Asda Supply Chain Analysis

Asda has more than 500 stores across UK and thus implementation of IT in integration of its supply chain is very important. Today companies are not considered independent entities, but parts of a multi company, multi echleon networks (Christopher, 1992; Lambert & Cooper, 2000). The use of IT is a quintessential requirement for the management of these networks and improves the experience of all the related stakeholders to a great deal. Below are the ways in which IT assists in integration:

- Transaction Processing: PoS software helps to aid a faster transaction processing. This PoS software is coupled with the barcode scanner which reads the barcodes of purchased products for information like price, manufacture date etc.

- Supply chain planning:

The information sharing is referred to ability of company in order to knowledge systems of supply chain partners in effective and efficient way (Rajab Zadeh et al, 2010). Vendor management is done online rather than face to face. The entire procurement process is automated with minimal manual intervention. Order processing applications have dramatically reduced the costs of placing orders. Inventory management softwares have ensured a real time communication of stock outs to vendors and customers, thereby decreasing lead times. Logistics is aided by IT and this has helped to manage the transportation costs by tracking the shipments. CRM is handled by IT and thus the huge database of customer information assists the management information systems to take appropriate decisions depending on buying patterns. Thus IT has helped a lot in making the operations lean and

Even if the SCM is perfectly alright, a glitch in the logistics can delay the delivery of a product and make the customer dissatisfied. Due to rising inventory costs, the management of logistics is critical to keep the operations lean. Logistics in Asda constitutes of shipping of inbound goods and products from vendors, and outbound products to customers. Asda knows that it can leverage marketplace advantage through superior logistics performance. Both forward and reverse logistics have to be efficient enough to handle volumes while not compromising on time. The focus on logistics helps Asda utilize the supply chain more efficiently by cutting costs when needed and avoiding wastage of time and goods.

Being a retail business, Asda has to keep sufficient inventories stocked up for goods and products. However, due to implementation of ERP and vendor management modules, this has become more efficient. Vendor negotiation and order placement happens online which saves cost and time that a face to face meeting would take. Vendor payments are also disbursed online which makes it cost effective. Thus, Asda heavily relies on an efficient purchase-to-pay process and has adopted mechanisms and strategies to get the highest benefits from information