CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly
Finance
September 06, 2010
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Supply Chain Executive Insight E-Newsletter
Each month the Supply Chain Executive Insight e-newsletter will include brief articles about developments that are often overlooked by other supply chain publications. We will present you with summaries of the latest research as well as new ideas on how to make your supply chain operations more effective. And we'll offer commentary that sheds light on what's happening in supply chains today.
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Free Articles From The Current Issue
Glimmers of hope
Logistics costs plunged dramatically last year as the economy contracted. Preliminary data for 2010 show that a recovery is under way, but shippers still face a host of challenges.

Don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet
Despite the recovery, companies are likely to pressure supply chain managers to cut costs even further.

A bright future... together
We must move beyond the typical approach of "state the problem and talk about the frustrations."

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7. ASICS keeps pace with growing demand
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A little of everything can go a long way

By LAURENT CHEVREUX
When products don't sell very much, conventional wisdom calls for reducing assortments and tailoring them to local conditions. But the opposite approach—stocking small quantities of each product at every store and centralizing replenishment decisions—has been shown to increase sales and reduce inventories without raising costs.
From the Quarter 02 2010 issue

One of the consequences of product proliferation is the growing number of consumer goods with a low rate of sales per retail outlet. This phenomenon is evident in a wide range of sectors: apparel, spare parts, appliances, electronics, and even some food categories, to name a few. It has become so widespread, in fact, that an executive vice president of a British retail chain that offers a daily assortment of tens of thousands of stock-keeping units (SKUs) recently noted, "In terms of sales velocity, our products fall into three categories: slow movers, very slow movers, and ... deadly slow movers."...

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