Running head: Week Six Assignment
Week Six Managerial Finance
Jason Campbell
Wayne Hollman
BUS 650
January 7, 2013
Abstract In this final paper for Managerial Finance I will attempt to show how the supply chain inventory management method can be affected depending on the situation of the retailer. Studying the control method for problems in inventory, which would include both, excesses in inventory as well as shortages, and hoping to minimize loss.
Use of SCM as a Method of Inventory Control
I have decided to do the final for Managerial Finance on the use of the SCM method as a form of inventory control, because I have worked in a business that has used many different forms of inventory control. As a manager it was one
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The process of supply chain management can actually merge retailers with supplier just as suppliers merge with the manufacturers. Some companies choose to use various different suppliers for their products while other companies choose to use a single supplier for their product.
Personally I worked for a video game company called FuncoLand which was purchased by a company called Babbages, which merged with Electronics Boutique. After the merger the name of the company was changed to GameStop which is now the largest video game retailer in the United States. The thing that makes this important to this paper is that when FuncoLand was purchased by Babbages the supply chain changed. The change in the supply chain meant that all orders must be relooked at to insure the same profit levels for products that GameStop enjoyed.
The single supplier for GameStop was replaced by the numerous different suppliers of Babbages. Every item of inventory needed to be checked to make sure they reflected a price that was going to produce profit for the merged FuncoLand and Babbages stores. Inventory charts were created and every store of both needed to inventory all items listed so that they could be compared with the new companies overall stock as well as profit ratios.
Once the inventories of both companies were done there was a coordinating effort by upper management to determine prices of available product as well as the suppliers that were going to deal which each
| The company has a few different suppliers but relies on each supplier to bring in the stock for them to sell, if they didn’t have more than one supplier then they wouldn’t have anything to sell if one stopped production or went on strike.
However, GameStop is still at a disadvantage, because there are such a large number of competitors in the industry. Buyer’s bargaining power are high, since there is no brand loyalty in the industry. Customers are very well aware of the market price of a product and will look for the best deals they can find. Suppliers have high bargaining power since suppliers can choose to integrate forward and sell their products themselves. The success of the retail gaming industry is very dependent on the availability of supplier’s goods. Additionally, since there are low barriers of entrance, substitute products and new entrants often appear in the market. Since most competitors in the industry do not have a strong presence, the expected retaliation towards new entrants is low. An increasing popularity of smartphone games and social media games such as Farmville on Facebook, allows customers to play against friends. Although these social media games do not offer the same experience as a video game, the fact that virtually no switching cost is associated with switching to a competitor’s game and since they are so cheap compared to video game disk and consoles, can easily drive customers from video gaming to online gaming. (Exhibit 2)
Lastly, the cancellation of high visibility events may have been due to the determination that cost was not yielding substantial sales or visibility. Despite this fact, it stands to reason that a store manager would inform a regional manager of any choices having a broader impact to the overall company. If there was a lack of communication here, I believe it is to the detriment of the store manager’s credibility.
Inventory levels over the past 4 years have remained on an increasingly consistent track as their revenue has risen. According to Best Buy (2010), this rise in revenue and assets is partly due to the fact that they enter new markets and open new stores across the world. The latest opportunities that they have come across include new stores in Europe and other areas overseas. This is new territory for Best Buy but has been a successful venture based on their flexibility with their inventory systems that they have in place. The following table presents the last five year financial highlights according to the Financial Statements and Supplementary Data of Annual Report on Form 10-K. (Investor Relations, 2010) Five-Year Financial Highlights
During the game, I realized that wide gaps in orders of every role in the supply chain such as factory, distributor and retailer create inventory management challenges. For example, distributor records 0units between week1-week 4 compared to retailer within the same period. The retailer records 3units, 5units, 2units and 2units between weeks 1- week 4. The same applies to factory with 0units from weeks 2-4. Addressing inventory management problems requires developing an average unit level to avoid disappointing customers when demand
The industry we have chosen is the department store-retail industry. Within this industry, we have chosen the department stores of JCPenney and Macy’s. We find this industry, as well as these two companies, interesting from a strategic perspective. JCPenney has recently undergone a massive strategic restructuring in regards to its pricing, brand offerings, and store layout, pushing it away from the typical department store strategy of discounts and coupons. Its new strategy has become much closer to Wal-Mart’s strategy of every day low prices. Macy’s, on the other hand, has restructured with a push from the economic
Explain the methods of depreciation. Explain the methods of depletion. How do depletion and depreciation methods differ? Compare and contrast the depreciation and depletion methods. Use scholarly references (no Wikipedia, Answers.com, etc.) to support the points you make in your paper.
Team 2 has researched and completed a comparative analysis of Mattel’s supply chain design and related costs with that of its major competitor Hasbro and the toy industry. What follows, is a brief background of Mattel’s traditional (non-electronic game) sector, its key competitors and Mattel’s use of supply chain management concepts in addressing the competitive landscape to gain a competitive advantage. The global toy and game market grew by 7.2% in 2007 with a value of $106.1 billion and by 2012, is forecasted to have a value of $126.2 billion, an increase of 18.9% over 2007. The toy market is divided into three primary sectors, namely game consoles, game software and traditional toys and games. Traditional toys and
Best Buy’s financial performance and management stability from 2010-2013 had been consistently negative. Although BB was the largest electronics retailer ($50B in annual sales), its stock price had dropped from $45 to $15 per share in 2 years. Earnings per Share fell by more than 200% in 2012 alone. Revenue had been increasing; however, store sales and profitability were trending negatively. Competitively, the landscape was increasingly challenging; margins were slim, Apple’s high end /
Economic analysis: The average age for gamers have increased to 30 years old this could be due to research reports that found the benefits of games is improved memory and alertness. There are even video games for fitness and memory improvement such as the Wii fitness and Brain Age.
Read the case study below “Harvey Industries”. Provide reasoning for the current financial distress of the company and make recommendations for improvements to the new company president. Include at least one specific recommendation for both Supply Chain Management (chapter 15) and Inventory Management (chapter 13), as well as any other recommendations you deem necessary from your reading. Provide your recommendations in a 2-4 page APA style paper.
Supply Chain Management plays a vital role in our hospitals today. With the growing cost of healthcare and new technologies, it is vital for hospitals to run as efficiently as possible and without jeopardizing care. To the materials manager and to the financial minds of a hospital the area of supply chain is a tedius task at best, the kind of planning, strategizing and measuring that seldom goes recognized and rewarded. The work involved with inventory control fits tightly within that description.
Supervalu Incorporation is one of the largest grocery stores in the United States with more than 2,400 stores, among these stores the corporation also outsources to third parties which are not named in this discussion (Edmonds, Tsay & Old, 2011). However, grocery stories that are the best known that are in-house under the ownership of Supervalu are as followed; Albertson, Farm Fresh, Jewel-Osco and Save-a-lot (Edmonds, Tsay, & Old, 2011). On January 12th, 2010 Supervalu made the decision to reduce items from their present time inventory. The reduction would reduce the cost of production by 25% from the last segment production earnings of 240,000 (Edmonds, Tsay & Old, 2011). In this discussion, we will try to deduce the effect and impact that will result in Supervalu decision to reduce or eliminate an item from their inventory (Edmonds, Tsay & Old, 2011).
Many companies have always viewed logistics as only a transport cost solution. Though transportation cost represent a huge expenditure for production companies, inventory management has the ability to significantly improve a company’s performance and reduce costs greatly.
The most important part in supply chain management is managing inventory as company operation tries to minimize cost from supplier, manufacturing, and production. Regarding to inventory, the management accounting must have understand the basic of inventory management. There are a numbers of techniques including: ABC system, EOQ model, TQM, and JIT system. All those several system are relating in managing control as EOQ still has to be considerate in JIT methodology, or quality control is also important part in JIT.