Optimization of enterprise supply chain management

In order to improve operational efficiency and better understand and meet consumers' needs, retailers and fast-moving consumer goods manufacturers, together with distributors and logistics service providers, must ensure the efficient and barrier-free circulation of logistics and information flow in the supply chain network. To do this, we must rely on the close cooperation between the supply chain and all parties, especially the industrial and commercial sides.

system collaboration, * * * win the future

system collaboration is to treat the supply chain as a whole value chain, which improves the efficiency of the whole value chain through systematic and structured methods, and provides consumers with greater value while enabling all parties participating in the value chain to obtain long-term and stable benefits.

collaboration is not a brand-new concept, and the significance of industrial and commercial collaboration has been widely recognized by people in the industry in recent years. However, the domestic level of industrial and commercial cooperation is still in a relatively primary stage. From 2? . In the investigation of industrial and commercial cooperation, we found that the overall satisfaction of industrial and commercial enterprises in China has been stagnant in recent two years: the satisfaction of retailers for FMCG manufacturers in supply chain cooperation is particularly low, while FMCG manufacturers have greater expectations for retailers in strategic cooperation and retail front-end management.

the level of industrial and commercial cooperation in China is still in the primary stage, which is mainly manifested in the lack of strategic cooperation framework and cooperation agenda recognized by both parties. Even the leading industrial and commercial enterprises in cooperation are still in the stage of single project cooperation, lacking systematic cooperation mechanism and assessment indicators (see Figure 1).

what is system collaboration

system collaboration refers to a consumer-oriented business management process:

? Discover cooperation opportunities in different stages of supply chain with a structured method;

　? All parties involved in the cooperation have clear, clear and quantifiable assessment objectives;

　? With the accumulation of experience, the scope and depth of cooperation are increasing;

　? It is a learning mechanism dedicated to continuously improving the cooperation mode.

system collaboration regards the supply chain as a whole value chain. It improves the efficiency of the whole value chain through systematic and structured methods, and provides consumers with greater value while enabling all parties involved in the value chain to obtain long-term and stable benefits.

To realize system collaboration, a powerful integrated physical platform and information platform are needed to ensure the efficient and free circulation of logistics and information flow in the end-to-end supply chain. In the system of system collaboration, supply chain optimization and category management are two key action areas of industrial and commercial system collaboration, and data integration is the key ability to realize supply chain optimization and category management collaboration.

collaboration creates consumer value

whether it is a fast-moving consumer goods manufacturer or a retailer, the ultimate service target is consumers. From the consumer's point of view, their needs are often simple. What do they need? Appropriate location? With? Appropriate price? Buy it? The right product? . And these three? Appropriate? Behind it, it involves all aspects of supply chain management and category management, and all parties involved in the value chain of retail consumer goods need to work together to create greater value for consumers (see Figure 2 on the previous page).

supply chain optimization is the key to industrial and commercial cooperation

supply chain optimization should not only ensure that the key links of each value chain provide the maximum value for the next link with the least cost, but also ensure that the whole value chain is optimized at the same time, so as to provide the maximum value for all parties involved in the supply chain and ultimately for consumers.

The supply chain of the retail consumer market is a complex process that spans the procurement of raw materials, product design, production, transportation and distribution, until it is put on the shelves of retailers and sold to consumers. Supply chain optimization includes supply chain strategy, supply chain planning and procurement, production and logistics optimization. Supply chain strategy is the embodiment of company strategy in supply chain, and it is the program of all supply chain optimization activities. Supply chain planning is to plan various business areas related to supply chain, with the purpose of reducing supply chain costs, speeding up market response and improving customer service level. Procurement, production and logistics optimization are the three main business areas of supply chain optimization.

although the process of supply chain optimization is complex, its concept is simple, that is, from the supply of raw materials to the sale of products to consumers in the form of sales terminals, every key link of the supply chain is regarded as a value provider and receiver at the same time. What supply chain optimization should do is to ensure that the key links of each value chain provide the maximum value for the next link with the least cost, and on the other hand, to ensure the partial optimization of the supply chain while optimizing the whole value chain, so as to provide the maximum value for all parties involved in the supply chain and ultimately for consumers.

industrial and commercial cooperation is related to the three business areas of procurement, production and logistics to varying degrees. For example, more accurate information feedback from retailers to manufacturers can enable manufacturers to optimize the management of product life cycle and arrange production more reasonably, thus affecting manufacturers' purchasing strategy. Among these three fields, logistics optimization is the most closely related to industrial and commercial cooperation.

logistics optimization is to better meet the needs of customers in different channels with the lowest investment by optimizing the layout of logistics distribution network. The optimization of logistics distribution network is mainly realized by improving three aspects, namely, the optimization of transportation, inventory and warehousing management. To achieve the optimization of logistics distribution network, suppliers should consider the following details:

? Number of logistics facilities in the network and in the region.

　? Determine the role of logistics facilities (warehousing, customs clearance, configuration, etc.).

　? Who are the target service customers of each facility?

　? When, where and how to use external storage and transportation facilities?

　? Modes and ways for transporting products.

　? Which products are manufactured and sold and which customers are served to increase profits?

　? How many products are manufactured, stored and transported every month based on seasonal demand?

it is not difficult to understand the concept of establishing an optimized supply chain network led by consumers, but it is not easy to implement it and achieve effective results. As mentioned above, supply chain optimization involves many partners and many business fields. In order to make logistics and information flow truly in one place? Transparent? Free circulation in the supply chain, industrial and commercial enterprises also face obstacles from the following three aspects:

1. Insufficient data: China industrial and commercial enterprises generally report that they cannot obtain enough data to support the optimal operation of the supply chain. The reason is that, on the one hand, industrial and commercial enterprises are unwilling to share information because of confidentiality considerations or conflicts of interest; On the other hand, there are no advanced tools and technologies to accurately analyze and refine valuable business insights from existing data.

2. The industry standards are not uniform: China's retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries still lack uniform commercial standards in many aspects, such as data, packaging and logistics, which has caused the inefficiency of the supply chain to some extent.

3. There is no integrated IT platform: The IT platform for supply chain management of retailers and manufacturers has not been standardized, so the information integration process is difficult, which makes supply chain collaboration more difficult in China.

increase market share through category management collaboration

the main purpose of supply chain optimization is to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Another important area of system collaboration is the management of consumer demand. Consumers are both the terminal and the source of the whole supply chain. Because the whole supply chain serves to meet the needs of consumers. Strengthening the management of consumer demand can not only promote the optimization of the whole supply chain, but also make the business share of suppliers and retailers grow together.

Like supply chain optimization, consumer demand management is easier said than done. To meet the demand, we must first understand the demand. Most industrial and commercial enterprises realize the importance of understanding the consumer demand, but many enterprises still do not have the ability to understand the real demand of consumers from the complicated appearance.

Crystal category management is an important aspect of consumer demand management. It effectively manages categories through a series of structured and standardized processes, and its purpose is to always coordinate the supply chain with customer demand as the center, and finally better meet customer demand and improve profits.

On the one hand, they don't have enough information and data, on the other hand, they don't have professional data analysis skills. The result of this blind competition by lowering prices, which is divorced from the real needs of consumers, is that the profits of industrial and commercial enterprises continue to fall.

another common confusion of retailers is that they don't know much about how to maximize the profit of categories, and they don't know much about how to improve profits by balancing different categories.

category management is an important aspect of consumer demand management, which effectively manages categories through a series of structured and standardized processes, with the aim of always coordinating the supply chain with customer demand as the center, and finally better meeting customer demand and improving profits. Category management is a mature system, which is divided into the following six steps:

1. Category definition: Category management first defines categories, that is, classifies categories according to the correlation between goods and services, establishes category structure, and gives a clear and accurate definition, with the purpose of determining the product composition of this category. Statistics show that defining categories through in-depth consumer research can gain more business opportunities than competitors.

2. Category role: after defining the category, we need to decide the category role. The role of categories is to clarify the importance of each category to consumers and the overall business from the perspective of consumer demand. Determining the role of a category requires analyzing a large amount of data (including sales, market, competitor data, etc.) to find out the significance of each category to different consumers, its contribution to its own sales and profits, and its role in winning the market competition (see Figure 3).

3. Category analysis: In short, category analysis is to find opportunities for category growth through comprehensive analysis of category performance, market competition environment, consumer demand and suppliers.

4. Category strategy: After discovering the category opportunities, the category strategy determines which strategy to adopt in different categories to make full use of these opportunities. For example, it is important to attract passengers to this category, or to increase the average transaction volume of this category, or to focus on strengthening some products in this category to ensure the competitive advantage of this category.

5. category tactics: after the category strategy is formulated, it is necessary to formulate corresponding category tactics such as product mix, display, pricing, promotion, new product introduction and order inventory management to ensure the implementation of the strategy.

6. implementation of category management: in the implementation stage, detailed and feasible plans are generally made, including objectives, methods, time and cost, to ensure that the objectives of each stage of category management can be achieved within the expected time and cost range.

category management is not a partial optimization behavior, but a systematic optimization process involving multiple partners and multiple business areas in the supply chain. Category management collaboration needs multi-channel information and data to support decision-making, for example, when determining the category role, it needs multi-faceted data from consumers and competitors (see Figure 3). Therefore, it can be seen that a multi-channel integrated data platform is the basis for effective category management. ;