believed that improvements in costs were possible. It scrutinized the entire supply chain to determine whereperformance could be improved. The outcome was a program called continuous replenishment whichreduced the inventories of retailers from an average of 4 weeks supply to 2 wecks supply.This reductionamounts to saving of the order of 1 percent of retail sales. As the average retailer's profits are only 2 percentof the sales, the result was a 50 percent increase in the average retailer's profits Because of that increase inprofitability, retailers purchased a border line of Campbell products, thereby increasing Campbell sacls. Theprogram works in the following way. Each morning Campbell uses EDI link with the retailers.Retailersinform the Campbell of demands for Campbell products and the current inventory levels on theirdistribution centres determine which products need replenishment based on the upper and lower inventorylimits established with each retailer. Campbell makes daily deliveries of the needed products. Campbell 'senvironment has a low level of uncertainty, so the company pursued and efficient supply chain design. Theimplication, however , that it must avoid actions that would disrupt the supply chain. For example retailerson the continuous replenishment program had to forgo forward buying whereby retailers in the industryoften buy excess stock at discounted prices so that they can offer price promotions. Forward buying causesripples in the supply chain, increasing everybody costs. That was the case with chicken soup. Campbellwould offer deep discounts once a year and retailers would take advantage of them, sometimes buying anentire's year supply. Because of the change in demand, the chicken bonning plant would have to go onovertime. When that happened, costs in the entire supply chain increased-Campbell 's production costsincreased and retailers had to pay for warchousing large stocks of chicken soup. With the continuousreplenishment system, those extra costs are eliminated and everyone wins.Question: On the basis of the information given in the case study, comment on thesupply chain management initiatives taken by Campbell Soup Company,anticipate some of the supply chain challenges that the company can face in futureand provide relevant recommendations to the company.• Please write the answer in your own words• You should add authentic references from academic or professionalsources.• Your answer should be between 450 and 480 words CASE STUDY : Please read the following case study and answer the question given at the end.Campbell Soup Company, also known as Campbell's, is an American producer of canned soups and relatedproducts. The company was set up in 1869 by fruit merchant Joseph Campbell and an icebox manufacturerAbraham Anderson. Today , Campbell manufactures a lot of varicties such as cream broccoli , doublenoodle and creamy and chicken noodle. The variants of these soups are present with low sodium,cholesterol,fat and calories in the range of healthy request soups. The company has expanded internationally to China,Japan, Australia, Argentina and Mexico etc.It had sales of USSs6.1 billion in 2003. It has developed variantsto adopt to local cultural differences. The company now also manufactures juices, beverages, sauces, biscuitsand confectionary. Online sales are being done through netgrocer.com. The company has stringent qualitysystem standards for all the ingredients including water,raw materials and elimination of heavy metalcontents. Suppliers have stringent requirements to meet particularly good food manufacturing practices andcontrol of purchased raw material. In an interview given by Christian Moye, the then vice president ofstrategic palnning, global supply chain of Campbell soup co, he admits to having the biggest supply chainchallenge in maintaining a balance between cost ( on the management side) and customer foods ( on theretail and customer side). The key issues for the company are the product format,product differentiation,product customization and service customization.The retail distribution channel forms the most part of thedistribution channel. Moye says that company aims to drive efficiencies through better information flowand information sharing through data synchronization and collaborative planning , forecasting andreplenishment ( CPFR).The company is focusing on case-size optimization as a way of maintaining product choice on the shelf,without adding a lot of inventory and may be even reducing inventory.The company is getting invoiceaccuracy rate higher while looking at the forward side of the supply chain.As far as the backward end(sourcing ) is concermed, the company is focusing on technology-enabled strategic sourcing e.g e-procurement comprising of e-auctions or internet -enabled negotiations. As a part of IT investmentpriorities , Campbell in addition to e-procurement is focusing on network optimization, and also sales andoperations planning ( S&OP). It intends to join UCCnet ( group of of standards for e-commerce created bythe uniform code council) and wants to have cosourcing or aggregated purchasing to get lower cost of rawmaterials. However , the company does not see much scope of freight consolidation to strive for a commontruckload as the company is already predominantly a truckload kind. The company looks to have DCs inthe same locations as other "big box' stores such as Wal-Mart, P&G, Kraft etc because of the commongeography and population factors. Commonly retailing /distribution thus cannot be ruled out. In 2003,thecompany did not have a DC in the north east US.The company prefers a near market,mixing centre DC,which may not give cost saving for Campbell but a service improvement. The company finds a real impactof internet based EDI on their business and it does not have to pay value added network ( VAN) charges. Italso ensures visibility of transportation. The company joined worldwide retail exchange ( WWRE) whichhelped Campbell in data synchronization and e-procurement which would also facilitate CPFR. So thecompany does not have to make substantial investments in software and technology. Moye feels thatmanaging the change in terms of selling the supply chain ideas to corporate management and culture in thecompany has been challenging but it was not difficult as the lady chief information officer ( CIO) got allthe supply chain products approved. The company,however, planned to have a matrix organization ratherthan a functional silo organization , which is unresponsive to today's business environment. Campbell soupcompany, makes products that are prices sensitive.An important competitive priorityof the company is lowcost operations, which extend to the entire supply chain. Campbell operates in an environment with a highdegree of certainty. Only five percent of its products are new each year, the rest have been on the marketfor years, making forecasting of demand easeier. Even though Campbell already had high level customerservice-98 percent of the time. Campbell's products were available in retail inventories-management

The firm was found out in 1869 by fruit businessperson Campbell and white goods manufacturer Ibrahim…

Question: On the basis of the information given in the case study, comment on the supply chain management_initiatives taken by Campbell Soup Company, anticipate some of the supply chain challenges that the company can face in future and provide relevant recommendations to the company.