By Adrian Gonzalez.    

This past February, we held a successful seminar on Performance-based Outsourcing, which combined case studies from leading companies with think tank discussions on the topic.  This coming February 9-11 at the Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld Hotel in Orlando, Florida we’re applying the same learning and networking model to another timely and important topic in the supply chain and logistics industry:

Beyond the Perfect Order Metric: Bringing Together Supply Chain, Category Management, and Mobile Technologies to Improve On-Shelf Availability

As my colleague, Steve Banker, highlighted, in a previous posting, a paradigm shift is taking place in the fast-moving consumer goods supply chain.  A manufacturer’s job is no longer done when the goods arrive at the retailer’s distribution center (DC).  Instead, a manufacturer must now collaborate with its retail partners to ensure strong, in-stock performance at the retail shelf, which ultimately leads to increased revenues and profits for both parties and more satisfied and loyal consumers.  The perfect order metric, as traditionally defined, is still important, but no longer sufficient. Service levels and metrics linked to a customer’s shopping experience are more important than a manufacturer’s delivery performance to a retail DC.

Many of today’s supply chains start and end at the retail shelf. And this perspective requires companies to better integrate, synchronize, and transform their supply chain processes.  For example, integrating demand management and replenishment processes with category management is a best practice that will differentiate leaders from laggards in the consumer goods industry (see “Why Can’t My Supply Chain Team Think More Like Category Managers?”).  Likewise, tomorrow’s industry leaders will also leverage mobile technologies to streamline and optimize their merchandising and direct store delivery operations and to gain more real-time business intelligence, which will all contribute to further improvements in on-shelf availability.

This 1.5 day seminar is a must-attend event for supply chain, category management, and other executives interested in discussing and finding answers to the following questions:

To read the rest of the posting, please visit ARC’s Logistics Viewpoints