Wilfong Week 6 Save A Lot Reserach Project
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Industrial Engineering
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Feb 20, 2024
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Uploaded by DannyW77
Running head: RESEARCH PROJECT CHECK IN
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Research Project Check In
Daniel Wilfong
Maryville University
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Supply Chain is the sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a product. The supply chain is an important function of a business in order for the business to be successful. Without supply chain, businesses may struggle with obtaining materials needed for production or distribution and then struggle to get the finished product to customers. In looking at the supply chain of Save A Lot, there
are goods processes and then processes that need to be reviewed and possibly changed to help the supply chain and business.
Save A Lot Company
Save A Lot is a wholesale distributor of groceries. Save A Lot currently operates nine Distribution Centers that services around 1,400 stores. Most of those stores are licensee retail partners with only 18 stores being owned and operated by Save A Lot as corporate stores. Being a wholesale distributor, Save A Lot has supply chain functions for getting products to the distribution centers and then
supply chain functions for getting the materials to the stores. Significant Supply Chain Knowledge
There are a lot of different supply chain functions and different areas of supply chain that I’ve reviewed in this project, but I think in the case of Save A Lot, the most significant knowledge I am gaining is on logistics and procurement. Since Save A Lot does not do any manufacturing or production of a finished good, procuring finished goods is one of the most important functions the supply chain team does. The next is logistics to get the goods to the distribution center and then to the stores. In today’s current business environment with supply chain issues with different companies and the high rate of inflation, procuring goods has become a real challenge. In some cases it is hard to acquire the amount that you order with company short shipping and provide the amount they have that will cause issues further down the supply chain as Save A Lot will not be able to fulfill the orders from the store due to not receiving the amount needed from the supplier. Inflation is causing some issues as prices are continually rising. Eggs are a good example of that. With prices going up Save A Lot is now purchasing less eggs than the cost they were a year ago, meaning that the money going out the door is the same but the amount
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of eggs being carried in inventory is less. Logistics is the next important area from Save A Lot because after the products are procured, then the products have to get to the distribution centers and then ultimately to the stores. This is an important function because if the logistics functions breakdown, the whole supply chain comes to a stop and Save A Lot starts losing money. Save A Lot Significant Challenge
Save A Lot’s most significant challenges are procurement and logistics. Being a wholesale distributor, if you cannot procure finished goods you will struggle to run the business. After you procure the finished goods, if you cannot get the goods to the distribution centers and stores, you will have a hard time staying in business as the end customers will not want to shop at your stores. Procurement has to be able to build relationships and work with the suppliers to ensure finished products are available when needed so that they can reach the distribution centers when needed in order to get the stores when needed especially for sale items. If you run products in a weekly ad but you are not able to acquire those items and have them at the store for the weekly ad, shoppers are going to get upset and may start looking to shop somewhere else. Once procured, having the logistics systems established to get the items to the distribution center and to the stores can help the supply chain be successful and the company be successful. The logistics system has its challenges because trucking companies have been facing a driver shortage for years so ensuring that there are drivers to keep trucks moving is a huge challenge. Once you have the trucks moving, you want to ensure the trucks keep moving and moving with products on them. You have to ensure trucks are maintained and running and no major breakdowns that keeps trucks off the roads. You also have to try to coordinate the routes and pickups and deliveries to try to avoid running trucks around the network empty. Running empty trucks is not optimizing the supply chain or logistics network. Integrated Supply Chain?
One way to try to have your supply chain and company be successful is running an integrated supply chain that has the different functions working together. The different functions collaborate and
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coordinate to optimize the supply chain and try to run the different functions in an efficient and effective way to help control costs. For Save A Lot, I would say that the supply chain is more run in a silo-oriented
manner. Each function is working independently with little collaboration and coordination. Being an employee of Save A Lot, I am not surprised the supply chain is not integrated as a the recent company surveyed shows that collaboration and communication across teams is lacking. Collaboration and communication across teams is now a goal of the company to work towards integration and not have the different functions working in silo. This will help the company gain efficiency and help lead to more success.
Conclusion
Supply chain is a major function of Save A Lot being a wholesale grocery distributor. Save A Lot’s most important functions in their supply chain are procurement and logistics. Save A Lot has to be able to procure the items their customers want to buy and then once acquired need to be able to ensure they can get the items through the supply chain and ultimately to the end customer. On top of the challenges of procurement and logistics, Save A Lot will need to work more towards an integrated supply
chain to help with procurement and logistics. Integrated supply chain can be a big help for the supply chain team especially in the deliveries logistics that can help coordinate pickups and deliveries to gain efficiencies and help reduce costs.