Supply Chain Management Case Study Zappos

Decent Essays
Question 1 Summary of Zappos Zappos is a fast-delivery, online shoe retailer with an emphasis on customer satisfaction. The company was founded in the late 90 's and found to experience a good amount of growth through "word-of-mouth". Zappos took pride in a company culture that provided the customer with a personal experience. They had a very intensive hiring process to ensure the culture remained passionate about service. Although Zappos experienced a high amount of growth, when the economy took a turn, Zappos needed to carefully look into their supply chain systems. In the SCOR model, Zappos was experiencing issues under the "delivery" stage and was looking to quickly make changes. Zappos quickly noticed they needed to take a look …show more content…
In the Zappos case, the majority of issues were centered around the "delivery" phase of the SCOR model. In an economic downturn, it 's essential to look at key performance indicators to determine their next move. Ideally, according the SCOR model, a high degree of planning can lead to an efficient supply chain model. In the Wal-Mart case, the issues occurred in the "source" phase and in the supplier "delivery" phase. AS mentioned earlier, Wal-Mart will need to strategically decide their next steps based on what they value more in company performance (product availability or distribution …show more content…
Assuming ERP systems are also in play, all the channels could be in sync to understand when their processes should begin. Referencing back to the SCOR model, Suppliers would immediately know when to deliver to the company, the company would be able to communicate back to all channels the level of demand and what is needed from the suppliers. At the same time, product availability would be incredibly high, with all channels understanding their point in the model. But, in my opinion, as long as man-power is needed (i.e. Stockers at Wal-Mart), the process from beginning to end will always have some discrepancies on keeping inventory high and getting the product to the shelves. RFID tags will help notify all parts of the supply chain process and help with inventory management, but at the end of the day, the product still needs to be on the shelf to be available for the

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