Fast Fit Case Study

He is in charge of four departments, each headed up by a senior manager. These departments are distribution, trade marketing, market research, and sales. The sales department, which has 1400 employees, is further divided into urban sales and rural sales, and there are 13 rural sales managers reporting to the head of rural sales. Each sales representative serves a territory that usually consists of both licensed and non-licensed establishments. They supply retailers with product information and storefront displays. They also offer discounts and promotions, where appropriate, in an attempt to win limited retailer shelf space. A partial organization chart is shown in Exhibit A.

Different retailing businesses have very different distribution methods based on the types of product that they sell, some arguably more effectively than others.

1. Mark the main flows of goods and money in the diagram (above) and employ a key or table of descriptive elements to explain your answer.

Nordstrom’s is classified as one of the biggest U.S. department stores. Along with Sears, Macy’s, and JC Penny’s, Nordstrom manages each department in their stores as an individual buying center. Every group functions separately from one another, and is administered by a buyer who is in charge of all varieties and styles of merchandise sold. Promotions that can be used in the stores are included, as well. “The company has also benefited from a new computerized inventory system that gives buyers and salespeople the necessary data to make smarter decisions about what is needed in the stores—and what isn’t.” (Lamb, Hair, McDaniel 569). This new and improved system allows the department store to market a greater amount of full priced items, which ultimately increase sales. The buyer is also able to easily determine what items to obtain and exhibit in the store by using this system.

Holt Renfrew, is high-end retail chain for designer fashions and cosmetics that imports their products from Europe, Asia and USA. They are facing some challenges regarding the size of their current warehouse and inventory levels. The warehouse is not big enough to accommodate all their inventory and as such goods are always scattered everywhere. They are also

Office Depot uses multiple inventory strategies to order products. 90% to 95% of goods are ordered through automatic replenishment, manual replenishment, pull replenishment, and global sourcing are also used depending on channel, volume, velocity and cost. (Office Depot, 2015). The accuracy of the inventory from both a DC and store perspective is critical to the organizations success. Heizer and Render (2014) state that record accuracy is a prerequisite to inventory management, production scheduling, and sales. Accuracy is maintained by either periodic or perpetual systems (p.479). In Office Depot, the stores are required to cycle-count technology items such as laptops, desktops computers, and tablets five days a week. Discrepancies are entered in the system and bounced off the local DC’s on-hand inventory discrepancies. Office Depot is a “blind receive” organization meaning the stores receive pallets of products and simply unwrap and put them away. The only way a store knows if a product is missing is through the cycle-count program. This system was put into place to speed up the receiving process and eliminate unnecessary steps once the product was received at the store level. Office Depot conducts a full physical inventory once a year through a third party and trues up the inventory shrink at this time.

Like many novels in the young adult genre, The Maze Runner by James Dasher can be interpreted as a metaphor of the challenges of growing up. Throughout the novel, many undercover metaphors are revealed. A metaphor for birth, the boys are brought to The Glade with no memories, life in The Glade later becomes comforting like an ideal childhood. Unlike the peacefulness of The Glade, the maze becomes a period of adolescence. Eventually, in the end of the novel, The Gladers manage to fight their way out of the maze, entering the harsh adult world

The ordering process begins with the decision of the customer to submit their order simply by either calling, faxing or mailing their order information. When a customer calls in their order, the customer service representatives takes down pertinent customer information, which includes the customer's name, billing and shipping address, product number and description, quantity and shipping instructions. While taking down the order, the customer service representative access the company's order entry system where inventory checks are conducted as well as credit checks are processed. In addition, delivery options are advised to the customer. Here the customer decides

-To operate this business model, the store managers should have the access to accurate and updated sales and inventory data for them to decide what to order and what not to order. In addition, they should know the availability of the products they would like to order eg. by having access to the inventory level of other stores.

units both in the U.S. and abroad, broadening the scope of merchandise offered for sale, and

While the distribution of the product fits the target market, it also harmonizes well with the marketing mix. The place where the product is distributed is highly important (Perner, n.d.; Place, n.d., Ramsey, 2012). Products gain a

The biggest decision that I have had to make this year was to take on coordination of our annual school Student Leadership Society event, Swoosh for Change, a charity basketball game between teachers and students that brings the whole community together. In addition to the game, there are also performances by local high school bands and elementary school children. Coordinating Swoosh for Change is one of the largest decisions I have made in the past year due to the high level of commitment and leadership skills required. As a three sport athlete and competitive student, I was initially hesitant to take on the responsibility; however, doing so improved my time management skills, connected me with a great network and team, and most importantly,

When the trucks arrive a small team unloads and bring product to their designated section of the store. For apparel, the clothing is put on racks and wheeled out. Where a small team folds, locates and displays them according to planograms and sets. The process of unloading, locating, displaying should be concluded before the store opens with no products on the sales floor. This is to keep the store looking clean and providing the customers with a clean, stocked environment. The effectiveness of Targets current distribution is good; however, inventory counts often have a crippling effect on the company. Since target launched their online pickup and ship from store the company has noticed an error in their operations. Their inventory counts did not refresh fast enough, if a guest just bought say a dress, it would not be accounted for, for 3-5 hours later in the system. Thus, issues for customer satisfaction would occur when a guest would either see online that we had it in stock, or order it for in store pick up and us not being able to fulfill their order. By improving their inventory management system, Target could see an increase in sales, customer satisfaction and online and in store customer traffic.

Getting into this enormous Warehousing infrastructure, four main elements can be explained to picture how things work in an Internet retailer; Inventory Segmentation, Order Profiling / Item Activity, Distribution Center Inbound and Order Fulfillment.

The Warehouse, is a New Zealand based company and is one its largest discount retailers offering a wide product offering ranging from Apparels, Jewellery, Fragrances, Gift sets, Books, Music, Entertainment, Gaming, Toys, Electronics, Sports and outdoor goods, Pet care, Home ware, Hardware, Gardening, Automotive accessories to Cards and Insurance policies. “The Warehouse Group