This newsletter provides information on reverse logistics best practices and trends for Rite Aid. It discusses enhancing their recall form to better track unsaleable inventory. It also summarizes returns auditing efforts to identify hazardous waste and ensure environmental compliance. Additionally, it promotes adopting a continuous improvement philosophy and highlights the importance of reverse logistics data insights for strategic decision making across the entire supply chain.
Beyond Supply Chain Scorecards: New Approaches to Elevating Supplier Responsi...Sustainable Brands
Amy Longsworth, Managing Director, Sustainable Business Solutions, PwC
Amy Hargroves, Director of Corporate Responsibility, Sprint
Is there hope for overcoming supplier survey and scorecard fatigue? Have individual leading companies' custom scorecards worked well to drive supplier sustainability, and is there a clear need to design overarching industry-level standards? What brands and other organizations are best positioned to lead such efforts, and why?
When it comes to sustainability reporting, companies may feel like they’re in an increasingly uncomfortable public-private vice. On one side, consumers and shareholders are pressuring organizations to be better corporate citizens and increase transparency. Governments are establishing more reporting requirements as well, which will inevitably multiply through initiatives such as the recent Sustainable Innovation Forum at COP21.
No matter how you look at it, the call for climate action is coming
in surround sound. Integrated reporting is becoming more and
more mainstream.
The good news is that sustainability programs and reporting can
boost consumer confidence, shareholder esteem — and a company’s bottom line.
Beyond Supply Chain Scorecards: New Approaches to Elevating Supplier Responsi...Sustainable Brands
Amy Longsworth, Managing Director, Sustainable Business Solutions, PwC
Amy Hargroves, Director of Corporate Responsibility, Sprint
Is there hope for overcoming supplier survey and scorecard fatigue? Have individual leading companies' custom scorecards worked well to drive supplier sustainability, and is there a clear need to design overarching industry-level standards? What brands and other organizations are best positioned to lead such efforts, and why?
When it comes to sustainability reporting, companies may feel like they’re in an increasingly uncomfortable public-private vice. On one side, consumers and shareholders are pressuring organizations to be better corporate citizens and increase transparency. Governments are establishing more reporting requirements as well, which will inevitably multiply through initiatives such as the recent Sustainable Innovation Forum at COP21.
No matter how you look at it, the call for climate action is coming
in surround sound. Integrated reporting is becoming more and
more mainstream.
The good news is that sustainability programs and reporting can
boost consumer confidence, shareholder esteem — and a company’s bottom line.
Best Practices in Sustainable Supply Chain Managementijtsrd
Supply chain sustainability refers to the impact a companys supply chain can have on promoting human rights, fair labor practices. There is a growing need to incorporate sustainable options into supply chain management. The growing attention to sustainability is changing the way companies do business. Whether driven by customers, company values or business opportunity, traditional priorities such as quality, efficiency and cost often compete for attention with issues such as working conditions and the environmental impact. Sustainable supply chains capture value chain opportunities and provide early adopters and process innovators with a significant competitive advantage. This study is based on learning the fundamental concepts of sustainable techniques in supply chain management. Ms. Shivani Chandrakant Bhandakkar | Dr. Mahesh Uday Mangaonkar "Best Practices in Sustainable Supply Chain Management" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-7 | Issue-2 , April 2023, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/papers/ijtsrd55060.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/management/operations-management/55060/best-practices-in-sustainable-supply-chain-management/ms-shivani-chandrakant-bhandakkar
How Can You Drive Opportunity If You Cannot Manage Risk?Lora Cecere
Report Details: The research for this report was conducted via an online survey from March 12 - May 11, 2018. Surveys were conducted among 93 respondents -- a mix of business users (manufacturers, wholesalers/distributors/co-operatives, and third-party logistics providers, n=34), vendors (software providers and consultants, n=39), and others (academics, analysts, unemployed, and others, n=20).
Objective: To understand the current and expected future state of supply chain risk management, the biggest drivers of risk, and the impact on supply chain disruptions. NOTE: supply chain risk management is defined as the proactive identification and assessment of potential risks to the supply chain, as well as the development of strategies to avoid these risks.
Highlight: Nearly two-thirds of respondents believe that their company performs better today on risk management practices than five years ago yet they had 3.5 disruptions last year on average. Managing risk requires a network approach. Today’s investments in end-to-end supply chain are by and large not effective in risk mitigation. Only 37% have visibility of extended-tier suppliers and most lack the solutions to manage global complexity.
Business must be the major driver of innovation and sustainability in our society if we are to avoid a “perfect storm” of resource scarcity, climate change, and pollution. The “triple bottom line” concept is a response to this need, but its use is limited because it does not address the competitive strategy of the firm. A strategy-based balanced scorecard system aligned with principles of the Triple Bottom Line offers a way to accomplish social and environmental goals while integrating them fully with financial performance and competitive advantage.
What is supply chain management programBrijesh Kandu
The Supply Chain Management Program integrates topics from manufacturing operations, purchasing, transportation, and physical distribution into a unified program. Successful supplychain management, then, coordinates and integrates all of these activities into a seamless process.
Inventory Optimization in a Market-Driven World - 27 APR 2015Lora Cecere
Executive Overview
Growth is slowing and the complexity in today’s supply chain is unprecedented. As a result, within a company, inventory management is often a hot issue. Shrinking inventory spins off a one-time, and highly desirable, cash windfall. In most industries there is a connection between market capitalization and inventory management. This drives pressure to reduce inventory and question existing practices. However, while companies are quick to ask questions, they often make the wrong judgements about inventory strategies. The goal of this report is to improve this dialogue.
Most companies have invested in many inventory optimization solutions over the last decade. Within the company, there is mounting frustration about the failure of these projects to actualize and maintain targets. What most companies fail to realize is that the technology strategy needs to be worked in concert with supply chain strategy. Often we find while companies improve inventory levels through the deployment of inventory technologies, operational decisions to widen the item master or lengthen the supply chain will undermine the project targets.
There are many drivers of inventory, and the management of inventory levels requires discipline and a cross-functional focus. It is a story of people, process, and technology. Let’s start with people. Today, fewer than 5% of companies have an end-to-end focus (as defined from the customer’s customer to the supplier’s supplier), and most companies lack alignment and balance. The largest gaps between are between operational and commercial groups. (Cecere L. , Three Techniques to Improve Organizational Alignment, 2013). As companies close the organizational gap, progress is made on inventory. Likewise, when it comes to balance, 68% of organizations surveyed lack balance in Sales and Operations Planning between the commercial groups (the “S”) and the operational groups (the “OP), When balance is achieved, the organization rates itself as more agile, and aligned, and there is an 11% improvement in inventory turns (Cecere L. , Research in Review, 2014).
Supply chain processes are now over 30-years old. While there is a generalized belief that maturity of supply chain processes has improved inventory turns, as can be seen in Figure 2, the improvements in cash-to-cash have primarily been driven by lengthening payables. In industries like beverage, pharmaceuticals, consumer packaged goods and medical device, the industry averages have gone backwards (inventory turns have decreased not increased). Only the food and apparel industries have posted double-digit improvements in inventory turns. Why? Food and apparel are largely regional supply chains which are maturing. They lag consumer packaged goods in supply chain maturity. While consumer packaged goods companies are more mature, they are more global. The rise of the global multinational has greatly impacted inventory requirements.
Orchestrating a Supply Chain Competitive EdgeCognizant
An effective supply chain is the key to creating business value. This paper will help you benchmark your performance today and take a methodical organizational approach to improving your supply chain effectiveness.
Ahead of the marcus evans National Healthcare CFO Summit Fall 2019, read here an interview with Joni Noel discussing how healthcare CFOs can ensure their health system is compliant with the new lease accounting standard under ASC 842 or GASB 87
Sustainability Reporting: Definition, Benefits, And Challenges | Enterprise W...Enterprise Wired
Sustainability reporting has emerged as a critical tool for organizations to transparently communicate their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.
Best Practices in Sustainable Supply Chain Managementijtsrd
Supply chain sustainability refers to the impact a companys supply chain can have on promoting human rights, fair labor practices. There is a growing need to incorporate sustainable options into supply chain management. The growing attention to sustainability is changing the way companies do business. Whether driven by customers, company values or business opportunity, traditional priorities such as quality, efficiency and cost often compete for attention with issues such as working conditions and the environmental impact. Sustainable supply chains capture value chain opportunities and provide early adopters and process innovators with a significant competitive advantage. This study is based on learning the fundamental concepts of sustainable techniques in supply chain management. Ms. Shivani Chandrakant Bhandakkar | Dr. Mahesh Uday Mangaonkar "Best Practices in Sustainable Supply Chain Management" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-7 | Issue-2 , April 2023, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/papers/ijtsrd55060.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/management/operations-management/55060/best-practices-in-sustainable-supply-chain-management/ms-shivani-chandrakant-bhandakkar
How Can You Drive Opportunity If You Cannot Manage Risk?Lora Cecere
Report Details: The research for this report was conducted via an online survey from March 12 - May 11, 2018. Surveys were conducted among 93 respondents -- a mix of business users (manufacturers, wholesalers/distributors/co-operatives, and third-party logistics providers, n=34), vendors (software providers and consultants, n=39), and others (academics, analysts, unemployed, and others, n=20).
Objective: To understand the current and expected future state of supply chain risk management, the biggest drivers of risk, and the impact on supply chain disruptions. NOTE: supply chain risk management is defined as the proactive identification and assessment of potential risks to the supply chain, as well as the development of strategies to avoid these risks.
Highlight: Nearly two-thirds of respondents believe that their company performs better today on risk management practices than five years ago yet they had 3.5 disruptions last year on average. Managing risk requires a network approach. Today’s investments in end-to-end supply chain are by and large not effective in risk mitigation. Only 37% have visibility of extended-tier suppliers and most lack the solutions to manage global complexity.
Business must be the major driver of innovation and sustainability in our society if we are to avoid a “perfect storm” of resource scarcity, climate change, and pollution. The “triple bottom line” concept is a response to this need, but its use is limited because it does not address the competitive strategy of the firm. A strategy-based balanced scorecard system aligned with principles of the Triple Bottom Line offers a way to accomplish social and environmental goals while integrating them fully with financial performance and competitive advantage.
What is supply chain management programBrijesh Kandu
The Supply Chain Management Program integrates topics from manufacturing operations, purchasing, transportation, and physical distribution into a unified program. Successful supplychain management, then, coordinates and integrates all of these activities into a seamless process.
Inventory Optimization in a Market-Driven World - 27 APR 2015Lora Cecere
Executive Overview
Growth is slowing and the complexity in today’s supply chain is unprecedented. As a result, within a company, inventory management is often a hot issue. Shrinking inventory spins off a one-time, and highly desirable, cash windfall. In most industries there is a connection between market capitalization and inventory management. This drives pressure to reduce inventory and question existing practices. However, while companies are quick to ask questions, they often make the wrong judgements about inventory strategies. The goal of this report is to improve this dialogue.
Most companies have invested in many inventory optimization solutions over the last decade. Within the company, there is mounting frustration about the failure of these projects to actualize and maintain targets. What most companies fail to realize is that the technology strategy needs to be worked in concert with supply chain strategy. Often we find while companies improve inventory levels through the deployment of inventory technologies, operational decisions to widen the item master or lengthen the supply chain will undermine the project targets.
There are many drivers of inventory, and the management of inventory levels requires discipline and a cross-functional focus. It is a story of people, process, and technology. Let’s start with people. Today, fewer than 5% of companies have an end-to-end focus (as defined from the customer’s customer to the supplier’s supplier), and most companies lack alignment and balance. The largest gaps between are between operational and commercial groups. (Cecere L. , Three Techniques to Improve Organizational Alignment, 2013). As companies close the organizational gap, progress is made on inventory. Likewise, when it comes to balance, 68% of organizations surveyed lack balance in Sales and Operations Planning between the commercial groups (the “S”) and the operational groups (the “OP), When balance is achieved, the organization rates itself as more agile, and aligned, and there is an 11% improvement in inventory turns (Cecere L. , Research in Review, 2014).
Supply chain processes are now over 30-years old. While there is a generalized belief that maturity of supply chain processes has improved inventory turns, as can be seen in Figure 2, the improvements in cash-to-cash have primarily been driven by lengthening payables. In industries like beverage, pharmaceuticals, consumer packaged goods and medical device, the industry averages have gone backwards (inventory turns have decreased not increased). Only the food and apparel industries have posted double-digit improvements in inventory turns. Why? Food and apparel are largely regional supply chains which are maturing. They lag consumer packaged goods in supply chain maturity. While consumer packaged goods companies are more mature, they are more global. The rise of the global multinational has greatly impacted inventory requirements.
Orchestrating a Supply Chain Competitive EdgeCognizant
An effective supply chain is the key to creating business value. This paper will help you benchmark your performance today and take a methodical organizational approach to improving your supply chain effectiveness.
Ahead of the marcus evans National Healthcare CFO Summit Fall 2019, read here an interview with Joni Noel discussing how healthcare CFOs can ensure their health system is compliant with the new lease accounting standard under ASC 842 or GASB 87
Sustainability Reporting: Definition, Benefits, And Challenges | Enterprise W...Enterprise Wired
Sustainability reporting has emerged as a critical tool for organizations to transparently communicate their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.
1. Our goal: To provide reverse supply chain news and information, and intelligence based on industry
trends and downstream observations to help you make decisions to maximize value across Rite Aid.
RITE AID SUPPLY CHAIN QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER FOCUSED ON REVERSE
LOGISTICS INTELLIGENCE AND BEST PRACTICES
Reverse Logistics Herald
FY 2016
QTR 1
Returns Auditing: Achieving Sustainability
By Russ Ripsom, Jafar Musheer, Brenda Munday, Kirsten Orner, Returns Auditors
By Jessica Bryner, Mgr, Inventory Control
Enhanced Recall
Disposition (DA)
Form Update
The Impact of Unsaleables
In the last edition of the Herald, we reported
on a new recall disposition, or DA form, used
to determine what happens to merchandise
for inventory if the product will no longer
be carried. After consulting with Category
Managers and Associate Category Managers,
feedback was gathered to make additional
enhancements. During the week of Feb. 23,
two training classes were held for the form’s
primary users, to demonstrate the form’s
new functionality, such as drop-down boxes
and conditional formatting.
Use of the new recall form began on March
2. Previous forms that have already been
sent out to vendors for signatures will be ac-
cepted until April 1. After this time, only the
new form will be accepted unless otherwise
discussed with Jessica Bryner. Continuous
support will be provided to the Category
Management team while they adopt the new
form.
Front-End Returns Trends
Metric Focus:
Returns volume trends can tell a lot
about a company’s overall health.
Damaged, outdated and recall
product returns produce cost, such as
handling, and also represent missed
opportunities to capture primary
retail value – even when Rite Aid is
reimbursed for the cost of the product
itself.
Rite Aid’s returns were 3% higher in Q4
than in the prior year, representing a
YOY quarterly increase for the second
straight quarter. This was primarily
driven by increased seasonal recall
activity. Despite the increase, riding a
very strong first half, Rite Aid finished
FY 2015 with a 12% reduction in total
returns from the prior year.
Total value of product returns
$80,000
Q1
$71,724
$62,664
Q2
$59,575
$51,395 $71,755
Q3
$68,232
Q4
$55,002
$70,000
$60,000
$50,000
$40,000
$30,000
$20,000
FY 2014
$10,000
FY 2015
(THOUSANDS)
$56,740
In today’s heightened regulatory environment, the
execution and control of a chain-wide Environmental
Hazardous Waste Management Program has become
a priority at Rite Aid Corporation. This program has
redefined how end-of-product life cycle is managed
and has placed an increased emphasis on the
detection and handling of unsaleable waste products.
To achieve a waste-free, sustainable supply chain,
our Reverse Logistics Auditing team works to identify
and report potential waste products from Front End
Store Damaged and Outdated (D&O) returns. These
daily audits are performed at the three Rite Aid Inmar
returns facilities.
The audits’ objective is to identify and categorize
unsaleable waste products. If a potential waste item
is identified during an audit, it must be
verified as a hazardous waste in the
WERCs safety data management system.
The auditor then records the transfer
box and store number, product type
and condition, comments and calculated
violation totals in a reporting application
developed by the Returns team.
This reporting application has increased
accuracy and communication efficiency
and has driven cost savings by reducing
data entry time. The information,
including summary statistics and key
performance metrics, is distributed
for further analysis to the Rite Aid
Supply Chain Senior Leadership team,
Risk Management, Legal Counsel and
Environmental Health & Safety.
Hazardous Waste Returns auditing
has proven vital to the Environmental
Hazardous Waste Management Program,
which continues to be a core competency
at Rite Aid, and demonstrates an industry-
leading strategy of environmental
stewardship and Corporate Social
Responsibility.
Left to right: Returns Auditors Russ Ripsom, Jafar Musheer,
Brenda Munday, Kirsten Orner.
2. When you think of reverse logistics and sus-
tainability, the first image that comes to mind
is probably pallets piled high with returned,
unsaleable product cluttering up the ware-
house, and the mountain of trash they’ll make
in a landfill. Fair enough, but does the board-
room come to mind? It should.
Sustainability and reverse logistics are directly
connected to the bottom line – but not just
for cost-reduction efforts, as is too often the
case. That’s far too narrow a view. Three-
fourths of public company directors believe
that sustainability management has a signif-
icant impact on business performance and
innovation, with two-thirds indicating their
belief it should come under the board’s pur-
view, according to a 2013 Deloitte study.
However, less than 8 percent of respondents
in that study said they believe companies are
managing sustainability resources effectively.
Resource and energy management, oper-
ational efficiency and cost reduction are
all high-level corporate objectives, not just
mid-level efficiency enhancements. Supply
chain costs associated with Reverse Logistics
are as much as 10% of the cost of goods and
product returns approach $300 billion. That
warrants boardroom attention.
Cost reduction/revenue optimization
Rigorous data collection at every point in the
supply chain (forward and reverse) reveals
opportunities to optimize product yield, and
is especially key to reducing returns.
The insight from such data can present im-
provement opportunities in packaging and
shipping, inventory management, replenish-
ment planning, merchandising and rotation
practices and product assortment.
Risk mitigation
Regulatory agencies constantly expand
scope, states are more involved, and even
county governments are writing their own
ordinances regulating the handling of
hazardous materials. Full visibility of practices
throughout your supply chain, coupled with
full regulatory knowledge, is the one of best
protections you can have against massive
fines.
Competitive differentiation
One major differentiation opportunity is col-
laborative, transparent trading-partner rela-
tionships. It’s crucial to view your trading part-
ners as part of one supply-chain continuum.
Data insight is available everywhere in reverse
logistics and sustainability, if you look for it.
Returns, supply chain/product performance,
causal data, competitor and secondary mar-
kets, benchmarking, inventory and OSA, cou-
pons/promotions, sales and shopper data are
all key bottom-line influencers that warrant
boardroom awareness.
The supply chain environment is dynamic and
challenging these days. Capturing the right
data, applying good analytics and executing
on insight can take you from “just keeping
up” to high performance. Good insight can
tie directly to increased sales, reduced costs,
better shopper engagement, reduced returns
and better prospects for new-product suc-
cess. Those successes are a joy to report in
the boardroom.
Best Practices: Thought Leadership
Reverse Logistics and Sustainability
are Boardroom Issues, Not Just
Back-Room Issues
Over the last few months, you may have
heard that Rite Aid’s Supply Chain has
been engaged in launching kaizen process
improvement programs at DCs and Corpo-
rate. But what exactly is kaizen? The word
kaizen is Japanese for “improvement” or
“change for the best.” The concepts have
been around since the invention of the
wheel, but the philosophy was formalized
by Toyota production. In short, kaizen is a
system involving participation focused on
making small improvements on a regular
basis.
A kaizen event, or project, has a defined
goal and usually takes focus anywhere
from a few hours up to a week depending
on the scope of the problem and benefit
of the improvement. The team receives
an overview of Lean Six Sigma concepts
and tools, and applies them immediately
toward solving the problem. Much of the
activity centers around identifying process
waste via direct observation.
The process forces action. If there are con-
flicting or uncertain improvement ideas,
the team is encouraged to “trystorm,” or
test the ideas in practice.
A team is assembled in advance, including
people who do the work on a daily basis,
as well as outsiders to add perspective.
This is a great development opportunity
for high-potential individuals. Diversity of
background and thought are important to
a balanced, honest identification of prob-
lems and solutions. Most importantly,
while a trained facilitator guides the team
through the process, he or she does not
solve the problem for the team. The team
comes up with ideas and implements
them. This approach greatly increases
associate engagement, ownership of the
work, and the likelihood that changes will
be sustained.
Continuous Improvement
An Introduction
to Kaizen
Your Logistics Partner
Inmar is a technology company that operates intelligent commerce networks. Founded in 1980,
Inmar is headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC, with locations throughout the United States,
Mexico and Canada.
Mike Barbato, Consultant, Client Solutions & Analytics, represents Inmar full-time at Rite Aid,
interfacing with Rite Aid’s teams to optimize the reverse supply chain and leverage Inmar intelli-
gence to enhance Rite Aid’s business.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Michael.J.Barbato@riteaid.com