SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Supply Chain Management



Supply Chain Management

Introduction

This paper will focus on how grocery retailers in United Kingdom had adopted supply chain and for what reasons. Earlier, retail stores focused on formulating cutting edge pricing strategies. Retail firms competed on the basis of prices. Other drivers were brand and category level. Promotion and other strategies of them used to influence retail stores' competition. Consumers were more sensitive to such changes and responded favourably to them. This was the time when consumers' purchasing patterns were simple. Retailing business was not much developed, and no research to improve the firm's profitability was undertaken. Increased demand, mushrooming retail stores and growing competition in the retail industry led retail stores to improve their services in order to offer convenience to customers (Curtis & Corsi 2003, pp. 95-121). Diversified stores, expansion in business and globalization raised the need for more efficient and effective supply chain management to deliver high-quality products at a greater speed in comparison to their competitors (Accenture 2010). This approach is gaining popularity in all sectors of business, but retailing is particularly known for its supply chain as it is considered the most important function of retailing; greater efficiency of which helps them stand out in the industry.

Supply Chain Trend in UK

Grocery Retailers are now turned into one of the most successful business in UK, and industry from UK had been competing in many international markets. Many giants of the industry have made different changes in their operations to deliver greater value for customers. Grocery retailers of UK are best known for their top notch supply chain management operation, which has earned them millions of satisfied and loyal customers. Retailers in UK have spent much time and money in carrying out research and find out world's best supply chain practice. Retailers in UK have now developed a centralized system of supply chain in which one department is responsible for supply chain decisions. This department makes plans and executes it accordingly. In this system, one department collects relevant information from each member of supply chain and makes decisions on the basis of collected information (Buxmann, Ahsen and Díaz 2008). The retailers have achieved to develop a well established communication system that offers flow of speedy and on time delivery of information among departments as well as to suppliers. For this purpose, electronic data interchange (EDI) and similar technologies have been installed in many grocery stores. Other software are also been used to keep speedy flow of information, but, they are internally designed that are used for specific purposes. This has to be worked out to make better use of technology by incorporating multipurpose software that serves many functions to the process. Information sharing helps departments to plan operations accordingly, and suppliers are able to respond to customer needs. This has helped retailers to reduce its cost as it drops the chances of repeat purchasing.

The retail industry of UK has saved its huge sum of money through its supply chain management and has been ...