Page 34 - Sphere No.18 (Feb 2007)

much stock is on
the shelf? What’s the ex-
piry date? When to re-order? These are
the factors you have to consider. Today, thanks to the marvels
of modern technology this is all done automatically. The com-
puter knows howmuch stock is left, both on the shelf and in the
warehouse, and when to re-order.
“PARKnSHOP is a very automated operation, as is Fortress,
and Watsons will be fully computerised in 2007. The system
is much more efficient today. It has to be because we have less
warehouse space than we did 15 years ago and sales have in-
creased several times! There is only three weeks’ stock in the
whole supply chain. This cuts down on costs and gives the com-
pany much more working capital.”
To allow suppliers a much quicker turnaround, ASW has
employed a proprietary system from Retek, which was recently
acquired by technology solutions provider Oracle. The system
enables the stock records for every product in every store to be
captured on the computer and for replenishment orders to be
automated. The orders can be sent electronically to suppliers
and invoices can be received by electronic data exchange.
Refining the supply chain is a process that has been going
on for more than a decade. One of the first big changes came
in 1995 when ASW standardised the size of pallets used for
deliveries by suppliers and 14 different sizes became one, im-
proving delivery times enormously. More recently, Fortress has
decreased its stock levels by more than half in the last three
years, and PARKnSHOP and Watsons Your Personal Store are
merging their supply chain operations to improve efficiency.
Chinese New Year is the biggest challenge for a big supermar-
ket. The volume of goods increases, especially seasonal items,
but the amount of retail space remains the same. Warehouse
COMPUTER MAGIC
TERRY CHAU thinks back to the “bad old days”
and groans.“Everything used to take so long. It
took hours every day to work out what had to
be ordered because it was really difficult to estimate
how many of a particular product we might sell in a
day,” said the PARKnSHOP veteran of 25 years. “Now
the computer does it all for you!”
Mr Chau has witnessed dramatic changes in the sup-
ply chain, none more so than the new computer system
that can trace the path of every item in every store and
automatically re-orders stock when necessary.
“It makes life a lot easier for everyone, including
the customer,” said Mr Chau, who manages the huge
PARKnSHOP in Discovery Bay.“One of the big advan-
tages is that there are far fewer out of stock items and
less products go past their sell-by dates. Our custom-
ers get a wider range of fresher food.”
The Discovery Bay store now serves 30,000 cus-
tomers a week and offers the widest range of overseas
products of any PARKnSHOP store because of the
large expatriate population.
A decade ago, only 500 items from overseas were
on sale in PARKnSHOP; today the number is more
than 30,000.
32 SPHERE
The computer knows
how much stock is left and
when to re-order
capacity is stretched to the limit
and delivery schedules have to
work like clockwork. The pressure is
intense because many wet markets close
for several days over the holiday.
But even the best-oiled supply chain can come
under pressure when Mother Nature comes calling. “Ty-
phoons are a real headache as they cause so much uncertainty,”
said Mr Bartlett. “Will the No 8 signal go up? If so, how long
will our stores be closed for? Which of our suppliers will keep
delivering? The warehouse gets completely jammed and it’s
a real juggling act to keep everything moving.
“I have to say that the warehouse staff are absolutely fantastic
and cope with everything that is thrown at them. We have a
very hard-working and loyal team which just goes to show that
no matter how good your technology is you still need the right
people to make the system work.”