INDUCTION OF LULU HYPERMARKET

Retail super-giant Wal-Mart has fought its way to becoming the world's largest company. Wal-Mart’s legendary supply chain technology has allowed them to break the three-day barrier that some economists in the eighties felt that it was unbreakable. In other words, Wal-Mart is often able to replenish items on the Wal-Mart shelf in less than three days – not from the central warehouse to the shelf, but from the manufacturer to the shelf. With quick and reliable 2-day turn around, Wal-Mart is able to maintain lower levels of inventory and still meet customer demand. These lower inventory levels result in either a reduced floor plan with lower carrying costs and lower interest expense – or a greater diversity of products on the store shelves.

Effective supply chain management can be described as the efficient utilization of methods and processes that integrate manufacturers, suppliers, and distribution channels in a way that delivers product and/or services at the right time, in the right quantities, and at the needed location to minimize costs and maximize profit and customer satisfaction (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky, & Simchi-Levi, 2005).

Supply chain, its management, performance measures and improvement approaches. As an extension of the systems point of view, the system dynamics inherent in the supply chain are illustrated and the coordination in the supply chain is emphasized. Five areas where measurement of supply chain performance should be made are discussed. The five areas are on-time delivery, quality, time (business cycle) total delivered cost and flexibility.

Effective supply chain management can provide an important competitive advantage for a business marketer, resulting in improved communication and involvement among members of the chain, increased motivation, and decreased costs. Tracking the movement of and demand for components used to manufacture a product across a variety of potential and actual suppliers, provides insight and the ability to respond instantly to shortages, surpluses, and changes in market conditions. It seeks to optimize production, decrease manufacturing time, minimize inventory, streamline order fulfillment, and reduce cost.

It begins with the suppliers of raw materials and ends through direct retailers of finished products sold to consumers. Companies rely on effective Supply Chain Management to ensure that throughout the life stages of procurement, development, production and retail, all stages are handled optimally and that the best outcomes are achieved. to improve on Alpha's current supply chain management system they should focus on three key area's:

The supply chain is a system made amongst different companies producing and distributing the product. Specifically, the supply chain contains the steps it takes to deliver goods or services from the supplier to the customer.

The “bullwhip” effect was coined in by Proctor and Gamble (P&G) when the company experienced extensive demand amplification for their diaper products (Lee et .al, 1997). The bullwhip effect is a phenomenon in the supply chain whereby unpredictable elements introduced by human behaviour in the lower part of the chain becomes more pronounced the higher up the chain they move (Baugher, 2012). By synchronizing the supply chain the bullwhip effect can be eliminated. The bullwhip effect describes how inaccurate information, and a disconnection between production and real-time supply chain information result in loss of revenue bad customer service, high inventory levels and unrealised profits (Agarwal, 2009).

Supply chains represent the procurement, production and distribution activities of an organisation. Within a supply chain, these activities are viewed as linked and reliant on one another to produce the final outcome. It is believed that if one component of the chain fails, the whole chain is broken and product/service delivery goals will not be achieved.

The average company spends nearly half of every dollar it earns on production needs—goods and services it needs from external suppliers to keep producing. A supply chain consists of all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in the procurement of a product or raw material. Supply chain management (SCM) involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and profitability.

To what extend does Asian grocery stores operate in an oligopolistic market in the region of Chinatown of Victoria?

Supply chain management plays a very crucial role in the success of any organization and how it can cater to a customer’s need and provide the maximum satisfaction. Supply chain management is essentially managing the flow of goods/services of an organization. It involves raw materials storage, transportation, inventory management, distribution and procurement.

The class text states that Supply chain management is frequently divided into supply chain planning applications, supply chain execution applications, logistics management, and warehouse management. Often when companies fail at implementing an efficient supply chain because of the planning section, or inaccurate demand forecasts. The text states electronic data interchange is one of the earliest uses of information technology for supply chain management, Electronic data interchange is the use of the Internet for everyday business transactions. “In this era of information a firm’s supply chain should operate at speed of thought and this is possible only by enhanced e-speed communications and information sharing with their critical partners.” (4)

The MUJI has established a unique positioning in the retail industry in Japan and has successfully expanded to overseas markets.(Fujikawa,Y 2017)

Giant hypermarket is a major supermarket and retailer chain in Malaysia. It is a subsidiary of Dairy Farm International Holidays (DFI) and is headquartered in Shah Alam, Selangor. In our group assignment, we choose Giant Hypermarket in Senawang. The Giant hypermarket, Senawang is located at No, 1571, Jalan Senawang 70450 Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. This hypermarket usually starts to operate on Monday to Friday from 9am to 11am and on Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 11pm. We visited the Giant Hypermarket, Senawang on 31/1/2015 to observe and collect some information regarding our account assignment. Based on our observation, we know that people who are staying near the town of Senawang are satisfied with this hypermarket which sells a wide range of products in affordable prices. The main two purposes we choose Giant Hypermarket, Senawang is to identify how the supermarket manage and control their operating costs as well as the analysis classification of costs at Giant Hypermarket, Senawang.

Supply chain: Supply chain encompasses all activities associated with the flow and transformation of goods from the raw materials stage (extraction) through to the end user all well as the associated information flows. Material and