Quiz 10: Information Systems and Supply Chain Management

Retail system refers to the integrated computer software application that carries a specialization in handling and performing several retail operations in selling of goods and services and works in every size of business. This advanced system facilitates managerial and critical-operational tasks of the retail business. There are several acronyms that are used in the retail system which includes-DSD, VMI, EDI, CPFR, and RFID. The following is the explanation of these terms: • DSD : It refers to "direct store delivery". It is a process of delivering goods direct from a supplier to a retailer's distribution center. • VMI : It refer to "vendor-managed inventory". It is a system wherein the buyer of the product informs the vendors about the product that he wishes to buy, and the vendor assumes complete accountability of maintaining the desired inventory of the material, and also offers its consumption at buyer's location. • EDI : It refers to "electronic data interchange". It is a system that sends information about products directly from the selling point to the supplier's computer. The buyer simply puts the kinds and quantity of goods he wishes to buy and sends this data to the supplier which allows EDI to take the rest of the job. • CPFR : It refers to "collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment". It is a retail concept that is used to support integrated tasks to work jointly and in assistance with each other. A large amount of visibility and transparency in retail system gets generated with the use of CPFR. • RFID : It refers to "radio frequency identification". It is a tracking technology that uses small chips or tags and transfer signal to scanners that scan the products bought by the buyers. The above-mentioned terms are related to each other in a way that all these computer applications allow retail system to work efficiently and facilitates the in retailer in performing the retail operations successfully. The applications together bring quick performance of retail operations and also ensures that products and services are delivered at targeted locations.

Supply chain system refers to the system of supply of products or services to the customers which includes and takes help from organizations, people, activities, information, and resources. An efficient supply chain system is capable of increasing a retailer's level of product availability and also in decreasing its inventory investment in a way that with the use of proper supply chain system, retailers are able to offer timely product delivery to consumers which smoothens and strengthens the business relations between the two parties. The retailer is able to forecast the need of the products for the future which facilitates it to offer required products within time and provide optimum availability of the products to the customers. The supply chain system allows the retailer to determine the exact inventory in the warehouse, and prevents it from buying excess products and thereby making optimum utilization of resources. Efficient supply chain system provides for proper distribution of products and also helps in planning the distribution and logistics of products. Customer services are highly boosted with the efficient supply chain system. This way the retailer is able to perform efficiently by increasing the level of product availability and decreasing the inventory investment.

Supply chain the network that connects the company and the supplier in order to manufacture and distribute the product/service to the customers or the final consumer. The network includes people, process, information, technology, transportation and etc… There are new trends seen in SCM and they are as follows; outsourcing, pull-push SC, RFID, Drop shipping, Customer store pickups, and reverse Sc. These new trends have helped the vendors in certain ways. Vendors are a term that is being used to describe any person/firm that supplies goods or services. The trends benefit vendors in the following ways. Primarily, it decreases the risk of loss. The reverse supply chain technique helps the vendor to minimize the loss incurred. They can return the good that customer returns due to damage or malfunction. This loss will be refunded to them from the centralized return center. Secondly, the customer store pick-up helps the vendor to eliminate the home delivery technique. This helps them to minimize their operating cost. Thirdly, Drop shipping is the method of retailers getting orders and letting vendors take the process. This helps the vendors to get exposed to real-time supply chain management. This improves their knowledge in the supply chain industry and they get exposed to modern technology. Fourth, RFID helps the vendor to track his employees in the transmission of orders to the customers. Fourth, the pull and push technique helps the vendors to forecast the supply and demand of the product and services. This helps the vendor to eliminate out-of-stock and overs-stock situations. Finally, the trend of outsourcing the supply chain process minimizes the workload of vendors.