Logistics Newsletter: Fictional Company
Your fictional company: Johnny’s Menswear
Johnny is a Bespoke, made-to-measure, and custom men’s clothing that revolves around modern trends in men’s fashion, creating a stylish and contemporary wardrobe. The store is exclusively for business, professionals, go-getters, and formal events with a price tag ranging from $900 up to $10,000. The shop is committed to making the finest quality suits and luxurious in-store experience. Johnny has ventured into the Financial District and had just opened a second and a larger location in Bay St., with 15 employees in total. The second store, Johnny Weddings, a Bespoke shop is dedicated to grooms or groomsmen, and for other special celebrations.
Johnny establishes a focus strategy in which they prioritize their activities for their segment market. All of Johnny’s garments are made from the finest selection of clothes imported from Italy and France. Johnny has an extended supply chain management to get the products and garments to the customers. They work with their suppliers from Italy and France to get the best quality of the products and have the products transported every month and the fabric swatches transported every three months. The supply chain company develops a supply planning strategy that meets sourcing, production, and delivery requirements. They process the finished product to meet the plan or the actual demand, and transport and store finished products, including order management, transportation, and distribution. Lastly, the company accepts any returns from customers. Johnny’s logistics has an essential relation to its manufacturing, finance, and marketing. The logistics manager is responsible for several important activities, including transportation, inventory and order management, warehousing, materials handling, customer service, forecasting, and packaging.
Objection:
Starting a new business or expanding an existing one in today’s highly competitive and cost-conscious marketplace is a complex and risky endeavor. Many business details are logistics-related, as a business does not exist without logistics- which can make the difference between being profitable or not. The goal of this paper is to gain an understanding of the role of logistics and supply chain management decisions in improving the operation and profitability of a company by directly applying contemporary logistics principles covered in the course to a business.
For this assignment, you are the new Vice-President of Logistics for a small-medium sized company based in Canada. The company can be involved in any aspect of the fashion industry: manufacturing, wholesale/distribution, retail etc. The company is experiencing issues in their existing logistics system and you have been tasked with identifying strategies critical to the improving the company’s logistics system- reducing costs, increasing customer service levels and reducing the company’s carbon footprint.
You will write a Newsletter that will be distributed to company employees and select customers.
In the Newsletter (parts 3), you will write two main articles that describe the issues and subsequent improvements you have made in the logistics/supply chain management for your company. Your goal is to improve the efficiency within the chosen logistical activities to increase profits and customer responsiveness while reducing costs and the company’s carbon footprint. You must be as detailed as possible. Research is required.
You will describe your product and how you will apply the chosen strategy in order to make your company as profitable as possible, while still retaining your company goals (e.g. style, environmentally friendly, targeting a specific age group, price point etc.) and your competitive strategy (focus, differentiation or cost leadership). Remember to focus on logistics. You will have to be detailed, especially regarding factors that involve numbers, such as time and cost. The strategy must be applicable to your product and company goals (in other words, don’t say you will purchase a $2 million transportation software program if you are selling inexpensive t-shirts in one location only).
The company is fictional, but the logistical issues and appropriate solutions covered in your proposed strategy have to be realistic and applicable to the apparel industry.
You may choose to use a software application to improve the logistical activity of the company. If you do, the software application must be related to a logistics process, such as transportation, warehousing, inventory etc. – i.e. the topics covered in this course. It cannot be related to other areas, for example, retail- do not write about an application in price optimization, product development or other non-logistics areas. And you cannot write about implementing Microsoft Office software such as Word, Excel, or Access for example. Also general technology such as RFID does not count. The software application must be from a real software provider- you cannot make up the software. Research is required. You will describe how implementing the specific software has improved the logistical activity in your company.
Instructions:
Part 3: You will choose one activity in the logistical channel that we cover in weeks 9-14 (demand management, order management, inventory management or international logistics- includes importing& exporting) and apply it to your company. You will identify issues your company is experiencing within the chosen logistical activity and apply appropriate concepts/strategies to resolve the issues. Support decisions with relevant details and include costs.
You will also need to identify performance metrics that will be used to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of your chosen strategies.