution centre, avoid expediting and reduce domestic transportation costs.

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