Business901
Podcast Transcription
Implementing Lean Marketing Systems That's the advantage of systems these days. A long time ago it used to be a lot of work to do that. These days, you can grab the data that's close to real time, if not real time, easily and quickly in any area of supply chain that you want to look at. That's what's important to me. Joe: You can practically get data as they scan it coming off of the cash register aisle, can't you? Paul: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. In fact, companies like Wal-Mart use what's called RFID, Radio Frequency Identification. That's to track data when trucks come in so you can move the product through your warehouse; they call it cross docking, quickly. I've read that Wal-Mart is now looking to put these RFID's, which are computer chips, at the vendor when it ships. So they'll even have more detailed data before it even ships that they can grab and check the data, not just the barcode but much, much more data on an RFID chip. So that's the way to go. Joe: What are some of the other newer trends in supply chain thinking? Paul: I think it's not so much trends. I think technology is driving a lot of it. You hear about cross docking. I was at a client up in north Jersey. They are a major toy retailer and 30 to 40 percent of what they do is cross docking where product, within 24 to 48 hours, comes in the door and goes out to the stores. The rest of it sits there for who knows how many weeks or months. But cross docking is -- I don't know about a trend, I think it's been around a while. I think it's picked up steam. Wal-Mart does it a lot. It increases the velocity of inventory through the supply chain. But using technology like RFID to help improve that flow and get control and know where product is and where it is going helps you to do that. Extending Lean Supply Chain Thinking Copyright Business901