Page 32 - Sphere No.18 (Feb 2007)

R E T A I L
AS YOU STROLL along the different aisles of
PARKnSHOP or the various sections of Fortress,
have you ever wondered how the shops keep
track of their stock levels? A.S. Watson (ASW),
which has more than 7,700 retail stores in 37 markets around
the world and sells everything from fresh chicken, cheese and
shampoo, to televisions, CD players and vintage wines, has the
answer – superb supply chain management.
Supply chain management, a term coined by Keith Oliver of
consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in 1982, is the process of
planning, implementing and controlling the operations of the
supply chain to satisfy customer requirements as efficiently as
possible. It spans all movement and storage of raw material,
work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point-of-
origin to point-of-consumption.
To find out more we turned to Keith Bartlett, ASW’s Chief
Operating Officer of Retail Hong Kong, who has been with the
company for 16 years and is responsible for around 500 outlets
of six different retail outlets – including 223 PARKnSHOP and
190 Watsons branches, and 52 Fortress, TASTE, GREAT and
Watsons Wine Cellar outlets.
“When I started, I was the supply chain department,” he said.
“There was very little science to the process. We had to invent
the whole system. Of course back then it was all done manually
and now much of the process is computerised but the principle
remains the same – give the customer the best possible range
of products at the best possible prices.”
Today, PARKnSHOP uses
less warehouse space than in
1991, even though customers
are provided with much more
choice and the supermarket
chain’s sales have increased by
more than four times.
ASW manages its supply
chain carefully. It all starts with
the sourcing process. Once a
supplier is found, the next step
is to work out how the product
will be transported to the store. This journey might take just
a few minutes if a local supplier delivers the item in question,
a few hours if coming from Mainland China, or less than 24
A.S. Watson grows
sales while cutting stockpiles
By Jon Marsh
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30 SPHERE
CHAI N o f