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This assessment task will be based on the Case Study – “PR Corporation supply chain”, which is available on the Assignment 3 folder of the Canvas course shell. Each student will work on the supplied case and will answer specific questions and submit the report.
The case analysis report provides an opportunity for you to demonstrate what you have learned during the semester in the course. It requires you to analyse the problems and the likely causes of these problems. To support your answer, you may refer to lecture notes (insert references of Lecture Note - week no.) and other authenticated sources. A bibliography of all articles and sources of information referenced in the report is mandatory. Please use the RMIT Business (AGPS) Harvard referencing style
PR Corporation Supply Chain
PR Corporation is a Europe-based integrated apparel, footwear, and accessories manufacturer and retailer. The company started its operation in Spain in 1985 and since then has evolved into a rapidly growing multi-dimensional conglomerate. The company currently operates and sells its products via online and retail stores in 24 European countries. PR Corporation considers itself as end-to-end apparel, footwear, and accessories solution provider, starting from sourcing the materials and going all the way to providing logistical services to its’ clients. It employs over 450 Management staff and over 15,000 workers. With a vertically integrated setup, the incorporation of advanced technology, and a proficient management team, PR Corporation is emerging strongly as one of the highly regarded organisations in Europe.
Like other companies in the apparel, footwear, and accessories industry, PR Corporation is dealing with the products which are characterised by short product life cycles, volatile and unpredictable demand, high in product variety, long and inflexible supply processes, and a complex supply chain. In PR Corporation supply chain demand uncertainty, lack of historical data and seasonal trends usually coexist. They experience the variation in demand for the products they produce. For example, some of the products, such as Jackets and winter boots, are in high demand during the winter season, while basic t-shirts, sneakers, and loafers are in high demand during summer. Over the last 10 years, they also have noticed a significant increased in demand for some products in their portfolio. One of the main reasons for the increased demand is the escalated popularity of new styles amongst the young population group in Europe. PR Corporation has some historical data based on which different functional departments develop their plan; however, quite often they experience disputes among the departments. In the 2018 winter season, PR Corporation experienced a sharp spike in demand; hence, suffered a stock-out situation with their newly introduced winter boots (Product line code: PC203). The marketing and sales department could not anticipate such a demand through its market research. Consequently, the production department did not prepare extra capacity for producing the product. Moreover, suppliers were unable to provide the raw materials/components for producing such exclusive winter boots. As a result, the company could not produce additional products on time and was unable to meet customer demand. This resulted in customer dissatisfaction and loss of profit. By the time, the company made the products available in the market, customers were preparing for the spring and the demand for winter boots dropped. Therefore, PR Corporation had to organise a huge promotional offer (half price) to sell the excess inventory. This again resulted in a loss of profit for the company.
PR Corporation purchases a lot of items to support company operations and has a large supplier-base for each of the items. They purchase items from both the local and overseas markets. For example, they source cotton, which is the major item for producing apparel products, from Uzbekistan and China. Other essential and main materials, such as Polyester, Rubber, EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) Foam, Leather, and Synthetic Leather come from several countries. For instance, the company source leather from tanners and suppliers in Italy, and Vietnam, synthetic leather from Taiwan, and rubber from Germany, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. The company also source supporting materials and supplies such as buttons, zippers, interlining, fuel for the vehicles, and paper for the employee newsletter. While the company has multiple suppliers for most of the materials, the company source synthetic leather from a single supplier in Taiwan. Since the synthetic leather is cheaper, more breathable, easier to clean and function better than real leather, PR corporation has been increasingly using this in producing many of their products. This increases the demand for synthetic leather; however, due to single sourcing and limited capacities of the supplier, PR corporation is often required to wait for the material. As a result, the procurement manager, Ms. Jennifer Dillon, is seriously looking for new suppliers to source synthetic leather. Likewise, PR corporation has a limited number of suppliers for embellishments such as high-quality print and embroidery. Given that embellishments are important for improving the design and visual appeal of the products and some of the current suppliers of embellishments are not price competitive, the company is currently looking for new suppliers.
PR Corporation has?a large number of?product lines. Due to the increasing demand for the PR corporation’s products, the company struggles to manage inventory. Therefore, the company president, Mr. Adam Ciampa, has decided to analyse the company’s inventory requirements utilising the ABC analysis of the existing product lines, as shown in Table 1. Accordingly, Mr. Adam Ciampa has asked Ms. Nina Pova, the inventory manager, to perform the ABC analysis based on the previous year’s sales and profit data, as presented in Table 1 and formulate inventory management strategies for each category.?However, looking into the information provided in annual sales data, Ms. Nina Pova is in a dilemma whether to conduct ABC analysis based on annual revenue or profit.
As mentioned earlier, one of the key components that?PR Corporation?requires for manufacturing products is the synthetic leather. The current monthly demand for synthetic leather is 3,000 pallets where each pallet has 50 units. PR Corporation gives orders when they need and organises a letter of credit and other financial documents. The price per unit of synthetic leather is $25. The cost to place an order to the supplier is $600. The annual capital cost related to inventory carrying is 6 percent of the per-unit price of the materials (such as synthetic leather). The annual costs of storage space of the materials, inventory insurance and other inventory carrying costs related to weight loss, damage, and obsolescence are 8 percent, 4 percent, and 2 percent of the per-unit material price, respectively. PR Corporation doesn’t want to carry a lot of stock of synthetic leather as it takes up spaces; however, they are also concerned about the frequent stock-outs they have been experiencing these days.
PR Corporation currently has a central distribution in Madrid in Spain. The centre is approximately 120,000 square meters in size and serves customers (retailers) from 24 European nations where the company operates. All the products that PR Corporation produces come to this centre first to get distributed to retailers across Europe. The centre delivers products to the retail stores at the beginning of the seasons as well as during the seasons. At the beginning of a season, when the demand is generally high for some products, PR Corporation employs more staff for ensuring fast and on-time delivery, which is critical due to the seasonal demand for those products. The company also uses various strategies for the shipments of the products. For example:
• The company directly ships to big retailers for fast delivery. As these big retailers require larger shipments such as full pallets, hence, consolidation with other shipments is not possible.
• PR Corporation consolidates the shipments for many small retailers to fully utilise the capacity and reduce costs.
• Several value-adding services are performed in the centre for selected retailers. These value-adding services include sorting, labelling and repacking.
• In France and Germany, where the demand for PR Corporation products is high, recently the company opened small satellite distribution centres. This enables PR Corporation to faster replenish some popular items in these markets.
PR Corporation achieves many benefits for using centralised warehousing and distribution such as lower inventory storage, lower carrying cost, consolidation of inbound shipments, and enhanced control to name a few. However, the company has also been experiencing many challenges in recent times. In particular, retailers are demanding smaller quantities but more frequent deliveries. Moreover, all retailers demand in-store availability of seasonal products on day one (the first day) of a new season. Currently, the company is struggling to provide such services due to its centralised distribution system. Retailers claim that when PR Corporation delivers the products well before a season, it increases carrying cost for the retailers. On the other hand, retailers lose sales when PR Corporation is unable to deliver on time at the beginning of a new season. Moreover, the majority of retailers expects advance shipping information with RFID tags on the products for enhancing visibility.
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