Supply Chain Planning Processes for Two Major Retailers

This chapter describes supply chain practices and processes observed at two retailers in the home furnishing sector. Because of the large number of stock-keeping-units (SKUs), the inter-relationships among the SKUs, as well as use of multiple store formats and multiple marketing channels targeted to different customer segments, home furnishings is one of the most complex retail sectors. In addition to documenting the complex flows of materials and information in such multi-channel environments, we present details of key supply chain planning processes: product design and assortment planning, sourcing and vendor selection, logistics planning, distribution planning and inventory management, clearance and markdown optimization, and cross-channel optimization.