《供应链管理》第四组作业(2).doc

Case：7-Eleven: A Convenience StoreWith more than 17,000 stores in more than 20 countries, 7-Eleven is one of the largest convenience store chains in the world. It has more than 7,000 stores in Japan and almost 5,000 in the United States. Its growth in Japan has been phenomenal, given that the first 7-Eleven store opened in Japan in 1974. 7-Eleven Japan is one of the most profitable companies listed on the Tokyo stock exchange. It has been tremendous growth in sales and profitability while simultaneously decreasing its inventory relative to sales. 7-Eleven Japans success is attributed primarily to its supply chain design and management ability.A key reason for its success is 7-Elevens efforts to obtain a strategic fit between its competitive strategy and its location, transportation, inventory, and information strategy in the supply chain.7-Eleven aims to provide customers with what they want, when they want it. Form a strategic perspective, one of the companys key objectives is to micro-match supply and demand by location, season, and time of day.7-Eleven designs and manages location, inventory, transportation, and information to support this objective. 7-Eleven follows a dominant location strategy and opens new stores in target areas to establish or enhance a strong presence. In Japan, for example, 7-Eleven stores are present in less than half of the prefectures (roughly equivalent to a county in the United States). However, 7-Eleven has a strong presence, with several stores, in each prefecture where they are located. In the United States, 7-Eleven stores were not as concentrated prior t0 1994. Between 1994 and 1997, 7-Eleven closed several of its stores in isolated locations. Today, the company targets new stores in areas that already have a strong 7-Eleven presence. This strategy is consistent with the location strategy in Japan. This dominant location strategy allows the company the benefits of consolidation in both warehousing and transportation.In Japan, fresh food constitutes a significant percentage of 7-Elevens sales. Most of the fresh food is cooked off site and delivered to the stores. In Japan, a store placing an order by 10 A.M. has it delivered by dinnertime the same day. There are at least three fresh food deliveries a day per store so that the stock can change for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. All stores are electronically connected to the head office, distribution centers (DCs), and suppliers. All store orders are passed on to the suppliers who package store-specific orders and deliver them to the DC. All the DC, all orders of like products (categorized by temperature at which they are maintained) from different suppliers are combined and delivered to the stores. Each delivery truck delivers to more than once store and tries to visit stores during the off-peak hours. 7-Eleven Japan has made an effort to have no direct store delivery from vendors to the stores. Rather, all deliveries pass through and are aggregated at a 7-Eleven DC from which they are shipped to the stores. Note that the location strategy helps facilitate this supply strategy. In the United States, 7-Eleven is taking a similar approach to the one used in Japan. Fresh foods are being introduced into the stores. 7-Eleven has once again decided to avoid on-site cooking by having suppliers that cook the fresh foods for them. These foods are then delivered to the stores on a daily basis: In the United States, 7-Eleven has tried to replicate the Japanese model with combined DCs where product is received from suppliers and then shipped to the stores. The success of this strategy is reflected by the improved performance of 7-Eleven in the United States.In both Japan and the United States, 7-Eleven has invested a lot of money and effort on a retail information system. Scan data are collected and analyzed. The resulting information is then made available to the stores for use in ordering, product assortment, and merchandising. 7-Eleven uses this information system to identify slow-moving items and to analyze the performance of new products. Information systems play a key role in 7-EIeves ability to micro-match supply and demand.7-Eleven has made clear choices in the design of its supply chain. Other convenience store chains have not always made the same choices. We can ask a variety of questions, listed next, regarding 7-Elevens supply chain choices and its key success factors.1. What factors influence the decision regarding the opening and closing of stores? Why does 7-Eleven choose to have a preponderance of its stores in a particular location?2. Why has 7-Eleven chosen off-site preparation of fresh foods and subsequent delivery to stores?3. Why does 7-Eleven discourage direct store delivery from vendors and make an effort to move all products through combined distribution centers?统一配送，减少配送车辆，减少批发商过多现象汇总配送是7-11公司独具特色的配送体制。日本的流通实行的是通过由生产厂家指定批发商进货的“特约批发制度”，同样的商品因厂家不同，特约批发商也不同。所以，若配齐许多厂家的商品就要由各个不同的配送渠道和配送车辆进行配送交货，从而增加配送车辆。为解决这一问题，7-11公司采取了汇总配送的方法，即将过去由各个批发商负责的某种商品的大配送地区分割为各个批发商的配送区域，把过去由其他批发商经营的生产厂家的商品也汇总其中，某一批发商负责对所在地区内所有商店的配送，从而增加了对每一商店的配送数量，减少了商店的接货次数，提高了运输效率。由于配送地区缩小，也能缩短配送距离和配送时间。 建立共同配送中心是生产商和批发商共同投资建立配送中心，共同使用和参与经营。生产厂家和批发商将配送业务和管理权委托给共同配送中心。7-11公司共同参与经营的厂家和批发商密切协作，在充分协商并征得同意后，以地区集中建店和信息网络为基础，创建自己独立的系统。此外7-11公司还提供联机接受订货系统和自动分货系统，协助配送中心实现系统化和高效化。 4. Where are distribution centers located and how many stores does each center serve? How are stores assigned to distribution centers?5. Why does 7-Eleven combine fresh food shipments b