Loblaws is one of the largest grocery retailers in Canada, strong name recognition, multiple private labels (no name, Blue Menu, President’s Choice), locations in every province and most regions, operate under many different banners.Recommendations for improvementsInventory Management In stores – Loblaws can reduce costs through supply chain management based on electronic product information, vendor role in distribution, and layout of warehouses. Getting detailed product information, through barcodes and RFID electronically attached to products so that such information could be relayed to its database and could inform its inventory management system.
This would always keep them informed as to what it needed, how much was needed, and when it needed it. It would help the company manage inventory to minimize the impact of obsolete or excess inventory and to control shrink.In warehouses – Loblaw operates more than 2,300 retail stores. The key to cost effectiveness is to choose regional distribution centers that placed at locations that offer lower labor and transportation costs. They can do cross-docking at their warehouses, where products upon its arrival are taken from a truck and packed in a truck and without spending time in the warehouse is headed to a store. This in turn results in reduced costs for inventory storage and lowers transportation costs.Supplier ManagementLoblaws should deal directly with manufacturers.
Suppliers should be responsible for managing inventory in its warehouses. This shift in responsibility for inventory management to the suppliers, which is a vendor-managed inventory system, will create a smoother flow of inventory, with less irregularities, and help ensure that products requested by customers are always available. All of this will result in a more cost-effective process, with these savings the prices of the products in the store could be lowered. This in turn attracts more customers.Information such as point-of-sales data, as well as warehouse inventory and real-time sales should all sent to, and stored in, a centralized database that is shared with suppliers, so they know when to ship more products.
