On Time and Complete

A good exercise for a supply chain professional is to walk over to their favorite merchant and ask the key question, “in order to ensure merchandise plan execution (or hit your margin number), what matters most to you?” Nine out of ten times the merchant response will be on-time and complete. Merchants can live with poorly stacked pallets, funny looking cartons, non- existent shrink wrap and improperly placed labels as long as correct merchandise is there in a timely matter. While the previously mentioned failures can affect overall supply performance and add avoidable costs, none with the intensity and impact as on-time and complete. Why? Because in today’s promotionally driven omni-channel enhanced market place, nothing impacts the customer more than an empty peg hook. And most especially an empty peg hook that was previously advertised as being full. As Camille Fratanduono, Assistant Vice President for Pricing and Replenishment for Pep Boys stated in a recent SCD broadcast, “in-stock is no longer a luxury in our business, it’s a necessity!” And the potential downside isn’t just the temporary loss of margin to the retailer; it is also an incalculable damage to the retailer’s brand.

I recently came to the revelation my wifi starved home needed an upgrade. My three daughters and their countless devices have brought my once proud home network to its knees and we have too many dead spots. The solution I identified (right or wrong), was a wifi range extender. After careful deliberations and countless reviews, I decided on a particular make and model and identified two national retailers who stock the product. While Amazon offered a predictable price and delivery solution for me, I wanted the product now! After searching both websites for availability, I came upon two unique responses. While retailer’s A’s response was “we have it, come on by”, retailer’s B’s response was simply “limited stock” with the store location and telephone number. Limited stock is not confidence inspiring and like most men, I don’t like to ask for directions or call retail stores. A quick glance at both retailers’ websites not only told me which retailer confidently understands their fill rates and purchase order lifecycles, but where I should spend my valuable time and money. I suspect I’m not alone. When “I want it now” remains the traditional retailer’s most strategic weapon against Amazon and other e-comm. sites, retailers can ill afford to self-impose damage to their valuable brand.


The Solution

Look out your office door, there is a line stretched a mile and a half down the road of software vendors and other service providers who have just the solution for you. Better forecasting, replenishment, and allocation, improved transportation times, more edi transaction sets (“we already have your data”) and RFID all claim to have the silver bullet, but do they? At the end of the day, the retailers who best understand their vendor’s fill rates, purchase order lifecycles and overall supply chain performance and can share this valuable information with all stakeholders ( merchants, replenishment and vendors) are in the best position to mitigate margin risk and protect the brand. This