Manhattan Associates has won a major contract with MH Alshaya Co, one of the Middle East’s most well-established retailers.
Alshaya has begun the second phase of its supply chain overhaul, which incorporates both supply chain planning and execution. It will use the Financial, Item and Assortment Planning components of Manhattan Associates’ Integrated Planning Solutions to manage the flow of goods across its entire supply chain.
Alshaya employs more than 7,000 people. Its retail division is the franchisee for a number of international brands including Debenhams, Mothercare, River Island and Starbucks. The company has more than 1,000 stores in the Middle East region, with a presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan. Alshaya also has stores in Turkey, Russia, Egypt and Cyprus and has plans to expand across Eastern Europe.
The success of the supply chain project is seen as critical to the overall performance of Alshaya as a business. One of the company’s primary objectives is to establish a just-in-time flow of goods to improve customer service, maximise full price sales and reduce markdowns on products.
KR Narayanan, business systems development manager said: “Our supply chain is particularly challenging because of the number of countries involved. We receive a huge range of products from a number of suppliers and need a solution that will enable us to plan our intake and manage supply and flow while maintaining optimum stock levels.”
The supply chain planning solutions deployment is an extension of Alshaya’s current use of Manhattan systems. The company began the first phase of its supply chain roll-out with the installation of the Manhattan warehouse management system for its distribution centre in Dubai.
Financial and Item Planning are scheduled to go live towards the end of 2006 with Assortment Planning following in 2007.
“Prior to our selection of Manhattan Associates’ Advanced Planning solutions, we relied on a number of systems for our planning and replenishment which led to inaccuracies and inefficiencies,” said Mr Narayanan. “We needed to consolidate all of our data to ensure that everyone has access to the same information. The new solution will integrate with our bespoke ERP system and will give our suppliers visibility to our planning, allowing them to align their forecasts to ours.”
