The hottest sales network SCM application case of

General parts company (GPC) is a large group company engaged in auto parts products, industrial supplies, office supplies, electrical and electronic equipment and other products. It is one of the companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange (nyse:gpc) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), It ranked 235th among the "Fortune 500" in the United States in 2002

GPC's sales network

GPC sells a surprising number of various products every year, and its sales business is mainly completed by four sub groups: the auto parts group sells nearly 300000 auto parts products through Napa (National Automotive Parts Association) and other relevant institutions. At present, Napa has become the world's largest distributor of auto parts and auto supplies, with 61 distribution centers, 5800 auto parts chain stores, 10800 chain repair stations, maintenance centers and accident vehicle repair centers in the United States. The standing inventory can provide more than 300000 products for sale. These products make the pendulum return to the middle position, covering the United States, Japan, Germany and other Europe Accessories, maintenance tools and equipment, vehicle maintenance supplies, oil products, chemicals and other accessories of various models produced by other manufacturers in Asia and around the world; Industrial accessories group sells more than 2 million products to various users every year; The office supplies group sells thousands of business and office products through its subsidiary SPR (Charts Company); The electronic and electrical equipment group also has a subsidiary EIS, which sells more than 75000 products. Auto parts and auto supplies are the main products of GPC company

gps sells products such as auto parts and office supplies as follows: GPC is the parent company of rayloc, which owns rayloc merchandising distribution service (RMDS) and is responsible for distributing GPC products from suppliers to sales centers. RMDS has its own transportation fleet and distribution center. It mainly uses the conditions owned by the company to complete sales tasks, and only in rare cases does it rely on the power of third-party units. RMDS has established a number of distribution centers, including the distribution center in Atlanta and the distribution center in Indianapolis, as well as five rayloc sales centers, which provide businesses similar to those in the distribution center. According to the weekly plan, RMDS mainly uses its own transportation tools to complete the given sales tasks

rdms product sales

generally, the transport fleet of RMDS is responsible for distributing the products of the distribution center to one or more GPC sales centers. After the products are delivered to the sales center, the fleet will drive to the next planned supplier or other suppliers to load the products ordered by the customers. After returning to the distribution center, the products will be unloaded to the distribution center, and then the products will be stored in an orderly manner according to the differences of commodity destinations, and appropriate transportation vehicles will be arranged to complete the next transportation business. The fleet also often selects a small number of frequently used products and parts from the sales center, and transports products to suppliers and parts to factories respectively

each GPC sales center should independently manage its own fleet and be independent from the RDMS transportation system. It is responsible for transporting the products of the sales center to specific customers by using computers to realize electronic measurement and automatically complete the compressive strength test

customers (wholesalers and retailers) provide orders to the sales center; According to the list of goods in the order, the sales center selects the goods specified by the customer, organizes transportation vehicles, and loads and transports them. The sales center has two major transportation arrangements every day. If the customer orders early, the goods will be shipped out at noon and delivered to the customer on the same day. If the order is placed late, the vehicle will leave in the afternoon and be delivered to the customer at midnight

during each shipment, the fleet will transport goods from the sales center to multiple customers. Some sales centers (for example, Napa sales centers) sometimes hitchhike to transport a small amount of urgently needed products to retail stores, or even workshops. In the sales center, the use of third-party vehicles is only used when some small commodities need to be transported

sales problems

if we carefully observe GPC's sales network system, we will soon find a large number of problems. The storage of basic products in the warehouse is a very serious problem in GPC sales network system. Here, we naturally consider the following two questions:

GPC has many products, so what kind of products should be stored in each sales center

what is the quantity of each type of product

now GPC has formulated a service standard, that is, GPC promises that the goods ordered by customers will be delivered within 24 hours. For this reason, a huge number of various commodities have to be stored in each sales center. However, this sales method is often used in many industries. It is a classic box sales method of selecting the cross-section of pin presentation samples, which has fallen short of the actual demand

gps many sales centers have very limited product storage capacity. If a certain number of products are selected in a planned way, the sales center may be better advantageous. Therefore, a key problem is to classify and select the inventory products of the sales center

for this reason, the existing sales operation mode of GPC has a lot to be improved:

1) stranded products can be saved in fewer sales centers. When a sales center receives an order from a customer and there is no such product in the product catalog of the sales center, the order can be sent to the sales center with such products in stock, and then the sales center will directly deliver the products to the customers; The sales center can also be represented by a third party unit; Or send the products to the sales center nearest to the customer, and then deliver the products to the customer by the conventional way

2) it is a difficult choice to choose which transportation method, because GPC will maintain the promise of delivering goods to Kunming new airport terminal within 24 hours, which is the world's largest single building with vibration reduction and isolation. One way to solve this problem is to allow customers to choose the delivery time or method according to their actual needs when placing an order, and then the sales center will arrange the delivery according to the customers' choice. For example, when a customer orders a stranded product that is not in the sales center, he can choose to pay to speed up delivery. This is also the sales method commonly used by most Internet retailers today

3) in addition, sometimes GPC's subordinate groups have their own sales centers in the same city. If these sales centers can be organically combined, the transportation cost will be reduced

above, we mentioned the limited inventory of the sales center. This is a problem that many sales centers have to consider. There are two options below:

1) products with high demand are stored in each sales center. However, due to the limitation of the inventory capacity of the sales center, this practice means that the number of other products in the sales center must be reduced

2) products with large demand are only stored in some specific sales centers, and orders for these equipment will be sent to these sales centers. As mentioned above, in this case, it will be difficult to maintain the commitment of 24-hour delivery. However, we now know that many customers do not need to deliver goods within 24 hours, especially for large orders, these customers often prefer low delivery costs, even if the delivery time is longer

problems to be considered

in this case, a large number of problems are related to the optimal design of the sales network. For a sales network, the following issues should be considered:

the number and geographical distribution of sales centers

product list management methods, including the selection of products, supply products and quantity of each sales center

the delivery time of the order is selected by the customer, and the customer can choose different service types

there are still a lot of related problems in product transportation that deserve our study:

how does the company manage its own transportation fleet, such as how many vehicles and what types of vehicles are needed in a fleet; What tasks need to be completed by the company's own fleet and what tasks need to be completed with the help of third-party units; How many distribution centers are needed and how they should be distributed; What kind of transportation standard should be observed (for example, fixed cycle transportation in weeks)

what kind of transportation method should the third-party unit adopt

what kind of third-party unit should intervene in each product delivery; What kind of transportation mode the third-party unit adopts, whether it is less efficient or more efficient than this unit, must be matched. (end)