5. Case analysis (30 points) Read the following case and answer the questions. M

Question

5. Case analysis (30 points) Read the following case and answer the questions. Meet the retailer taking grocery chain waste back to the masses Retailers are an extremely visible facet of the food waste scandal, but there are all sorts of reasons that products fall out of the grocery supply chain. Edward Perchard spoke to Approved Food founder Dan Cluderay to see how he's turning this would-be waste back into a profit with his online clearance food and drink store When you think of waste in the grocery supply chain, chances are images of the bins outside supermarkets full of ready meals and bunches of bananas will come to mind, or maybe a pile of carrots sitting on a farm, deemed too big, small, thin or fat for the shelves. But what about the stuff that gets lost in the middle? According to WRAP every year by grocery manufacturers. Around 900,000 tonnes of this, food worth approximately £1.2 blion, is deemed avoidable. And though much (51 per cent) is made up of extremely perishable stuff like meat and dairy, 11 per cent, some 185,000 tonnes of waste, comes from ambient products: the kind of thing you canill your cupboards with. It's this waste, created for any number of reasons, that online retailer Approved Food is trying to turn back into edible profit. Launched in 2008, the website receives 20,000 unique visitors a day and last year shipped 9.8 million items of food, alcohol and household products that have slipped through the supply chain cracks from its Sheffield depot across the UK and Europe. Sourced at manufacturers rather than retailers, Approved Food's stock is irregular, a new range every week, with 200 different lines arriving at the depot every day in a range of quantities, depending on what's become available. The retailer's founder, Dan Cluderay, says that as online shopping has completely changed the way people buy food, the internet has also opened up avenues for clawing back produce that would otherwise go to landfill, and getting it to the people that it was made for. "There's been a massive shift in how people buy, what they think is value and what's socially acceptable. It's coming into all walks of life, the manufacturer down to the consumer. Approved Food pitches ts wares squarely at those looking for bargains on groceries, what Cluderay describes as the Money Saving Expert group' (he says the average customer last year saved £77 on every order placed). Much

Explanation / Answer

Answer 2:

Answer 2:

Please refer below examples showing how internet has changed the operations mode of supply chain.

Inventory management is being revolutionized by the Internet:

One of the most costly aspects of supply chains is the management of inventory. The research has shown that the most popular use of the Internet in this area is the communication of stock-outs by customers to vendors, or the notification of stock-outs by companies to their customers. The Internet has enabled companies to more quickly institute EDI information programs with their customers. Prior to the development of the Internet, EDI took a long time to implement in a supply chain. Each channel member had to invest heavily in equipment, software, and training before EDI systems could be made operational. This is similar to the situation with JIT delivery programs. Ever since the introduction of the Internet, JIT and EDI systems take only half of the needed time to develop and to be put into operation. The Internet has affected inventory management most dramatically in the ability of firms to be proactive in the management of inventory systems. This is demonstrated in the ability of firms to notify customers of order-shipping delays and inventory emergencies. The research showed that the information available to inventory managers is becoming more readily available because of the reporting systems that can be used through the Internet. This includes finished-goods inventory levels at manufacturing and field level depots along with raw material levels at central and regional assembly locations. The Internet also provides managers with the ability to track out-of-stock inventory items in field depots. The overall benefit of the Internet to firms in managing inventory in their supply chains is to keep inventory levels low, reduce overall holding costs, and still provide high levels of customer service.

Shipment pickups and deliveries are more accurately monitored.

Purchasing and the Internet

The use of the Internet in managing purchasing in the supply chains has developed rapidly over the last 10 years. The research demonstrates that the Internet is utilized in a variety of procurement applications including the communication with vendors, checking vendor price quotes, and making purchases from vendor catalogues. The purchasing function in U.S. firms has been streamlined through the use of the Internet. General Electric, for example, has reduced its purchasing staff by more than 50 percent and permits on-line purchasing from vendor catalogues by each department. The paperwork flows have been reduced, and order-cycle times— the time from when the order is purchased to the time it is delivered to the company—has decreased by 40 percent. Vendor negotiation has also been streamlined through the use of the Internet. Face-to-face negotiations are not used as frequently because the negotiations can be conducted through the Internet. This includes the bargaining, re-negotiation, price, and term agreements. The study showed that product-damage issues are also managed through the use of the Internet. This has lowered the costs of handling returned or damaged goods by improving the tracking of the items and by being notified by vendors beforehand when damaged goods can be shipped. The financial aspects of returned goods are also handled more efficiently, including notification as to when credits are posted by vendors. Warranty issues are likewise handled on the Internet. Notifications of warranty termination dates, new types of warranties, procedures for processing claims, and the actual handling of warranty claim matters are also handled through the Internet.

Transportation and the Internet

The most popular use of the Internet in supply chains is in the management of transport. Transportation typically is the second highest cost component in a supply chain, accounting for approximately 25% of the overall operating costs. The research showed that the monitoring of pickups at regional distribution centers by carriers is the most popular application of the Internet in this area. This is particularly important for a company, since tracking shipments to regional depots provides the firm with data on the reliability performance of the carriers it is using. This enables transportation managers to make sure that the motor carriers they use are meeting their promised arrival times. It also provides managers with the information they need to inform carriers of shipment delays as they occur, and to not have to wait for days before the information becomes available for corrective measures to be taken. Claims reporting, processing, and settlement are more easily handled through the use of Internet tracking-system applications.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse 5
• Subjects

---

---

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.