Inventory and Operation Management Strategy

Running Head: MYER 0
Operation Management

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Table of Contents
Overview of Myer......................................................................................................................2
Inventory and Operation Management Strategy........................................................................2
Inventory management analysis of Myer Australia...................................................................4
Supply chain systems and stakeholders.....................................................................................5
Recommendations......................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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Overview of Myer
Myer is an Australian department store chain functioning in most of the Australian states.
The company comes into retail industry offering 11 core product categories across 61 stores
in Australia. Their diversity of products include unisex clothing, footwear, electrical, toys and
cosmetics. The company mainly segment the market on the basis of middle and upper-class
individuals who seek for trend and stylish fashion in the market. With regards to this, the
company also make its position on quality and style. The company revenue in the year 2017
was standouts to A$3.2 billion (Henning, 2018). At present, the company have more than
14,000 plus employees serving the needs of their customers.
For the purpose of expansion and growth, Myer is taking out various efforts like private
equity group as Texas Pacific Group and maintain synergies in order to generate
competitiveness (Verrender, 2017). However, from past few years and one of the reason is
their inefficient operation and inventory management strategy. Having a well-operated chain
of supply has increasingly become a critical element for retail companies to success.
This report is intended towards the outlook of Myer Australia to enhance its inventory
systems and supply chain management processes. It is related to effective inventory
management and supply chain systems and Operation management process. In last, several
recommendations are presented for the improvement of supply and operation system in the
organisation.
Inventory and Operation Management Strategy
Inventories are the company stock or properties that are kept in order for the organisation to
attain its desired needs. Myer inventory and operation management is one of the biggest
contributors to its success. Considering the mammoth size of the company, efficient and
effective inventory management is of critical importance in operational effectiveness (Chin et
al, 2012). Myer is also known for its cutting-edge technological applications for its inventory
management aspect of operations such as RFID technology.
In inventory mix, the management at Myer ensures that operations will be continuously going
on a function of inventory with an ongoing supply of materials. To achieve this function

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effectively, the company is striving to find a spot between too much and too little as this
helps them to never run out of stock. Other than this, to ensure success of this function, the
company is also deploying various solutions in the form of RFID solutions that track goods
as they are received and sold at various stores of Myer (Moon & Ngai, 2008). This will not
only help in the inventory function of Myer but also boot the sales and help in inventory
management of the company.
Considering types and roles of inventory at Myer, the company utilize many types of
inventory, each with a corresponding set of management strategies and approaches (Demeter
& Matyusz, 2011). Each type fulfils a specific role in the retail organisation inventory and
supply chain in relation to the Myer practices.
The first type of inventory represents finished good inventory which is most significant in
Myer business. Finished goods when arriving at the Myer store are stored and later on
inventory is replenished regularly. Hence, the role of this type of inventory is to support Myer
store operations, where the finished goods are moved from the enterprise merchandise
distributions centres to be sold to the retail buyers at the stores (MacKenzie, 2013). The
second type of inventory Myer used is transit inventory that refers to the goods that are held
while in transit. Considering Myer supply chain global extent, some of their products stuck
in transit for days or weeks. The role of this inventory type is to assist the replenishment of
the finished goods inventory in Myer merchandise distributions centres and their stores.
The next type of inventory used by Myer is buffer inventory with keeping a small margin of
extra goods so as to maintain continuity of business with the sudden fluctuations in the
demand. To attain this purpose, Myer always embraces keeping extra stock of goods. The
role of this inventory type is to ensure adequate capacity of the company to control sudden
decrease or rise in demand in relation to present retail market predictions models. The last
type of inventory that Myer utilize is Anticipation inventory that ensures optimal capacity to
satisfy the demand of the customers. There are several similarities in this inventory type and
buffer inventory. Though, Anticipationinventory is based on seasonal changes and the
compiled data. This inventory system is not used by Myer on regular shopping days i.e. rest
of the year and the role of this inventory type is to enable the company to satisfy expected
demand increase seasonally.
Considering implication of OM strategy of Myer, it can be said that there will be improved
omnichannel capabilities with delivery time and supply chain efficiencies. In addition, this