Information System Analysis for Woolworths' Supply Chain Challenges

This report examines the supply chain challenges faced by Woolworths, a leading Australian retail organization. The core problem identified is the inefficient management of goods and services, leading to customer complaints and operational inefficiencies. The report proposes the implementation of a supply chain management (SCM) information system, incorporating business intelligence and cloud computing to streamline logistics, improve inventory management, and enhance decision-making. The analysis covers the strategic role of IT within Woolworths, the necessary change program for SCM implementation (including SDLC stages and training), and provides recommendations for optimizing the supply chain. The report highlights the importance of IT in driving business growth and competitive advantage, emphasizing the need for effective data analysis and customer-centric strategies. It suggests that Woolworths should focus on improving supplier relationships and service quality to overcome the identified supply chain issues.

Information system

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................1
Problem.......................................................................................................................................................1
IT Strategic role...........................................................................................................................................3
Change program..........................................................................................................................................3
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................4
Reference....................................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
Woolworths supermarket is a leading retail organization. In Australia, Woolworths is operating
more than 995 stores and includes more than 115,000 employees for providing the services to the
customers in the stores, distribution centers and supporting office. The operation of the company
is mainly in groceries and food items. In order to deliver the goods, the requirement of supply
chain is for the success of the organization. The information system(IS) is required in
Woolworths for managing the supply chain. This report includes an analysis of the issue faced by
Woolworths in the supply chain. A supply chain management system(SCM) is required for
managing the organization's flow of goods and services, managing and storing the inventory in
an effective manner.
Problem
Woolworth's main aim is to deliver the goods and services customers on time. The company is
facing the problem of delivering products to customers and managing the flow of goods. To
manage the goods in stores effectively, the organization is required to implement the supply
chain management information system. It includes the management of logistics and
transportation as the company is facing the issue of tracking the goods. In order to make the free
flow of goods and services from the suppliers and deliver the goods to the end-users of the
products. Woolworths was facing the issue as the complaints of customers were increasing of not
getting the goods on time. In the case of managing the availability of stock, the old system was
not effective because of the number of errors and irrelevant information. With the
implementation of a supply chain management system(SCM), the business would be able to
manage the stock in an effective manner (Zeng, et al., 2012).
IN Woolworths, Business intelligence can be used by the organization for making the decision
and to manage the data related to supply chain management. Business intelligence includes the
processes and technologies which help in transforming the information into useful information
for the organization. It can be used by Woolworths for solving the use of the supply chain as the
business intelligence will help in computing the technology for identifying, discovering and
analyzing the data of the business. BI plays a crucial role in managing transportation. In
management of the transportation of Woolworths, BI will include the capabilities which are role-

based thinking, root causes analytics, landed costs and data sources (Wu, et al., 2013). BI is
required for collecting and tracking data like the cost of transportation, performance indicators
on suppliers and maintaining trends. BI works as a tool for monitoring the whole process of the
supply chain which includes the delivery on time, identification of the issues at the time of
delivery. In the operations of transportation, BI will be responsible for evaluating the
performance of a vendor for delivering the on-time (Wahyuni, 2010).
Business intelligence in transportation and logistics operations helps in increasing profitability
through the analysis of service and network product portfolios that span consumers, providers
and all links in the logistics chain. It helps in tracking the performance of supplier based on
service level agreements to spot opportunity, conduct smart negotiations and creating rate
contracts based on the results (Arli, et al., 2014).
Woolworths has strong financial resources and has a significant impact on local suppliers. As a
result, it can purchase products at a very low cost, following the principle of Woolworths supply
chain management system, that is, selling high-quality goods at a lower price. Another
organization that follows a similar approach is Aldi, which uses and relies on domestic sources
and channels to source its goods unless there are usability issues. In this case, products must be
purchased for foreign suppliers (Link, et al., 2017). Woolworths uses its demand-based
procurement system in practice to obtain its merchandise, which includes local and international
suppliers.
Business intelligence in the supply chain helps in improving internal efficiency and
accountability by sating the costs and time through the measurement-based decision making and
change management. The actionable information is provided for making the effective decisions
and it enables the organization for achieving the more effective performance of business
(Theorin, et al., 2017).
IT Strategic role
In business, nowadays information technology plays a crucial role in managing the business
activities in an effective manner. In Woolworths, IT plays a key role in all the business functions
of the organization. Information technology helps in providing business opportunities for growth
and development (Shahabuddin, 2011). IT in Woolworths helps in improving the capability and

developing the new products and services by the help of cloud computing as it is useful for the
process of the business. In the business, cloud computing helps the organization in enabling the
resources which are available for the project development on a daily basis. It helps in providing a
strategic advantage to the organization for the new products and services.
In Woolworths, cloud computing helps in expanding the resources of IT with the change in the
market conditions. Organizations which deal in providing products and services online finds the
difficulty to cope with a surge in traffic, which can lead to business loss. By adding resources
from the cloud, enabling them for responding to changing demand, increasing revenue, and
maintaining customer satisfaction provides a strategic advantage.
Information technology in Woolworths helps to collect and analyze data for gaining a deeper
understanding of customer requirements helps in providing the advantages. With the help of
analyzing the software, organziations are able to develop the feature of customization and
personalizizng communication which helps in increasing the customer satisfaction and building
loyalty (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2014).
Change program
With the implementation of the supply chain management information(SCM) system, various
sets of activities are required to be implemented for improving the process of the supply chain.
For improving and solving the issue of the supply chain requires tracking the delivery of
products. In the process of the supply chain management(SCM) system, the cycle is required to
be followed for the implementation of a new system in an effective manner. It will include the
SDLC for solving the issue of the supply chain in the organization. The change in the software is
required for increasing the control on the phases and to provide the opportunity in order to form
the stages which will help in enhancing for capturing the requirement of change in the project
and reduce the change to lose the data and information. The stages of SDLC are required to be
followed for making effective changes in the organization process. Training is required to be
provided to the operation for managing the information and have control over the stock of the
stores(Minculete and Olar, 2014). In order to deliver the goods on time to customers, the control
of tracking details is required to be entered into the system correctly. For making the change
effectively and successfully implementing the SCM system, the process is required to be

communicated to the employees and training is required to be provided for handling the work in
the system. The change process is required to be considered which will include the factors in the
process of analyzing problems and planning for action. Skill development is required for the
resistance to change make the process difficult. Management control is required for
implementing the change process in an effective manner (Dos Snatos, 2012).
Recommendations
It is recommended to Woolworths for improving the supply chain by figuring out the weakest
department which is related to the supply and it required to make the changes for working more
efficiently. It also requires to optimize the time of supply chain for avoiding the threat which
affects the activities of logistics in the organization. Woolworths is required to pay more
attention to the operations and requires to build an effective relationship with the suppliers.
Woolworths is required to improve the quality of services which includes adopting the effective
strategies and information function in all the business functions (van Hoek, et al., 2015).
Conclusion
In the end, it is analyzed that Woolworths is facing the issue of the supply chain which requires
implementing the supply chain management information system. As the organization is leading
in different markets, the problem of the supply chain is increasing and customers are
complaining that goods are not delivered on time. Business intelligence can be adopted in
managing the supply chain and a cloud-based platform can be adopted for managing the issue of
the supply chain. For gaining competitive advantages, IT plays a major role in adding value with
the help of bringing advance information technology. For solving the problem, the change in the
supply chain is required with the implementation of a supply chain management(SCM)
information system which will include the change in the process from manual to the automation
of the system. The various recommendations are provided to the organization for solving the
problem.

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