Logistics and Supply Chain Management - Woolworths Case Study

This article discusses the supply chain management of Woolworths, a retail organization, and the technologies, support strategies, financial strategies, and key performance indicators used to enhance its efficiency. It also provides suggestions for improvement in the supply chain of the company. The article is relevant for students studying logistics and supply chain management.

Running head: LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Logistics and Supply chain management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Section 1
Technology
Supply chain flowchart of Woolworths
Figure 1: Supply chain management of Woolworths
Consumer order
Consumer service
Purchasing and
material control
Production Control
Vendor
Production Warehouse
Shipping Dept
Forwarder
Consumer
Material
Material Delivery
Finished goods
Material
P/O
Confirmation

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Source (Christopher 2016)
Outline the technology/software required and how these have been evaluated
In order to cope up with the enhancing completion across the world, it is highly crucial
for the retail organization including Woolworths to enhance its supply chain management.
Technology has the potential to simplify the supply chain of the business, reduce the operational
cost and help the management to operate the business more efficiently.. The following discussed
technologies are required by the Woolworths organization to manage its supply chin efficiently
Computerised shipping and tracking
With the help of internet based software as well as modern technologies the shipping
errors as well as the shipping costs can be reduced by the company drastically. Softwares like
FlashView will help the mentioned organization to to consolidate all aspects of their supply
chain in one place. Not only that, the mentioned software will enable the management to
digitally organize the inventory data while monitoring an managing shipping as well as tracking
information along with creating invoices easily. This software is highly efficient in reducing the
time needed for shipping, receiving, tracking, and compiling order data, which in turn helps will
help the organization to save both money as well as time (Monczka et al. 2015).
Radio frequency identification (RFID)
The Radio Frequency identification chip if placed on every product has the capability to
provide the management of Woolworths to track their inventory easily. The enhanced visibility
provided by the RFID chip will enable the management to improve their supply chain efficiency
by detecting hr loopholes (Seuring 2013). Not only that, the mentioned technology will also

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enable the employees to correct their mistakes immediately. Additionally, RDIF also allows easy
and highly consistent tracking that enables the management to posses maximum control and
visibly over their products. Considering the fact that the RFID chip allows computerized product
management, it posses the potential to eliminate potential errors while simplifying the supply
chain as well as reducing operating costs.
Support Strategy
It is highly crucial to incorporate the consumers, staffs and stakeholder and support their
contribution to the supply chain management in order to enhance the efficiency of the same. The
first principle that needs to follow by the organization for effective stakeholder collaboration is
to get to know the stakeholders. This principle will help the management to develop a
comprehensive understanding of who the stakeholders are, what are the factors that they care
about and how are they related to the supply chain management. According to the researchers,
several organizations suffer from failure in managing their supply chain efficiently due to
inefficient identification of the stake holders (Cohen and Roussel 2013). In order to avoid the
failure, the management of the Woolworths organization must perform external scan. For
instance, suppliers posses the ability to contribute to their contribution to the supply chain
operation.
The second principle to ensure effective stakeholder collaboration includes engaging the
stakeholders as early as possible. According to the researchers, human beings by nature are
resistant to changes (Hugos 2018). The early stakeholder engagement has the capability to
different form depending on the type of stakeholder, their relationship with the supply chain
program and finally their capability to influence the outcomes of the supply change outcomes.

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The requirement of engagement of the stakeholders depends on the degree of direct involvement
and decision making of the same. For stakeholders like senior executives, ho only get indirectly
impacted by the program decision, high level of engagement is not required.
The third principle that needs to be followed by the management for active collaboration
of the stakeholders is active listening. Actively listing to the views and suggestion of the
stakeholders not only make them fill valued and empowered but also enhance their loyalty toads
the organization.
Communication and information exchange between supply chain partners
Effective communication and exchange of information between the supply chain partners
is highly crucial in order to manage the supply chain of the organization effectively. According
to the supply chain policy of Woolworths, the management must ensure regular consultation with
the stakeholders about the area associated with human rights, environment, labor and
anticorruption (Wisner, Tan and Leong 2014). This in turn will enable the company to ensure a
healthy management-stakeholder relationship so that the business can be operated with
efficiency. Secondly the policy of the mentioned organization is to restore the statement of
information associated with the supply chain communicated both externally as well as internally
to every personnel, business partners as well as other relevant parties this policy has been taken
by the Woolworths company to avoid any kind of misunderstanding or issues which may result
from misinterpretation of the information shared with the supply chain partners
Financial strategy, i.e. Sales and payment
The policies associated with the supply chain financial strategy helps the Woolworths
organization t reduce its costs of supply chain without hampering the quality of the same and the

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productivity of the company. Not only that, the financial planning also provides effective
coordination among manufacturing and sales. According to the policies of the Woolworth
Company, all the trading partner who supplies the company with goods and services to the
Woolworth supermarkets, liquor and petrol sites related to the warehouse should report to the
Woolworths transaction processing centre for any kinds of queries associated with payments.
Apart from that the trading partners of the company are asked to reconsilate their accounts in a
timely manner in order to ensure quick resolution of any payment related that may arise (Pagell
and Shevchenko 2014). The purpose of the above mention policy is to ensure the satisfaction of
the trading partners as well as other stakeholders of the company while preventing any kinds of
loss of revenue due to inappropriate financial strategy.
The development of trust and a supply chain culture
Development of trust within the stakeholder and the management is highly crucial in
order to ensure the effectiveness of the supply chain management. In order to ensure effective
workplace environment and bonding between the employees of the organization, the Woolworth
campy has undertaken several policies and procedures. According to the antidiscrimination
policies, strict action along with high fines will be imposed upon the employees who will
demonstrate anti-discriminatory act on the basis of race, age, gender and sexual orientation
towards others. One of the effective strategies to ensure trust within the supply chain culture of
the mentioned organization includes connecting both suppler as well as consumers to the supply
chain and allows them to easily exchange information, demand data and ensure visibility of the
status. This strategy will ensure that all the stakeholders are working together in order to improve
the quality of the service as well as to reduce the costs of the supply chain management.

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OHS
As being stated by the management of the Woolworths organization, the safety o the
employees as well as the communities where the company operates is one of the chief concern of
the management of the company. The company is committed to manage its operations in order to
protect the health, safety as well as welfare of the employees, consumers, contractors along with
the wider community. According to the policy of the mentioned organization, all the individuals
performing on the site must complete the Woolworths limited online safety instruction. The
purpose of this policy is to ensure that all the workers are familiarized with the Woolworths
limited safety requirements by going through the instructions (Fernie and Sparks 2014). When it
comes to the OHS policy associated with the In store, service Cashiers are entitled to check the
contents of any bag, parcel or container in the customer's possession that is larger than an A4
sheet of paper. This policy protects the consumers as well as the employees from any harmful
activities within the market.
Ethical behavior
The Woolworths limited organization abides by the policies and guidelines stated in the
Department's Conduct and Ethical Behavior Framework, Australia. According to the mentioned
policy, the management of the organization is liable of demonstrating impartial and apolitical
values and provides advice that is frank, timely, and honest and is based on the best available
evidence. The policy also states that all the employees of the organization should demonstrate
professional behavior and commitment towards the organization as well as the community the
organization is meeting operated in. The purpose of the above mentioned policy is to eliminate
any kind of corruption associated with the supply chain.

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Risk Management
The purpose of the policies associated with the risk management of the Woolworths
Company is to ensure a consistent as well as effective approach to risk management,
incorporating the same in the areas of supply chain management as well as formalize its
commitment to the principles of risk management. Not only that, the aim of the policy is to foster
as well as encourage a culture which is well aware of risk within the organization where risk
management is considered as a positive attribute for decision making instead of a corrective
measure.
Section 3
Key performance indicators
Considering the fact that Woolworths belongs to the highly competitive retail industry,
the goal of the company to enhance its yearly revenue by enhancing its consumer base. The
following are KPIS that helps the company too gain competitive advantages over its competitors.
Sale and gross margin
The most crucial performance indicator of the retail organization is the sales generator.
The sales of the company are generally compared on the basis of locations, product categories’
and retail outlet in order to identify the performance trends as well as formulate strategies to
enhance the sales.
The management of Woolworth also considers the gross margin since it helps the same to
determine the markup percentage of the products and is a crucial indicator of the financial
performance (Connelly, Ketchen and Hult 2013).

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Sales per square foot
This KPI measures the average sales generate by each square foot area in a retail outlet of the
Woolworths organization. the mentioned KPI provides the management with a crucial insight
about the store layout effectiveness as well as the performance of the sales personnel’s.
Stock turnover rate
The inventory turnover is defined as the number of times the average inventory of a
product has been sold by the Woolworths organization in a financial year. This indicator helps
the management to understand how quickly the organization is ale to sale it inventory.
Continuous improvement
In order to ensure further improvement and to deal with the loopholes that are restricting
the company to meet its KPI, the role of the training and continuous improvement manager of
the organization is to deliver consistent as well as effective training to both current and newly
appointed employees, in accordance to the values and strategies of the Woolworths Company.
In order to maintain the quality of the service as well as to enhance the work life balances of the
employees, the management re-priotise its existing workloads. In order to gain competitive
advantage, the management is implementing additional resources like new supply chain
responsibilities as well s communication with the stakeholders. The chief communication method
implemented is communicating with the suppliers with the help of popular social media
platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn (Chandrasekaran and Raghuram 2014). Finally, in order
to detect the loophole associated with the supply chain of the mentioned organization several

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problem solving tools like the CATWOE checklist for root cost analysis has been developed by
the organization.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that the supply chain management of the
Woolworths Company is effective enough to maintain its brand value and reputation in the
global market. However, considering the fact that with the lowering of barrier of the company,
the number of compaction within the company has increased a lot, the following suggestions will
ensure improvement in the supply chain of the company.
1. The company can use a cloud based software that are highly efficient in tracking as well
as managing the inventory in real time. This software will enable the retailers to adopt
seasonal trends as well as fluctuations that are in demand (Hugos 2018).
2. The management of Woolworths can use source tagging along with the RFI in order to
keep track of the inventory as well as the stock level. Source tagging helps the inventory
management to make better business decisions.

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Reference List
Chandrasekaran, N. and Raghuram, G., 2014. Agribusiness supply chain management. CRC
Press.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Cohen, S. and Roussel, J., 2013. Strategic Supply Chain Management: The Five Core
Disciplines for Top Performance, Second Editon. McGraw-Hill.
Connelly, B.L., Ketchen, D.J. and Hult, G.T.M., 2013. Global supply chain management: toward
a theoretically driven research agenda. Global Strategy Journal, 3(3), pp.227-243.
Fernie, J. and Sparks, L., 2014. Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new
challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan page publishers.
Hugos, M.H., 2018. Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.
Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J. and Seuring, S., 2014. Quantitative models for
sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions. European Journal of
Operational Research, 233(2), pp.299-312.
Monczka, R.M., Handfield, R.B., Giunipero, L.C. and Patterson, J.L., 2015. Purchasing and
supply chain management. Cengage Learning.
Pagell, M. and Shevchenko, A., 2014. Why research in sustainable supply chain management
should have no future. Journal of supply chain management, 50(1), pp.44-55.
Seuring, S., 2013. A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain
management. Decision support systems, 54(4), pp.1513-1520.

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Wisner, J.D., Tan, K.C. and Leong, G.K., 2014. Principles of supply chain management: A
balanced approach. Cengage Learning.