75 million times a week people visit Tesco to do their shopping. Not just in the UK, of course, but all around the world. Tesco now has a presence in 12 markets including 131 stores in China, 446 in Poland, and 191 in Turkey.
Managing such a diverse and complex supply chain is no small task and sharing best practice has become a vital issue. Delegates at the Logistics and Supply Chain conference heard how the retail giant has deployed a group of experts, known as the supply chain blueprint team, to improve operational efficiency.
The success of this approach made Tesco a winner in last years European Supply Chain Excellence Awards. The judges said: They have a clear vision which they were able to demonstrate was aligned to the corporate strategy. They used benchmarking internally and externally to good effect and were able to show improved KPIs in a global context.
At the conference last week, Linda Kemp and Mike Moss, two of the leaders of the supply chain blueprint team, led delegates through a number of case studies.
The team, made up of young enthusiastic supply chain professionals, supports countries by coaching, training and up-skilling, with a focus on improving availability of products for customers, reducing working capital and reducing food waste.
The first case study centred on centred on rolling out an automatic supplier ordering system that has been in use in the UK. The first application was in Malaysia and it has now been rolled out in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland with more markets to follow.
The second case study focused on store ordering – particularly complex as a result of the need for promotion forecasting and event planning. Creating practical forecast models means collecting years worth of data. And the third case study focused on measuring performance to improve availability, reduce food waste and reduce working capital.
Tesco was one of six award-winners speaking at the conference, and their presentations highlighted all that is best in supply chain.
The 2014 awards are now open for entries. Full details are available from the web site: http://supplychainexcellenceawards.conference-websites.co.uk/
