Metro Inc. Business Analysis: Supply Chain Management

This report provides a detailed business analysis of Metro Inc., a major Canadian food retailer. It examines the company's current situation, business processes, and the challenges it faces, particularly in supply chain management and the impact of automation. The report identifies problems such as supply chain inefficiencies, changing customer demands, and resource wastage. To address these issues, the report proposes the development of a new supply chain infrastructure and adherence to the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act to ensure product quality and customer safety. The analysis includes a follow-up plan to mitigate job losses due to automation, along with a discussion of the team, resources, and success metrics. The report also covers the tools used, such as the ALLOY framework, and the implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, emphasizing the importance of quality maintenance and customer satisfaction within the food industry.

Running head: BUSINESS ANALYSIS
Business analysis
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
Executive summary
The report was constructed to provide a detailed business analysis for Metro Inc in
Canada. The goals and objectives of the report were to manage the supply chain properly through
the development of a new supply chain infrastructure and ensured resolving the issues related to
the automation process too. This has helped in delivering the fresh quality food and safe
pharmaceutical products to meet the demands and preferences of the customers. Few of the
problems faced were supply chain management issues, changing demands of customers and
wastage of resources. To resolve these kinds of issues, a new supply chain infrastructure was
created at Metro Inc and the company considered the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act to
maintain consistency in quality of products and kept the customers safe too. The follow up plan
was proposed to make sure that the issues regarding jobs that were lost due to the automation
process could be overcome and that was managed by making enough resources available for
developing an innovative supply chain infrastructure with ease and effectiveness.

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Table of Contents
Background......................................................................................................................................4
Current Situation..............................................................................................................................4
Current Business Process.................................................................................................................5
Goal..................................................................................................................................................5
Problem Statement...........................................................................................................................5
Problem Definition..........................................................................................................................6
Problem in the existing process.......................................................................................................7
Possible Solutions............................................................................................................................7
Problem Analysis.............................................................................................................................8
Tools used........................................................................................................................................9
The Final Solution...........................................................................................................................9
Identification of new improved process........................................................................................10
Describe how it meets the goal......................................................................................................10
Follow-up Plan...............................................................................................................................12
Measurement of success................................................................................................................12
The Team with Roles.....................................................................................................................12
Resources.......................................................................................................................................12
Time Commitments.......................................................................................................................13

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
Request for Approval.....................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

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Background
The business organisation Metro Inc falls under the consumer services industry and the
sector within which it has been operating is the food retailers and wholesalers. It is one of the
major supermarket chains in Canada that offers various kinds of fresh quality foods, vegetables
and fruits for meeting the demands and preferences of the customers. Because of the fresh
quality food items offered, the company has managed to create a good place in the market and
the brand image and identify have also improved with time consistently. The company has
generated a total sales revenue of more than $12 billion and is the only food distribution
company that focuses on the satisfaction of customers and even employed over 65,000
employees (1). This has enhanced the organizational efficiency and allowed the customers to
obtain long-term loyalty too. The products and services are distributed in retail chains including
Food Basics, Metro Plus, Super C and Adonis.
Current Situation
The present situation of the organization is quite good and it has maintained a sustainable
position within the business environment by becoming a leader in the food and pharmaceutical
food distribution sector in Ontario and Quebec. With its bulk production, the company has more
than 600 stores that are operating under the various retail chains of Metro Inc. including Super C,
Metro Plus, Food Basics, etc. The consumers have gained accessibility to a wide range of fresh
food items and grocery items (2). The consistency in quality and freshness of the food items are
considered as competitive priorities of the organisation to keep customers satisfied.

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
Current Business Process
Business processes and operations are critical for the success of any business in terms of
profit and competitive advantage. One of the recent processes could be the acquisition of A&P
Canada, loyalty programs offered to the customers at the stores of Metro Inc in Ontario and
Quebec. Maintenance of codes of ethics is important and so Metro Inc has complied with the
guidelines, rules and regulations adopted by Canadian Securities Administrators to ensure
successful functioning. Information is exchanged for understanding the behaviors and attitudes
of the people and the food items have been delivered according to that (3).
Goal
The main goal or objective of the report is to identify the problems that may be faced by
the organisation and develop proper action plan to facilitate the proposed solutions to those
issues. The company aims to offer the freshest food items along with various pharmaceutical
products to enhance the health and well-being of the consumers.
Problem Statement
During the last few months, the company has been facing issues regarding the quality of
products and lack of consistency in delivering the freshest quality food products in the market.
Though Metro Inc has made huge amounts of investments to innovate the products and services
and ensured introducing more fresh quality food. It is aimed to achieve greater level of profit and
competitive advantage in business as well. Many frozen food items fare less in terms of quality
when compared with the fresh for revolution. Metro Inc has always focused on providing a
differentiated experience to the customers with the rising demands for fresh foods. More money
is invested in labor management though the risks of lower return and changing behaviours of

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
customers are emerging as well. This has deteriorated the supply chain management activities
and resulted in wastage of resources, lack of sales and shrinkage. With the automation processes,
new supply chain infrastructure has been formed that has resulted in loss of jobs for many people
(4).
Metro Inc also offers pharmaceutical products but the growth of sales has slowed down
because of the introduction of biosimilar drugs. These kinds of drugs have increased the level of
safety for the people and effectiveness of the medicines, because of its availability at lower
prices. The healthcare industry shifted towards value based payments and so the
pharmaceutical industry might face issues to estimate the exact time frame for
manufacturers to evaluate the efficiency of the drugs. The costs of managing business
operations have also increased, because of which the company wants to close some of
its banners to bring back the trust and loyalty among the customers.

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
Metro’s current process flow
Yes Yes
No
Metro Inc
Finance
OK Inve
ntory
Shipping of
products
Sales Orders
replaced
Enterprise
resource planning
or ERP
Suppliers
Warehouse to
store received
products
Management
of labor
Finance and
accounting
Shipping
FedEx, UPS,
etc.
Business
Orders returned
Planning
for
production

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
Problem Definition
It can be understood that the company has faced issues due to more focus on management
of labour rather than managing the supply chain activities and inventories. While globalizing the
supply chain activities, many issues were faced including the lack of ability to meet the
regulatory standards. This also resulted in making the suppliers and products unable to maintain
the standards of quality and thus the safety aspects were hindered, which affected the brand
image and reputation as well. By focusing more on the management of labor, the company has
ignored various important aspects of supply chain, which has damaged the brand reputation and
even created issues during the flow of cash (5).
Problem in the existing process
One of the major issues that the company was facing related to the supply chain
management could be the lower costs of labour management. Due to lower investments in
managing the human resources, the staffs have felt less interested in fulfilling their roles and
responsibilities, which further deteriorated the business performance (6). One of the major
aspects of supply chain management is the outsourcing that extends the production process
internationally. Due to the presence of suppliers in different geographical locations, the supply
chain activities have got complicated as well.
Problem analysis
The cause and effect model was considered to be effective for identifying the issues
during the process of procurement

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Possible Solutions
Investments are done for the labour management by providing the employees of Metro
Inc with training and developmental sessions. This has improved their abilities to understand
their roles and responsibilities properly and perform to their potential too. To manage proper
globalization of supply chain, the company must adopt the culture of the new market places and
ensure production of products and services accordingly. The markets are changing fast, which
also affected the behaviours of consumers from the perspective of social, cultural, personal and
psychological factors. To meet the market demands, Metro Inc must not expand its number of
stores, rather focus on the introduction of new and fresh food items along with value for money
pharmaceutical products and at the same time, keep the costs of manufacturing lower. Innovation
has been brought for forecasting the demands for the new products in the market and even
maintains an agile supply chain for meeting the demands and preferences of the customers (7).
To enhance the market presence, improve the supply chain activities’ efficiency and influence
the consumers’ behaviors, Metro Inc in Canada has obtained the feedbacks and responses of
customers. It is possible by using social media platform and it has influenced the online shopping
behavior as well as addressed the quality of products at various levels of the supply chain. There
Labor management CustomersNew machineries
and equipments
Measuring the
progress
Resources and raw
materials
Procurement and
management of products
and services

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
is procurement of raw materials, packaging, logistic and handling of products to make sure that
those are transferred properly. Other than the quality control and safety tests, the company has
met the regulatory standards while manufacturing and production, packaging and shipping of
products and services. This has ensured complying with the quality standards and overcome the
supply chain issues with ease (8). While expanding business globally, data and information have
been obtained at various levels of supply chain related to the direct and indirect materials, tax
related documents, labor agreements and compliance certificates. The ALLOY platform was
used by Metro Inc to manage data integration solutions, furthermore supported the storage,
retrieval and development of repository consisting of quality data from the processes of
production and supply chain management.
Problem Analysis
While entering the foreign markets and expand sales into the global markets, Metro Inc
has been unable to adapt the products to different cultures, which might enable losing control on
business operations, lack of visibility, control and management over the inventories. The
pharmaceutical department of Metro Inc has failed to implement the value based payment
system, which created difficulties in assuming the actual time taken for the production and
effectiveness of the products delivered. Due to this, the costs of certain drugs could become very
high and leave the customers unsatisfied. Thus, the supply chain was not up to the mark that was
expected to be.
Tools used
The ALLOY framework could be used for the management and integration of data
obtained from various levels of supply chain. To manage regulatory compliance, FDA Food

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Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was implemented for maintaining safety for food supply and
prevented any contamination or harmful chemicals used for the production of fresh quality food and
pharmaceutical products. The law also ensures that artificial chemicals are not used to ripen the fruits.
Warehouse management has been considered as an essential tool for storing enough fruits and
vegetables and ensure abundant supply of those to the concerned supermarkets by Metro Inc (9).
The Final Solution
The company’s major focus has been on the maintenance of quality of products to keep
the customers satisfied and quality is a major success factor for the food industry. Through the
development of new supply chain infrastructure, the company has become responsive to meet the
needs of customers. Another important solution to overcome the issues of quality could be the
management of transportation solutions for matching up the demands of consumers and deliver
products and services in various supermarket chains within the actual time schedule. Metro Inc’s
solution to overcome the issues could be following the safety and quality standards by
considering the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. This has ensured that the quality standards are
met and it is possible through proper supply of resources, furthermore has enhanced the
effectiveness of supply chain activities (10). These kinds of solutions have leveraged the best
technology, controlled costs and reduced the carbon emissions, furthermore created lesser
harmful impacts on the environment and maintained consistency in quality all throughout.
Why it was chosen?
It was chosen for not only improving the supply chain processes, but also to benefit the
company from other perspectives too like lesser costs incurred during the production,
improvement of warehousing capabilities and reduce carbon foot prints.

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
How was it chosen?
The various solutions were analysed and the benefits that could be obtained from those
after implementation were needed to be compared. By comparing these benefits, it has been
found that
Identification of new improved process
With the automation of grocery chain, new and innovative supply chain infrastructure has
been formed, which has allowed the company to become more responsive to the needs and
requirements of the customers.
Describe how it meets the goal
The company has met the goals and objectives by implementing a new supply chain
infrastructure for managing the automation process properly. To do so, the company has
managed the distribution network and continued with the growth and expansion of the business
in Ontario. With the modernized supply chain infrastructure, Metro Inc has influenced the
distribution process and even responded to the changing needs and preferences of the customers
quite comprehensively. By aligning with the Food Safety Modernization Act, the quality and safety
of products have been maintained (11).
Implementation/Action Plan
Actions Implementation
Development of vision and mission The company sets its ultimate goal of
becoming more responsive to the customers
and resolve issues related to the supply chain

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
management for delivering the freshest food
items to the customers.
Creating an actual purpose The stakeholders are understood such as the
suppliers, customers, employees by developing
a new supply chain infrastructure
Identifying the goals and objectives To develop a new supply chain infrastructure
To maintain good quality products and respond
to changing needs of customers
Measurement of progress Obtaining data and information at various
supply chain levels could help in measuring
progress
Actions undertaken A new and innovative supply chain
infrastructure is established to respond to the
needs of the consumers and enhance the
distribution network too. Food Safety
Modernization Act is considered to maintain
quality standards and ensure that the delivered
foods and pharmaceutical products are safe.
Follow-up Plan
As soon as the project was completed, it had been important for Metro Inc to bring back
the effective employees whose jobs were lost during the process of automation. The food
services industry has a high automation rate and so to reduce the employee loss, Metro Inc has

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
created scopes to allow the existing employees become part of the organisation again and their
performances were assessed and reviewed thereafter. It helped in understanding their roles, their
potential, based on which, they were retained (12).
Measurement of success
Success was measured in terms of the customers’ services and communication
facilitation, which had improved with the development of the new supply chain infrastructure.
Many of the existing employees were retained and better customers’ services were provided
along with maintenance of consistency in the quality of products. This proved that the project
management was successful and noteworthy.
The Team with Roles
The roles of teams differ and it included one team’s management of planning for
production while another team was concerned with the management and control of inventories
and warehousing. These roles are essential functions of supply chain management that have been
managed all throughout the development of new supply chain infrastructure at Metro Inc (4).
Resources
The resources used by Metro Inc to manage the supply chain included financial and
human resources, construction materials that were required for the development of supply chain
infrastructure and transportation vehicles too. The human resources mean the people working for
the company and thus there are more than 65000 employees while the company also holds over
CDN$601.6 million, which is considered as financial resources.

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BUSINESS ANALYSIS
Time Commitments
The project was completed within the allocated time and so the time commitments were
met with ease. The total time taken for completing the project was 5 months and at every supply
chain levels, progress was measured, which helped in maintaining consistency and
appropriateness during the action and implementation plans (7).
Request for Approval
Metro Inc has improved the customers’ services and communication for facilitating the
supply chains and distribution networks. The issues were related to the supply chain management
and poor quality food items distributed at various supermarkets. To overcome the issues and
maintain safety, the organisation had implemented the new supply chain infrastructure and
maintained the quality standards of food items by aligning with the Food Safety Modernization
Act at Canada.
The solutions:
 The benefits were obtained within 4 months after the new supply chain infrastructure was
made
 Reduced the costs of business operations
 Maintained flexibility and met the quality standards
 Both human and financial resources were managed properly
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