Sharing of information among supply chain partners provides long term and reliable view of demand it helps supply chain partners (yu et al 2001) It makes the supply chain responsive unbeatable rather then reactive and modified to sati tie their customer demand which brings customers loyalty due to sharring information in all levels of supply chain retalers, manufactures suppler and distributor make the collaborative for cast for sale for the specific time period. The innovation in the process is that without ordering supplter will know that when the retaibr needs replenishment (holmstromt al 2002)
SPFR Emphasis the manufacturer to produce only those products that are indemand and retailor gets only essential amount of replenishment that is why in retail stors like somer field, tesco, asba, walmart and super drug etc get order less delivery which they need only. They do not order to stock so manufacturer manufacturer only for casted amount so CPFR makes the supply chain agile rather than lean.
The Adoptation of CPFR
Manufacturers and customers try to use CPFR Practises to build up trust between supply chain partners.
DRUG
The above list gives us examples of the adaptation of CPFR in different kinds of the industry. Moreover according to Blayer (1998) and Schenck (1998) A number of other companies have also used the CPFR practices. M.E Butt Grocery, Super-Valvue (Blair 1998), Nabisco, Jc Penny, Federated Department Stores, Schnuck Markets, Levis, Mead, Corning, Kodak, Pillsbury, Fiedcrest Cannon, Wegmans (Zimmerman, 1998)
Role of Technology:-
By the using of technology and Sharring information on webservar all supply chain partners amazing decreases inefficient in supply chain and their leads to well dezined production process that result in lower inventories on time deliveries which improve availability of product and low service gaps (Thronet al 2006) But specially it is not easy to apply and without the use of information technology it is almost impossible so information technology has played very important role in collaborative supply chain for their achievement. All the tools like QR, VMI, ECR and CFP mainly dependant on the technology. So information technology is very important in CPFR because CPFR is a new tool in collaborative supply chain it mainly dependant on IF for we successful procegers, with EDO, ERPs American software Logility, People soft Inc and I2 technologies. There are three other new technologies used in collaborative SC that are described in literature.
A. Web Serviceses Interpretebality for supply cahin.
This is a traditional technology used in traditional business process (SUN Micro Systems 2004) in electronics sector. In a general business process when a product is solued retailers stock goes low it requires to berefilled the system sends a request to the related vendor to fillup when the stock goes to the safety stock level of retailor. In real times manufacturers send the order to his suppler as well. His suppliers may be present at different geographicall positions due to globalization, this mite be carried out by sending order through fax the systems use universal account, discovery and intergration (UDDI) protocol for successful services.
B. Radio Frequency identification (RFID)
RFID is and automatic identification system. This system provides the facility to track the delivery even at item level and make it detectable the main function of the RFID is that it reduces the human enrolment in transferring the data there is very less chaince of error so it reduces the labo cost and improve accorase (D Avanzo et al.2004)
The RFID data is readable through RFID reader all the information in RFID is transmitted by a device tag the tag has all the information about item for example weight, colour, and price of the atom.
According to watcher and plaster 2004 the supply chain has the following advantages of the RFID like tracking visibility reduce lead time cost control accoress. In information and for casting and availability of product.
C. Collaborative product Commerce.
Collaborative product commerce is prospective future technology of collaborative supply network in the experts opinion. This technique improve the collaboration and integrate the suppler, manufacturer and retalior in supply chain, it combines information management, version control, configuration management, work how management and collaborative tools (CIOL IT 2002) as mention above this fool is about mass collaboration so it benefits to lower inventories, cost control, reduce lead time and flexible product development (Tumior 2001) the most potential part of the CIC is synchronization of proqurment and product development process.
D. Information Technology in Collaborative supply chain.
Information Technology benefits the CPFR in several ways to facilitate the all supply chain channels due to information technology tetailors claime about improved customer services product availability, customer, layelity, higher sales and lower inventories due to information technology manufacturers have expirenced faster cycle times and reduce capacity requirements (hill 1999 Ireland and brross 2000) Nabisco # Wegman foods project study increase the sales from 36 to 50 percent through a more efficient inventory control clouden 1999, schachtman, 2000)
KPMG Consultants
Carried out a survey about retailers and manufacturers in 1998 to hillite the benefits of sharring information with other partners (chain storage 1998) manufacturers explained considerable improvements in cycle times and inventory turns, retailers cited that order response time reduce to 6 days for domestic durable and 14 days for nondurables 4 out of 10 indicated that at least a 10% improvement in both response time and inventory turns 45% indicated 10% reduction in assossiated cost. In pilot test conducted with several vendors P & G has expirenced cycle time reductions of 12 to 20% (Schachtman 2000), by the collaboration and integration supply chain management P & G pollars Mostly reflecting Billion Pollars mostly reflecting the reduction in pibeline inventory (chain storage in 1998) in north American distribution operation Heineken's expirenced a 15% improvement in its for cast accoress (hill & math ur 1999) by the collaboration of different data if helps to enhance the for cast eccoressy like up dated information about future event, (e.g. promotions & prices actions) past events (e.g. weather related phenrmena) inter nal events (e.g. point of sales data and where house with drawals) lapied (1999) Heineken's north American distribution operations reduce order lead time in half by the efforts of collaborative supply chain for cast (hill & mathur 1999) as order time a reduced order response time improves. Anecdotal expirenced that 15 to 20 increases the fill rates and half the number of out of stock occurrences in (1999).
4. Fast moving consumer goods industry (FMCG):-
FMCG are those products which are found in super markets and move of the retail shops. Shelves very quickly because of their repetetaive and regular purchase demands and are of relatively low prices (A dictonory of business 1996 page 200) these may include grossary, soaps, beauty products, clothing, tobacco, pharma seuticals, T.V mobiles, Food, drink and shamp's e.t.c this industry is very huge & fast growing. The unit price is law but number of consumers are very high so these product sale in large quantites to earn optima profits (KULP ET AL 2001) this sector is very competitive & consuntracted so collaborative, supply chain between suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers are of much importance for planning, for casting earning profit, reducing cost and sati fine customers.
As FMCG is a intence competitive market long supply chains highly refined customers and need of right product at right time, at right place is increasing so this industry has become tough and collaborative supply chain is only solution all these issues. The main purpose of the supply chain collaboration is the optimization of the supply chain from manufacturers through distribution center which may have hubs were houses, cross doucing operations and or direct store delivery to fulfill the individual customer demand the key objective is minimizing the total cost of supply chain from both supply and demand size (seiferat 2003) by keeping the supply chain parthers not up to date it may creats many troubles in supply chains like out of stock, two much inventories, long lead times, extra logistic cost and dead stock or out dated stock due to short life cycle of the products this brings problems inorganization that causes dissatisfaction of the customers FIYCG industry is getting much benefits from collaborative supply chain. He benefits have been discussed above collaboration in supply chain is now entering in new age from quick response vendor management inventory and effective custimers response to CPFR this is a new flourish of the collaboration for the up coming challenges by taking one more step of collaboration from very first supplier to end customer. The companies dealing in FMCG like tesko M&S, PNG, Supper drug, boots, M.P, Asda (Wolmat) Nokia, Matrolla. And Microsoft corporation etc. (WWW.VICS. ORG) are some of the companies that are now practicing CPFR.
HOW CPFR WORKS FOR FMCG SECTER:
CPFR practices have worked amazingly for FMCG sector for the eccorate collaborative for casting organizations must first require to establish its internal for casting system to strengthen the company it can be achived by integrating all its department and involving processes by the use of technology Mc Carthy and Golicic, 2002) In making for cast all the manegers of the different departments like marketing, finance, human resorce managers and all other manegers must actively take part. We can observer the examples of companies like PNG & wolmat, CPFR plan not only enhance intra company integration but also enhance both companies performance by precise automatic replenishment & sale for cast & brought them close to each other rather tham close to each other rather than at arms length as they were before the implementation of the project.
CPFR is basically a sharing information between retailers, distributors, suppliers and manufacturers including point of sales data for four casting and promostion plans it is more about demand size unlike wendor management inventory and collaborative replenishment planning that high lite more on supply side (paramatari 2007) in FMCG sector CPFR support only those products that will indemand having very low or no inventory.
The CPFR implementation project is based on the approach of isntire distribution chane as an automatic replenishment based on reliable for cast rather than on uninformed carriage system based on rather blurred order, prediction (Simchi-livi and Kaminsky 2002) it supports the order less delivery that must be based on mutal for casting this can only be achived by mass collaboration in supply chain in practice store save are for casted by the retailor at present transactin level data from prevails sale and from promoshnal events of the store assortment dissicions about sku are done in category management and a rank is assigned in the category. Distribution center or manufacturer generates its own prediction as well these predictions are complimented by each other it should be noted that prediction of the manufacturer depends on the data provided by the retaibr but to switch the prediction into order building these also many things that are measured carefully like stock in store, inventory, items, in shelves, pipe line stock, open deliverick, already plan mmimel order size and logistic limitation etc (SEIFERT 2003)
B- Category Management:-
Category Management is ECR tool as we said before that CPFR is lrgicall extension of ECR so this tool is using Successfully in CPFR as well. A category is a controllable group of products in the view of custimers that they think or related or alternate to one another in meating their needs (Blattberg 1995)
Category management approach is using as tool for acorate for casting on large scale in collaborative supply chain (seifert 2003) different positions are assigned to all Sku in this tool that depict how much market share this Sku has and what is the sale of that centain product this rank of the Sku in lot of categories fore cast about the future sale the majority of retalirs are already part of different collaborative networks in these networks they many use different techniques for casting the managers who are already concer or used to such activities they do not require to do to much extra work foreusing the tool of category management. A small exra work will improve their accoressy by using category management it is mainly a pereodicall review and assortment decision process carried out at store level for Sku (Saffierat 2003)
As we said before that category management is catagrizing the sky from the perspective of consumers and for on better decision. In collaborative supply chain this technique is using as tool for accurate fore casting on large scale (Saffireat 2003) different positions are assigned to all Sku in this approach that shoos how much market share this Sku has and what is scale of that particular product. This rank of Sku in lot of categories fore cast about the future sale. Category management technique is very popular in collaborative supply chain network because it helps to make the going on plains of that Sku etc the next vital step is to produce the collective fore cast for each item this is done on basis of above step mention as above using Sku positions it is done fore a particular time period than it is translated auording to logistical planning. On the basis of assortment discions in a retail change the category managers improve the accoresy in positioning, total sale and ecorate input of Sku for the future sales perediction for the five sub categories of the house hald care products (shearer 1994)
In the new technique of collaborative like CPFR automatic replenslment is nevel part of the demand management side it means that inspite of waiting for the oreler of the retailers the supplier must able be send replenslment at be right time, at right least according to consumer demand (Halmstrom et al 2002)
This is perfect situation in CPFR plain and its main stress on accurate fore casting, because in collaborative supply chain supplier must be response efficiently to fulfill the market or trend changes it is very hard for the supplier to take the libelity of replenishment because small errors can lead to huge loss in large replenment solutions (halmstsom et al. 2002) because inventory state is desined on the basis of material movements and small mistake can result in out of stocks new technology like RIFD, EDI, EFR & other computer based softwares play an vital role in the practices of CPFR to make it precise.
Heineken USA Procting CPFR
Heineken takes 10 to 12 weeks to deliver bear to its distributor before practicing CPFR in the late (1995) the company made at dission to apply a supply chain management system to minimized the delivery time between 14 & 6 weeks by using largility's CPFR compliant voyager XPS software and interent.
The company used a private network to connect the company to customer or suppliers the system also linked sales people to the central data base company is using the system to do real time prediction, ordering & replenishment with its distributor. The company also distribute customized fore casting data to its distributor. The company also distribute customized fore casting data to its distributor through individual web pages by using CPFR distributors can sign in & view their sales fore cast & amend & submit their orders on line the system has help the company to decrease the order cycle time from 3 months to 4 weeks. It also brings some other benefits like lower procurement cost, small inventory & fresh products to consumer (1 othair 2001)
d- Issues and challenges in CPRF.
As in the about discussion we discussed the many potential benefits of CPFR in supply chain put organizations filed many challenges & issuing to fulfill the requirement of CPFR for example. The most important in the CPFR is the selection of the partner in supply chain to whom collaboration is made for the benefits of the business the another is sharing of information because it is the core part of the CPFR. Organization share the information that is viable part of it so leakage of information can be armful for organization inspite of benefit. In collaboration trust is the vital part of supply. Chain in collaboration every pardner must under stand and adventily their responsibilities. CPFR pays importance to the single forecast in the SIC it is beat difficult that every one will except, and agree on single forecast & planning because of opportunistic benaviour. For the better collaboration it is recommended that both manufacturer & retailor must agree on single software for sharring information it can cost a lot. It is II that enhances the visibility of demand & brobest the replevshment so selection of suitable software is significant.
Conclusion:-
FMCG sector is becoming more competitive & resource & consumer is more sophisticated than ever before due to demand variation, short lift cycle of products out sourcing & priung pressure collaboration. In manufacturer, distributor & relation is getting nearer. So this is the era of collaboration not ore rivalry. QR, VMI, ECR & CPR are the collaborating techniques that helps all the channels to reduce supply chain cost, lead time & inventory CPFR is the new technique of mass collaboration this pays stress on demand management it enhance the ability to a for cost consumer demand precisely that is very important and manufacturer control the inventory of reltailer. With the correct information to manufacturer in accurate quantity that is predicted to consume because of short life cycles of the products because of sharring data in all levels of supply chain suppliers can no the time of replemhment due to collaborative planning or fore cast to get the benefit from this particular situation new technology like ERP, EDI & RIFD etc has a big task without it is very hard for supply than partners to fore cast precisely & vigorous replenishment. Vigorus replenishment is all novel part of CPFR. Category management is the tool that is used by the retailers fore nowing the exact status of sku. CPFR makes the organizations customer oriented & works for the customer contentment only so it makes the supply chain agile weather we are getting benefits from CPFR but we also facing difficulties in collaboration. It needs changes to traditional system & ways of thinking about the fore cast process, Goddard says specifically it requires a spirit of partnership among customers and suppliers, one that will lead to exchange of believable, timely, accurate information. The easy part is the technical side such as communicating data via EDI or RIFD, the tougher challenge is to establish a trusting relationship with both parties striving to help the other's
A: Future research:-
For future research it is recommended that new ways of improving the trust and commitment short be researched because without trust on the other supply chain it is hardly possible to get desire results modern it customer & prospect, clemant variations has interest to develop the new planning for customers satisfaction research is still at premature stage of investigation of different reasons of CPFR Collaboration. More collaborative techniques are needed as cleared from literature review and experimental examples in all the channels of supply chain to get presize inventory information selves life of the product pipeline & lead time for presize & automatic replenishment.
Euplaination of conceptual frame work.
In the these I plained to discover new technique of collaborative supply chain which is collaborative planning, fore casting & replenishment (CPFR) in fast moving, consuming goods, FMCG industry between supply chain members i.e. manufacturer, distributor & retail shop I build up for hypothesis & give evidence for those at the last I depicked conclusion & practical, implications of my hypothesis my work flows in the chain as below I started my work with Introduction in the literature review in the introduction I try to explain that what is accurately the collaborative supply chain stand for? Then I analyzed what's its scope & benefits in the current business? What are the present Issues faiced by the business in the serve environment & how collaborative supply chain can handle these issues. Its benefits are proved by examples.
I tried to give brief depiction about earlier collaborative supply chain techniques in FMCG sector & CPFR is explained in detail & how new techniques CPFR is proceed from earlier technique & what are the steps required to implement it & how it works for FMCG sector at the end of literature review conclusion is pinched & future research is plained.
After the literature review for hypothesis are developed the scale & reason for the hypothesis have been explained then to very field hypothesis methodological have been explained by using & try to collect data analysis my hypothesis to sources of data have been used in the project.
Primary data:-
Primary data is collected by interviews, questionnaires sent to manufacturers, distributors & retailers by e-mail & by telephonic conversation.
Secondary data:-
The tools of secondary data are books, Journal academic & trade, articles hypothesis are very field on the basis of sample data & conclusion has been drawn. Area for future research has been recommended as well practical suggestions has been described.
Hypothesis development:-
Hypothesis developed on abstract propositions & experimental results deepected in literature review for Hypothesis are developed to assist assessment & link between CPFR practices & organization performance.
Nagel & dove in (1991) kidd in (1994) & more newly by sharafie & Zhung (1999) & Ismail (2006) aregue that because of the high leel of change & insecurity in the area of business market short life cycles of the products & confused environment supply chain is changing towards agility for the incurrence & to saticfic customer demand. The plain of agility in the perspective of supply chain management fauvisms on “responsiveness” (lee & lau 1999) Christopher & to will 2002) Christopher (2000) suggested a three level structure work bringing together assorted strand which helps to developing the agile supply chain these consists rapid responded and replenishment fulfillment individual approaches such as lein production organizational agility & quick response and finally any particular detailed action needed to be under taken. CPFR give emphasis to the demand size of the chain. It focuses on customer requirement & beneficially compition of the demand by mass collaboration from very start of the supply chain to bery end customers so we consider hypothesis that does CPFR of the supply chain shifts the whole supply chain from lien supply chain to egile presize inventory information is very important for accordate automatic replenishment in collaborative supply chein there is an adverse reality that most of the companies experience inventory record problems for example one pragmatic research indicates that 50% of the inventory recorde at a keading retailor are incorrect (King and Gershwin 2005) similar like this another research report find similar results more than 65% of the inventory record do not match the physical inventory at the store level of a leading reteilor. (Raman et al 2001) considerable studies are conducted to examan the problem (angulo et al 2004 kang & Gershwin 2005 wallar et ul 2006) to investigate the empact of incorrect inventory information on the performance & individual organization or on the performance of a given supply chain pattern we tried to fiend in the literature that incorrect inventory information in collaborative supply chain cause lot of stock, bad replenishment stratege & wrong. Forecast. In replenishment solutions like CPFR forecast are very important this is because the allies need to be able to react affectionately to major changes.
But we want to see the other aspect of the issue so we made the hypothesis that do incorrect inventory information & forecast increase supply chain collaboration & its performance? This is researcher's pershol observation that when there is incorrectness inventory retail outlets attempt to create there struggles in away which goes inoptimistis direction to improve there accuracy in formation we shall analyze that does this increase organizational performance & collaboration is the supply chain as well? In the same way we will ceck that in accuracy in fore casting system will make progress in collaborative supply chain that will increase performance.
In the new trend of collaborative SC, category management or systematic merchandising is an modernization from the customer & Lbuzzel & ortmeyer 1995) with cutegory management retailers begain to scientifically manage the preduct offered to the consumer & improve the forecasting process.
The big issue is that very few retailers forecast demand for stock keeping units the level that is vital for the suppliers the reasons is that force asting is a lengthly process when you have as many as 30,000 different items to manage in a potensial market. Another reason is that retailers do not get any advantage from forcosting as compare to supplier, but if the retailor already have a working category management process a very small extra effort can make supplier delivery service at high level grade describes the position of Sku in the category. Share explains how much each grade to represent of the total category sale the secondary Ley element is to use point of sale data to develop the accurse of the forecast. Point of sale data are use to grade the Sku within the category & to give the share of scales for each Sku (Holmstrom el at 2002)
For instance in Fin land the particular glossary supplier has a 95% or higher services level & next day delivery. This means that more in 20 items cannot be delivered the next day as ordered by the customer but the supplier particularly can distribute the missing item in the category with in a few days. As a result none of the retail chain fore. Cast on the stock keeping units (Sku) level. Because they do not require so we made hypothesis that category managed yield more accurate forecast rather than single item forecast we will testifie it by experimentally.
It both supplier & retailor agree on automatic replenishment it will reduce the lead time, pipe line time & ordering delay that is the delay between utilization at the point of scales & reading from the supplier as it is result of consolidated material flows the decrease of this delay is important specially in product categories with much variation & difficulties fore the supplier is forecasting demand.
We shall examan the hypothesis that does automatic replenishment from manufacturer benefit retailers in collaborative supply chain system? That is why we can say that the test of trust of both panthers & of the for-cast supply chain members before adopting healthy replenishment we shall test only much patience of both parties if the replenishment is not to mark up.
Research methodology.
a. Methodology:-
Deductive research methodology, quantitative & qualitative analysis methods have been used to testifie the unsure hypothesis number of organizations have been contacted completed by personal contract. The contacted firms are manly divided into 3 categories & their distribution retail or shops & their distribution centers it was make, sure that manufacturers & retailers are in same supply chain Practicing collaborative practices.
b. Deductive research methodology:-
In this method work starts from more general more specific this approach is also called top down approach. In this methodology. We start with more general thinking and than we narrow down our work and make hypothesis then these hypothesis are tested.
c. Sources of data collection:-
Primary and secondary sources of data are used in the research thesis.
d. Tools of primary data:-
Tools use for the data collection are interview, personal and telephonic interview, serviys by e-mail, to verify the hypothesis 3 different set of questionnaires have been made for each category questionnaires have 20 question for manufacturers 19 question for distributors and 11 question retail outlet the questions have been made after taking a couple of interviews & retailers with the retailers these questionnaires are the mixture of open end & close end questions the questioner has been plained to presizly limit to the subject only.
e. Questionnaires
As we mansion above that 3 set of different questionnaires have been made for the 3 different channels in the supply chain these channels are manufacturer, distributor & retail outlets as these 3 collaborate in the collaborative network to verify our hypothesis we require to get information from all partners because these partners from one supply chain network & in CPFR these 3 partners collaborate & share information.
We made about 20 to 22 questions for our for hypothesis to explain these in simple language because most of the time the managers do not understand scholastic language although they mite use CPFR bout they donot know about the tools precizely they use them by chance. Our aim to develop questionnaires to make it euzsly for us and managers to realize that what we require to know.
f. Questionnaires for manufacturers as follows:-
These questions will explain our hypothesis to get information from manufactures.
g. Questions to distributors as follow:-
We made 19 questions for distributors that make easy for us to explain the information that we require from distributors the questions are following.
h. The following questions are for retail outlets.
I. Analysis of information:
It is clear from the above questionnaires that the questions have been arranged in such pattern that it makes sense for the despondence. Most of he area in the questionnaires are similar all the SC channels because they work for each other in the net-work not for themselves only but for each other to make supply chain positive & agile. We can easily evaluate the information we shall get from questionnaires we can understand who control supply chain
J. Interiors:-
From Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to telephonic interviews conducted to different supply chain managers of same company number of personal interviews conducted in London retail shops to collect information to analyze the hypothesis. The interview technique was use formal or informal type for used on accurate area to be addressed. In compliance with GIU RDANO's (2003) advice all speaks went to same interview guide (set in the questionnaires) rather they worked in the manufacturing industry, retail industry or distribution centers.
K. Secondary data:-
Another source of data is secondary data taken from internal company documents consisting reports memorandum summary of meetings evaluation reports of all manufacturers & retailers these were abnormally detailed & extensive because they offend represent the work of the key informants & there close links.
L. Tools of secondary data:-
The major source of secondary data is book, articles, journals, company websites & consumer reports
M. Reliability & Validity:-
Reliability was insure by using uniform structured survey instrument with direction for the respondents.
N. Limitations:-
Time factor is big limitation in the project because I have to complete the project in only 50 days which is very short so I cannot wait for all the fed back from the addressee to home I sent questionnaires the response rate is also very low. So I verify the hypothesis on the basis of resisting data only. So response rate is also a limitation factor.
8. Hypothesis test
a. Received responses and results analysis
I sent 20 sets of questionnaires by e-mails & letters to manufacturers 15 sets of questionnaires to distribution centers & conduct 5 interviews of different retailers. I received 3 responses from manufacturers, 3 from big retail distributors & I response from medium large distributors. So the response rate of the manufacture is 15% and for distributor it is 26%. The results of these in descriptive from in logical way. If we analysis over the responses that we received from the manufacturers, distributors & retailers then we can observe that the SC before the collaborative practices was full of excess inventories, heavy cost, long lead time, decline, inaccuracies in forecast and planning etc. but when model companies begin collaborative practices like CPFR there collaboration with all supply chain partners (suppliers, manufacturers, distributors & retailers) enhanced vividly progress in accuracy, in planning, demand & sale forecasting & low inventories. This mass collaboration lead to automatic replenishment. On the with verify my hypothesis.
b. Hypothesis one result & explanation:-
hypothesis one is does category management yield more accurate forecast rather than single item forecast. We asked couple of questions to manufacturers & distributors to verify this hypothesis the questions & respondent field back is as follow.
Manufacturer:
Q. Do you group or categorize different product on the basis of your customer choice are based on procuring order or pricing etc?
Company 1 yes usually based on customer choice & taking into account any efficiency benefits that the customer mite get e.g. minimum order, quantify, discount or trailer load discound or SLCG.
Company2. Yes
Company 3: Yes
Q. Do you group or categorize various products on the basis of other methods?
Company 1:- Yes depends on criteria of minimizing inventory in the supply chain or minimizing service or minimizing serving cost or optimization of hasing operation generally every trade lane has its own exclusive operation stefergie.
Company 2:- To make it easy for our customer & improved discussion.
Company 3:- 7 Colour price, model GSM.
Q. If none of the above is it easy to treat products individually for future forecast.
Company 1:- NA
Company 2:- NA
Company 3:- NO
Q:- Does your supplier use same method that you use of grouping of products.
Company1:- Some times yes & some times they use their own methaddogic.
Cmpmay2:- Yes big suppliers.
Company 3:- Yes
Distributors
Q. Do you group or categorize various product on the basis of your customer choice or based on procuring order or prices or etc.
Company A:- Bothe on choice like fresh (milk, butter and yogurt) and Am-bn (vine)
Hardure)
Company 2: Yes
Company 3: yes
Company D we do group items on the basis of customer choice & analysis our assortments from a customers point of view.
Q. Do you group or categorize various product on the basis of other method.
Company A :- No
Company B: better consumer base customers demand improved sales exile of not celling SKu.
Company C: Brand name price consumer preferences
Company D:- We do items based on customer grouping.
Q. It none of the above is it easy to treat products individually for future forecast.
Company A NA
Company B NA
Company C : Usually we do individually.
Company D: It is quietly easy to treat product individually for future forecast and it is our main forecasting method. New products are forecasted based on current products how ever sales cannibalization has to be taken into this is where reviewing souring combined sales forecast can provide additional valueable helpful information in setting forecast.
Q. Does your supplier use same method that you use of grouping of products.
Company A: Yes (depend on products)
Company B: Yes
Company C No idea
Company D: Particularly there is a considerable placement between our categorization & those of our suppliers.
Explanation:-
From primary data that we collected & secondary data explains it clearly that both the manufacturer & distributors use category management & it has enhance the accuracy in forecasting sku ever retailers use category management but they do not have enough knowledge about it central job is carried out by distribution centers of retailers interviews conducted with retailers depect that the retailers are using category management but they do not know that the process carried out by them is category management they analysis level of sku in the store & order are the low level sku or they do opening analysis & sent the information to the distribution centers.
Our whole respondent conforms that category management is technique to improve management of sku & its yields presize future sales forecast. Even one of our distributor respondent forecast individual but he uses the technique of category, management to enhance the is assortment decisions to enhance accuracy. Manufactures & retailers used category management by mutual collaboration on the basis of customer's choice this is the highest precedence element of all the supply chain parthners for categorizing sku. When supply chain partners conduct meating or share information over technology for forecasting and replenishment planning if they. Have different approach to categories it is a confusion from our data generally manufacturers & retailers use same category approach for the sky both the partners may have their own categories as well infact it depends on the collaboration between SC partners generally bitg retailers for mass collaboration with their suppliers use same category tools even they use same information technology & it is prove in the case of P&G & wolmat. Category management reduce the cast by managing demand sided efficiently & increases reviews of the companies. This brings competitive advantagese for the companies (Durope 2004)
The manufacturers who took the initiatives for category management for customer choice efficiency & benefits that customers got, minimum order quantity discount, frail or, load discounts, minimizing inventory, maximizing services, minimizing serving cost, optimising, wear housing operations, distinctive, operation strategic & better decisions. Category management helps to realize the customer behaviour how & why customer behave in a particular way. (Johnson 1999)
By the category management nextle proposed, wol to cut it 25 low & celling products for the profit. Category management has experimentally proved all the benefits that we discussed above but for this information technology plays an vital role. (Gnau 1994) In Germany for instance retailers practiced category management to tackle the clining & hove house supplies. They are able to decrease stock keeping units by 25% reduce cost by 10% fcadmic generals reported by gruen 2002 show the similar findings have been fined in the use through out Europe.
So, the hypothesis is true & highest preference in customer preferences in assortment decisions. Hypothesis is two result & explanation. Second hypothesis is does in accurate inventory information & forecast increase supply chain collaboration & performance. This hypothesis was made on the consideration that there are inaccuracies in the inventory records of the retailor or in the manufacturers or in accoressies in the future then in the supply chain partners get close to one another to reduce the Gup & to find out the root causes for the in accuracy & in this way the performance increases. If there is any inaccuracy in making forecast do you try to correct it & try to plain it correctly.
For the verification of hypothesis following four questions were asked from manufacturers, distributors & retailers & responses are given as
Manufacturers:-
Q Do you share information about sales of product with supplier or manufacturers?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q. If yes do you use this information in your future sale forecasting and procuring planning?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q. Do you regularly communicate or arrange meatings with your supplier manufacturers to plain your future forecast.
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q. Do you hold specific communication arrangement for seasonal or promotional sales with your suppliers in advance.
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q. If there is any in accuracy in making forecast do you try to ractific it & try to plain in accuracy?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q. For the rectification of the inaccuracy do you work more efficiently & very close to your supplier & manufacturer?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q. Do you think that a close collaboration will improve your over all planning and performance?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Distributors:-
Q. Do you sharer information about the sales of products with your suppliers or manufacturers? Yes / No
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q. If yes do you use this information in your future sale forecasting or procuring planning?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Not really
Q. Do you regularly communicate or arrange meatings with your suppliers or manufacturers to plain your future sale forecast?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q. Do you hold specific communication arrangements for seasonal or promotional sales with your supplier in advance?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q. If these is any inaccuracy in making forecast do you try to reptify it and try to plain it accurately?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q./ For the rectification of the inaccuracy do you work more efficiently & very close to your supplier or manufacturer?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Q. Do you think that a close collaboration will improve your overall planning & performance?
Company 1:- Yes
Company 2:- Yes
Company 3:- Yes
Explanation:-
All the results that we got were in positive so, 100% of the answers were in yes. All the 3 parties totally believe that in accuracy, in inventories & future forecast can over come by mass collaboration. This collaboration in all supply chain partners increases the performance & enhances accuracies in SC, so it is proved by our primary data in accurate inventory information & forecast increase supply chain (Sc) collaboration and performance.
Sc channels practice collectively in forecasting sale & rertifing any incompetence, in the inventory record that enhance performance of network. Main factor is that who handle the forecasting process networks mostly it is handle by the retailers this pint is provided by our primary source. According to our report the forecast created by the retailers in collaboration with manufacturers. The retailers admit any input incase of differences from manufacturers. In the contrast if we look back in our literature review than we can see that all the collaborative Sc tools, were develop gradually because these were big task in the business. Sectors like excess inventories large lead time, inaccurate forecast & high cast all the tools like quick response, vender management inventory, efficient consumer response & collaborative planning forecasting & replenishment are gradually developed to enhance the collaboration in all supply chain partners when one tool could not work new was developed. The main focus mass collaboration is minimizing ivneritories & inaccuracy in sat food cast. Demand variations causes the problem discussed it causes trouble and ambiguity. It can be prevail over by collaboration. Manufacturers and distributor can make finest manufacturing & distributing to reduce cast.
It companies find inaccuracies companies makes special planning's i.e. higher external auditors to know the exact inventory information & if the store is in problem then the distributor & retailer organize delivery checks to know root cause of inaccuracies. This kind of collaboration enhance inventories accuracies (source primary data) in case of inacoresis in future sale for cast manufacturers & retailers organize special meating to enhance the accuracies in forecasting process. Like PNG & volmat did (Grean PNG director)
