Michael is the owner of a small multi-brand clothing and accessories store in Barcelona. Little by little Michael has gained a position among the big stores of the city, managing to get a significant number of clients that are loyal to him.
Michael has decided that it is time to change some aspects of the business to stand up to large companies that, like him, sell clothing and accessories of several brands.
Due to his desire to grow and compete at a higher level, Michael asks you to help him design and plan a series of actions that will allow you to reach the desired level.
After a first meeting, you agree that you will carry out a benchmarking process to progressively gain positions, contributing to this so that the quality of the service is not lost.
Some of the current features of Michael’s company are:
- Both the store and the store is small, so that it has little product in stock, although it gives the possibility to customers to ask for what they do not have. In a way, we could say that from time to time when it makes the sale by catalogue.
- These product orders out of stock are usually delayed between 5 days and a week, implying that the customer must wait longer than if you order online in another establishment.
- About these orders, some suppliers do not accept small orders, so sometimes these orders take longer than those mentioned above. Most of its customers know this, so they are farsighted and go to the store in advance to see the collection and the catalogue.
- The store has a website, although we should mention that it is somewhat neglected and outdated. Besides, it does not offer online sales.
- Michael uses a space in the warehouse of a nearby store that belongs to a friend in times of high concurrence since his warehouse is small. This means that he often has to move there to bring the genre to his customers and that he must have a trusted person to stay in the store when he leaves the warehouse.
The benchmarking process will be carried out on one of the following chains: Amazon, Ali Express, eBay or Asos.
DEVELOP
- Choose one of the companies on which the benchmarking process will be carried out and make a brief description about it concerning some element of your supply chain, such as the order delivery service, the operation of the warehouse or the modalities of purchase that allows. The advantages of this system must be specified, as well as its operation.
- Concerning the description just made, and taking into account the particularities of Michael’s company, lists those aspects that must be improved to reach a higher level.
- Knowing those aspects that require improvement, establishes a series of benchmarking objectives. Here the following questions should be answered.
• What is the perception of benchmarking and what benefits can it provide?
• What do we want to achieve with the implementation of a benchmarking process?
• What actions should be implemented to improve the aspects in which it fails?
- Based on these objectives and the differences between Michael’s company and the selected company, it establishes those actions and processes that Michael should implement in his business to improve and gain positions in the market.
- Concerning the new trends in the supply chain that have been discussed in the last topic (module 4) of the manual, what new trend or trends do you think Michael should implement? Justify your choice and list the benefits that this trend would bring.
