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Theory of customer satisfaction
What is supply chain management....
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Effective retailing technology allows companies to manage inventory by efficiently storing, shipping, and stocking items that its customers want. Inventory management is the key to a company’s success or failure, and Kmart seems to be the poster child of poor supply chain management. Since as far back as Joseph Antonini’s leadership, Kmart has had logistics issues (Young, 2002). Another recent CEO, Chuck Conaway, went so far as to admit that supply chain management was “the Achilles Heel” of Kmart (Carr & Cone, 2001). This paper will examine how investing in redundancy, having an increase velocity in sensing and responding, and by building an adaptive supply chain community could have reduced the risk that is damaging to a supply chain. The Supply/Demand Disconnect Poor supply chain management led to inefficient merchandise management at Kmart. Being able to query data regarding product sales would have allowed the company to be more of what customers were buying, less of what they were not, and to predict what merchandise mixes were going to be popular in the future. That is the epitome of an effective system. Or as Anne Obarski, executive director of Merchandise Concepts, explains it, the five rights of merchandising: the right merchandise, the right time, the right quantity, the right price, and the right location (About.com). This requires an increase velocity in sensing and responding to customers’ needs. Increase velocity in sensing and responding However, there is a time element involved, advises Liz Simpson. “Monitoring what sells quickly is key” she says. Finding out what customers want to buy is critical. “If you do not know what they need, then you are not in the best position to meet that need” (Simpson, 2002). ... ... middle of paper ... ...coming through its distribution system with the items it currently had on sale. They would get people to the stores, and then they did not have what was advertised. It is hard to get people back once they have had a bad experience. References Atlas, Partners and Watertown Capital. (2002). Presentation to shareholders committee for Kmart, June 14, 2002. Carr, David & Edward Cone. (December, 2001). Code Blue. Baseline Magazine. Kmart’s 2001 annual report, p.8 of its online document, May 2002. Kmart’s 2001 annual report, p.21 of its online document, May 2002. Simpson, L. (March, 2002). Not so special Kmart. Supply Management. Retrieved January 10, 2014 from http://www.supplymanagement.com/analysis/features/2002/not-so-special-kmart Young, V. (October, 2002). Coming around again: Kmart’s new ideas bear a familiar ring. Women’s Wear Daily.
Lowe’s grew through strategic choice by heavily focusing on key functional areas involving research and development (R&D), marketing, and logistics. Lowe’s important R&D investments included the creation of two prototype stores. The first prototype with 147,000 square feet catered to large markets and the other with 120,000 square feet catered to smaller markets (Rouse, 2005). Lowe’s used these store prototypes to help guide their continued growth and store placement. The prototypes also aided the company in designing future stores more efficiently with respect to energy and sustainability (Lowe’s Companies, Inc., n.d.). Furthermore, Lowe’s marketing strategy concentrated on attracting new customers and enhancing current customer satisfaction. To bring new customers to the store, Lowe’s engaged in a pull marketing strategy (Wheelen & Hunger, 2012). The com...
Kohl’s also boasts a loyal customer base and strong brand equity. These strengths are critical to offset their weaknesses. Flaws include an imbalance on sales for men’s products and a lacking online presence. (Kohl's Corporation, n.d.) Another way that Kohl’s is actively counterbalancing their negatives is by capitalizing on opportunities. Kohl’s has found that their beauty sections are an immense source of opportunity. As a result, the company is expanding those departments in an effort to capture those sales that would otherwise go elsewhere. (Wahba, 2014) Finally, Kohl’s keeps the knowledge of their threats at the forefront of their decision-making. They understand that their coupon system can be abused and cause profit losses. They also recognize that price wars in their industry can also be very damaging. As a result, they are working towards more secure methods of offering savings and strategically making efforts to remain the leader for price setting. (Wahba,
Given the dominance and fiercely competitive nature of Wal-Mart and Target within the big box discount retail industry, Dollar General avoided competing head-to-head with these larger rivals by differentiating a classic generic bu...
The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the effectiveness of the Target Stores supply chain. Target was founded in 1902 by George Draper Dayton who after partnering with the owner of Goodfellow Dry Goods Company for a year decided he wanted to have more involvement, so he purchased Goodfellows renaming it Dayton Dry Goods Company. After purchasing the store Mr. Dayton remained in management until the time of his death in 1938. By this time the store had seen many changes including a name change in 1911 changing from Dayton Dry Goods Company to The Dayton Company, as well as an addition of the Dayton Foundation in 1918. After Mr. Dayton’s death the family continued managing the business until 1983 in which the last two managing Dayton’s retired, ending 80 years of the Dayton’s family management (Target Corporation, 2014).
Dicker, John. The United States of Wal-Mart. New york: Penquin Group Inc., 2005. 21-59. Print.
Read the short Kmart case study on pages 161-162 carefully and answer the following questions:
Also, the retailers can send ads, coupons to their customer base on the information they have to get their customers to come back. It is really easy for the retail to bond the relationship with their customers by knowing what their customers’ need and desire. Importantly, it is all about making people feel comfortable into liking the place, and they will likely to come back. According to the book “Why We Buy the Science of Shopping”, written by Paco Underhill, people doesn’t like to be brushed or touched from behind. They’ll even move from the merchandise they’re interested in avoiding it. The sales from a tie rack were lower than expected; it was because of the butt-brush factor. After they moved the rack; the sale went up quickly and substantially (fbdfjbsjfbsj). That implies the retailers are always looking to chance in order to match customers’ interest. Not only that, they could also use the data from to send out the deal to the customer base on their interest. As a result, the customer will most likely to come back to the store they already familiar with. In extend, the retailers can also send out gift cards, reward cards to customers rewarding them for being loyalty to the store. Some people think it is manipulating people into buying goods, but it is not true. The customer always has to choice whether to buy or not. No one is forcing them to buy anything. Often, people came
Kmart is a huge vintage company that had peeked at one time and now is
S.H. Kress achieved a unique architectural distinction in both defining a brand identity while simultaneously fitting in with the five-and-dime market and the local main street character of each town. He was a pioneer in creating company brand identity through a “signature storefront”. He viewed his buildings as an advertisement and each store had some components that were standardized, reflecting the popular assembly line approach at that time, while other components varied based on the location to fit within each town culture.
Tierney, J. (2006). Smith & Hawken's Retail Renaissance. Multichannel Merchant, 23(12) (p. 56). Retrieved Friday, January 12, 2007 from the ProQuest Standard database.
Some core competencies that must be exploited are: Brand Kmart is an existing well-known and trusted national brand in USA Kmart has private label and designer clothing that is well endorsed Infrastructure Kmart has a large number of well-located, low-cost, leased stores in urban far away from competitors through out the country ( Appendix B ). Staffing Confidence by the market in Kmart is created by the achievements of its staff and management. With the turn-around strategy in place, new blood has been put into the top management structures. In any renewal there will be retrenchment as unprofitable stores are closed. This can be used as an opportunity to retain and move high performing staff to where they are needed and to get rid of non-performing staff. Anderson the chairperson of Kmart is well supported by Wall Street and the board of Directors. These new staff members enter the company with needed skills to address problems in certain areas that previously were poorly managed such as inventory control and merchandising. Store locations, layout and Performance Stores conveniently located away from competitors like Wal-mart and Target therefore less to compete for customers face-to-face. There are 250 non-performing stores who have already been identified as being more cost effective to close than continue with running costs. Expertise exists in-house for the planning of store layout and appearance to meet different customer segments. This concentration of effort will enable focus on key areas Technology Kmart has already invested in good retailing systems. The system can be use to control inventory, supplier payments, track customer buying and monitor income versus profit margins across all stores. Research and Development The planning department is well established and in cross-functional to provide various perspective. The planning department to ensure that strategies at all levels are executed can further use the access to past data and knowledge of changes in buying patterns. Financial Backing JP Morgan Chase has agreed to support Kmart to avert the current threat of closure due to bankruptcy.
Kmart's greater problems stem from its poor brand strategy and negative image among consumers. In 1965, Kmart introduced the technique that was to become its trademark - the "Blue Light Special." Shoppers in a Kmart would hear the words, "Attention Kmart shoppers." Somewhere in the store a blue light would start flashing. From all over the store, shoppers would race to the Blue Light area to get special discount prices, usually on closeout merchandise. The limited-time sale strategy gave Kmart an identity. In 1991, Kmart discontinued the Blue Light Special, saying it had become too campy. In fact, it was Kmart's dirty, unkempt stores that generated that reputation. Kmart had a chance to revive the BlueLight in 2001. That concept was so powerful that ten years later, when the concept was re-introduced (too late), almost two-thirds of Americans recognized the Blue Light Special and associated it with Kmart.
The difference between a product being a success or a failure can come down to how quickly a team can communicate and correct problems. There are strategies that can centralize a lot of supply chain decisions to maximize efficiency and minimize problems as well as down time. According to kinaxis the strategy that is taking over the industry is called supply chain control towers. What these actually do is combine technology, people, and a centralizing process to achieve a more reactive supply chain. When a problem comes apparent, a supply chain control tower will fast track the solution. The supply chain control tower will be able to use all of its assets and delegate the information to relevant personnel extremely quickly. If a company doesn’t use a supply chain control tower, the information will get out at a snail pace if it even gets there. Without a supply chain control tower, no one really knows all of the elements that are affected by a problem. Only a central supply chain control tower will know how to connect the moving parts and fast track the correction
It is undeniable that Inventory Management is an important key to success at Walmart this paper will discuss the two main methods of Inventory Management used by Wal-Mart: Material Requirements Planning and Just-in Time. Next we write about the technical means of keeping track of inventories like RFID tags. We conclude with discussing how
Inventory management involves planning, coordinating, and controlling the acquisition, storage, handling, movement, distribution, and possible sale of raw materials, component parts and subassemblies, supplies and tools, replacement parts, and other assets that are needed to meet customer wants and needs (Collier & Evans, 2009). In order for business and supply chains to run smoothly, they must meet all the listed requirements for effective inventory management. Thus, inventory management must be managed wisely in order to be a successful an...