Logistics and Supply Chain Considerations Research Proposal

These technologies will need to be integrated into collaborative supply chain processes that will need to be put into place first however. The use of RFID as a tracking technology will also help to alleviate out-of-stocks as perishable products that have a relatively high level of orders will trigger re-orders in real-time, alleviating the need to re-order manually. RFID will also make it possible to create more effective audit trails of specific products over time to measure supplier quality levels and adherence to contracts that are commonplace in perishable products. Tesco's expertise in supply chain metrics of performance will need to also include the use of RFID accuracy and order transaction velocities over time to measure the Return on Investment (ROI) of investments in these technologies over time as well.

Recommendations

In determining which factors are most critical in the development of a logistics and supply chain system, Tesco must begin with an overall assessment of how they will stay customer-focused and demand-driven over time. The use of the Demand Driven Supply Network (DDSN) (Barrett, 2007) needs to be strategically defined to ensure suppliers have a direct view of customer demand while at the same time enabling high levels of Intrasupplier collaboration. The critical need in such a rapidly moving supply chain as Tesco is the prioritization of also creating Intrasupplier collaboration and coordination, and to ensure that active learning tasks place. This is one of the key determinants of why the Toyota Production System (Dyer, Nobeoka, 2000) has become a significant competitive differentiator for Toyota in the auto industry. In conjunction with the development of a collaborative supply chain, Tesco will also need to adopt RFID and EPC technologies to increase supply chain pick, pack and ship accuracy in addition to minimizing spoilage of perishable goods. In conjunction with RFID, Tesco will also need to create a Direct Store Distribution (DSD) program to further increase logistics performance over time. All of these factors will contribute to greater levels of supply chain performance as measured by the perfect order (Columbus, 2008) in addition to higher levels of customer satisfaction. The use of fresh ingredients in unique products, coupled with supplier coordination and collaboration, will ensure Tesco can consistently deliver in the expectations they create with customers over time.

References

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Greg Todd. (2008). Retailers Using Analytics are Outperforming…