Questions:
• The Fundamental reasons for success, with a comparison to another successful and an unsuccessful company?
• How does the company maintain its competitive advantage, here the concept of sustainability may again be of interest?
• Is the company’s formula for success suitable for other companies and if so explain why, if not explain why?
• What Supply chain challenges does the company face when dealing with demand fluctuations and comment on how the supply chain investments support its overall customer service and resources utilisation objectives?
• What prerequisites are important for the operation of the lean systems that are in place?
John Lewis Partnership will meet the changing demand patterns by using an automatic system. The automatic system SANDC will work in an eco friendly manner and increase the efficiency of the machine. The change in patterns of the work flow will be addressed by the machine. The machine will work in an environmental friendly manner. The sustainability issues due to fluctuations in demand have been addressed in the report.
John Lewis Partnership is one of the top retail business houses in UK (Knowledge, 2015). The company is known for selling high quality goods to the customers. The sales of the company have been strong. Even in the times of recession, the company has been performing well. Six distribution centers distribute the products of John Lewis (BITC Diversity – Opportunity now, 2012). The ware housing capacity of the organization has to be increased. The existing infrastructure could be improved by introducing a semi automated national distribution centre. The automated technology will improve the efficiency of the distribution system (John Lewis, 2015). The new ware house system will work in an environment friendly manner. It will have features like solar panels, process of collection of storm water, 15% roof lights and automated lighting control systems.
John Lewis Partnership is owned by its employees. On the other hand most of the retail chains are owned by share holders. The JLP has been growing strongly over the past years. The difficult times did not affect the financial performance of the organization. The work place democracy is one of the major reasons behind the success of the organization. The share of the annual profit is including the bonus is given to all the employees. The company has focused on its long term growth by proper planning and building the strength of its brand. The strong partnership with the employees is a major reason behind the success of the organization. This has increased the sales of the organization. The company has been able to maintain its strong brand presence on the basis of the quality, service, value and partnership. This has helped the organization to maintain the sales even when the organizations are offering cheaper alternatives to the consumers. Price competition has been the major issue for the organization in maintaining its competitive advantage. This issue is seen mainly in the UK’s concentrated food retail sector. However, JLP is considering strategies such as Essential Waitrose that offers food products at low prices without compromising with the Waitrose brand identity (BBC News, 2013). Other reasons contributing to the success is the diversity of the organization. The main purpose of the organization is the happiness of all the members and satisfying the employees which is the main driver for the success of a business. The two main trading arms of the organization are the John Lewis Departmental Stores and the Waitrose Food Stores (John Lewis, 2015). Amongst all the partners in the organization, 58% of the partners are women. The percentages of female employees in the organization are 59 % women in the non management, 53% women belong to the middle managers and 39% of the women are senior managers. The work at John Lewis is grounded on diversity of gender at workplace and cultural trends that are seen related to the work force and the customers (Butler, 2013).
With the increase in demand, greater number of products needs to be picked up. At present there are 33 picking stations. The picking station consists of 12 tote bins at the lower level of the conveyer. The upper level of the conveyer, the tote bins are brought to the front of the picker. In an hour in the system, 650 picks can be achieved. On completion of the picking to the store bins, the bins are moved away by the conveyer system. The computer system has to be developed in the big ware house. An automatic system has to be installed in the organization to meet the increasing demand of the organization. Computerized system can be installed in the organization using robots. The Robots will do the picking. The Robotic system will simplify the process of dispatching the products (Ellul, 2010). The increase in demand for the products can be managed easily. This will make the ware house more efficient. There will no issues regarding the delivery of the product to the end users (Negribossi.com, 2015). The computer controlled system has revolutionized the process of working in the organization. The way in which the products are picked up can be managed using a robotic system within the organization (Accenture.com, 2015). The automated system will simplify the process of working within the organization. The industrial robots are of variety of shapes and sizes. They can lift the heavy items from one place to another. They can also assemble various goods. The robots can be manipulated using the computerized control system. Robots can also work in groups (CNET, 2014). The robots can pick up the goods and place them in the conveyer belt. Earlier the number of picks was limited only to 650. But now the picks can be increased with the rise in demand for the product. The use of robotic system is an innovative system for the organization. The organization can meet its excess demand with the computerized system. Instead of using a manual system, the organization must focus on automating the system. The use of Robotics is an innovative modern technology that will help the organization to grow. The robotic system has sensors that will detect the various happenings in the production line of the organization. The sensor can send data to the computer. The process will control the data received from the sensors. The line in which the picking ups will be done will consist of hundreds of sensors that are connected to the software system. The process will comprise of series of steps. The steps will be repeated automatically. The installation of the robots is expensive. But the organization can install robots to meet the increase in demand. The robots can work for 24 hours without any break. The robots will perform in an accurate manner in comparison to the human beings. Thus more products can be picked up. The robot does not require a healthy working environment and they can perform in unhealthy conditions.
The retail sector has evolved from the bricks and mortar stage business to an omni-channel offering. The omni channel system will help the major retailers for fundamentally redesigning the supply chain. The industry has undergone changes due to the growth in the supply chain. There has been considerable rise in home deliveries. This has increase the need for supply chain. The click and collect services can also be managed using efficient supply chain management system. The retailers will be able to able to fulfill the expectations of the customers by putting the supply chain at the heart of the operation system. Online retailing has become very successful in the organization (Supplychainquarterly.com, 2015). The organization has maintained its leadership in omni retailing. Since the online retailing has become very popular in the organization, home delivery has become very popular. The evolution of the e-commerce has increased the burden on the supply chain (Knowledge, 2015). The omni channel retail face the following challenges –
There has been rise in the number of channels to the customers. It is challenging for the organization to keep a clear picture of the inventory requirements. The maintenance of the inventory requirements has become essential across the enterprises that are supported by the retail value chain. The inventory issue faced by the organization includes challenges in merchandising, allocation of inventory, marketing and promotions. The customer expectations have been increasing. The customers are searching for more fluent options for purchasing such as purchasing online with immediate or same day delivery. This has pressurized the supply chain of the organization. The customer’s expectation has also increased regarding the pick up in store or the flexibility or returning or exchanging the online purchases to the different locations. This has put severe pressure on the omni retailing services provided by John Lewis Partnership. It has put compounding effect on the staff members who are looking for a specific structure for the management of supply chain (Duncan and Duncan, 2013). Supply chain visibility has to be more profound. This has been challenging for the organization (The Loadstar, 2013).
There are various technology integration issues faced by John Lewis Partnership. The retailers complain regarding the technology integration issues that hinder their ability to offer to the customers. The technology issues hinder the ability of the organization to provide service to the customers. This has created huge problems for the retailers. Omni channel maturity in retailing is considered as the key way for a brand to stand out. The retailers have been facing various problems in increasing their service to the customers. But the company faces several barriers in making the company’s way of becoming one of the integrated omni channel organization. In order to maintain the omni channel in a proper way, the organization has to hire omni-channel teams. However there have been several issues in managing the teams. The teams are faced with different priorities that are conflicting. This has hampered the implementation of omni-channel strategy in the organization (Comcare.gov.au, 2015).
The warehouse system has to increase its capacity. This can be done by introducing a semi automated national distribution centre (SANDC). The automated technology can handle the small sized items by employing the latest technology. The automated technology will improve the efficiency of the organization as well as the accuracy. It can cater to the change in the patterns of demand during the peak seasons. The back of store facilities can be reduced by using the automatic technology. The SANDC can also assemble the goods in a proper sequence. The items can be stored individually in a proper place. This will fasten the process of delivery of the goods. The green technology and the sophisticated automatic systems are expensive. The organization has to make long term investments but it also leads to potential savings for the organization. The distribution centre will help the organization in catering to the rise of the demand. There is a fluctuation of demand during the various periods of the year. The distribution centre has helped to support the retailers in increasing the multichannel of business. It has also helped to minimize the impact on the business. The flexibility of the SANDC has helped to minimize the variability of the demand. The flexibility of the SANDC to serve the variability in demand will make the centre ideal for John Lewis multi channel proposition. The multichannel offer using SANDC will increase the brand value of the organization. Currently, 70% of the products are sent to the departmental store of John Lewis and 30% of the products are sent directly to the customers. John Lewis wants to expand its direct customer service. As online shopping has become very popular in UK, increasing the service to the customers is essential to meet the increase in demand. The automatic system at John Lewis will enhance the efficiency of the supply chain. It will also enhance the downstream process of organization. The automatic system will make it easier to pick the products. Segregation of the products will be easier in the organization. The time consumed in traditional ware housing can be saved. The automatic system will improve the process of controlling the stock. It is very difficult for the organization to handle residual stock. This will improve the sustainability of the work process in the organization. The organization can implement the automatic system and work in an environmental friendly manner.
The demand for the product is changing constantly. To cater to the changes in the demand, SANDC has improved its operation. This will improve the efficiency of the automated system. The service levels will be improved. SANDC has to address to the ergonomic issues and sustainability issues.
1. Efficiency – The automated system will increase the efficiency of the process by catering to the increase in demand during various times. This will help the organization to maintain the rise of the demand. SANDC has to meet the changing need of the rise in demand. This will preserve the brand value of the organization (cisco.com, 2015). The organization will be able to meet the need of the customers. This will be possible by increasing the efficiency of the automatic system. The flow of work will be simpler and the smoother. The organization will be able to gain competitive advantage over others. The demand of the customers has to be met in this increasing competitive environment. Integration of the process with information technology is essential for the long term success of the organization. This will improve the ability of the organization to provide service to the end users (Knowledge, 2015).
2. Service levels – The automatic system has to improve its level of service. This will be possible by providing the customers with a consolidated and accurate real time inventory across all the stores of the organization. The transparency in the service is the key towards the success of the organization. The customers demand access to the physical store inventory information. The automatic system can be used to keep the inventory at standard levels. This will reduce the piling of inventory. This can be done by using an integrated system for managing the automatic process in the organization. This will bridge the gap between supply and demand for the product. The service for the product can be done in an efficient manner.
3. Ergonomic issues – Various ergonomic issues can arise at work place. The ergonomic issues at work place can arise as a result of repetitive movements, manual handling at workplace related to a particular job or design of task and uncomfortable situations at workplace (Ilocis.org, 2015). Ergonomics is the process in which the work place environment can be designed with comfort to increase the efficiency of the organization. This will improve the levels of comfort and efficiency level of the organization (commerce.wa.gov.au, 2010). The SANDC can be used applying the principle of ergonomics to improve the productivity at workplace. The automatic system can be used in the organization to address to the various issues related to the work stations, layout of the equipment and use if computer systems (Comcare.gov.au, 2015).
4. Sustainability – The automatic system has to address the sustainability issues in order to increase its performance (oecd.org, 2009). The automatic machine has to work in an environmental friendly manner. The automatic machine will reduce the need for back store facilities. The ware house has to be designed in an environment friendly manner having the various features like solar panels, process for collection of storm water and automated lighting control system (System et al., 2009). The use of green technology will reduce the harmful impact on the environment. The SANDC has to work in an environmental friendly manner. This will make the machine more efficient and energy saving. The environmental issues can be solved. Sustainability issues can be addressed by minimizing the error while processing the products. The efficiency of the machines has to be enhanced. This will provide competitive advantage to the organization. The process of order picking will be more efficient. The negative impacts of the automatic technology will be reduced (sustainablebrands.com, 2015).
For manufacturing using lean method, it is essential to use a systematic process. This will eliminate the waste during the manufacturing process; the lean system will also take into account the amount of waste that has been generated (Leanproduction.com, 2015). The waste is generally created due to unevenness of the work loads. Thus it has to be ensured while implementing the lean system that the products are not getting wasted. The sustainability issues have to be addressed while using the automatic system. This will make the process eco efficient. This will add value to the product by reducing the cost of wastage. The customer value will also enhance. Use of systematic method is also essential for the growth of the organization. The manufacturing industry uses the lean system to make their process of work simpler (Roosen and Pons, 2013). The cost of production will also reduce if the efficiency of the machine is increased.
Conclusion
The supply chain challenges faced by the organization can be solved by using the automatic system of work flow. This will make the work flow simpler and easier. The use of green technology will simplify the process of work at John Lewis Partnership. The retail sector has evolved from the bricks and mortar stage business to an omni-channel offering. The omni channel system will simplify the process of work that the major retailers use for fundamentally redesigning the supply chain. The industry has major changes due to the increased pressure on the supply chain. There has been considerable rise in home deliveries. This has increase the requirement for supply chain. The click and collect services can also be managed using efficient supply chain management system. The retailers will be able to able to fulfill the expectations of the customers by putting the supply chain at the heart of the operation system. Online retailing has become progressive for the company. Omni retailing has provided positive growth for the organization. Since the online retailing has become very popular in the organization, use of home delivery system has become very popular in the organization. The use of Robotics is an innovative modern technology that will help the organization to grow. The robotic system has sensors that will detect the various processes in the production line of the organization. The sensor will be able to send data to the computer. The process will control the data that is received from the sensors. The line in which the picking ups will be done will consist of various sensors that are connected to the software system. The process will comprise of sequences. The steps will be repeated in an automatic manner. Although the installation of the robots is very expensive, the organization can install robots to meet the increase in demand. The robots can work for 24 hours without any break. The robots will perform with precision in comparison to the human beings. Thus more products can be picked up. The robots can work in any environment that will fasten the process of work flow in the organization.
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