What Is Supply Chain Management? “Sell it and Service It: Retail Considerations” – ASU’s Video Series: Part 5

Module 5 of the excellent “What is Supply Chain Management” series, produced by ASU and the W. P. Carey School of Business, discusses the relevance of supply chain management to retail operations.

The careers of many of my colleagues in the profession of supply chain management were forged in manufacturing. Indeed, it was the factory that inspired so many of the principles of Quality, Planning, and Inventory Management that we have come to apply in many disciplines. My career, however, followed a somewhat different path: I “grew up”  in retail, and gained a completely different perspective on SCM as a result.

The host of this video ends the presentation with the statement: “they [retailers] could all use the help of Supply Chain Managers.” That is true enough. But the statement does not go far enough.

The relationship between retail operations and supply chain management ought to be reciprocal and integrated. Successful retailers understand the value of best practices in SCM. Wal-Mart has built an empire on this approach. The retail mind-set challenges traditional supply chain perspectives, forcing them to employ flexibility, responsiveness, and efficiency in the processes.

Supply chain management took a long time to come to an appreciation of the importance of the consumer in the Great Equation of Commerce. This is a concept that comes intuitively to retailers.  We have morphed from a post-war supply-driven economy to one that is consumer-driven. Many manufacturers have yet to come to grips with this simple yet profound change, and struggle as a result. Such was the largess of the post-war boom.

I would argue that retail has a lot to offer to the profession of supply chain management as well. Through an appreciation of the wants and needs of consumers, SCM practitioners will gain a much deeper understanding of what works, and what does not.

This video lasts only a little under 4 minutes, and gives an excellent overview of the subject matter.

For Parts 1 through 4 of the video series, please visit our section titled Videos.

Please enjoy!

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