#Pallet dock cuts off formz issues full
“Don’t Touch”Īnd most of the items in Costco are handled on a full pallet basis. Costco operates depots which become the cross docking transfer points for all of their goods to go directly to the stores. Particularly for seasonal goods, and other items, there is no replenishment required at all: a store receives all the goods that they are going to get and when they are gone they are gone.įewer SKUs and suppliers mean less complicated logistics. There is less forecasting and replenishment activity. There are fewer suppliers which means fewer negotiations, contracts, purchase orders and changes. They can hire exceptional people in this area and they can micromanage the small number of SKUs with great efficiency. This gives Costco an enormous advantage throughout ever aspect of the Supply Chain.Ī low SKU count means fewer Merchants and Category Managers are required. ONLY 3700! That includes a mix of standard items and custom, or seasonal, items. And anyone in Supply Chain knows that every single one of those SKUs needs to be managed, ordered, move and handled.Ĭostco only carries 3700 SKUs per store on average. Many retailers easily carry tens of thousands of SKUs. A store like Walmart typically carries over 100,000 SKUs in a single store. Let’s start off discussing SKU count, in store not online. As such we wrote The Hidden Complexity of the Retail Supply Chain to share some of these experiences. The typical consumer has no idea what really goes on behind the scenes to get that item on your store shelf or delivered to your front door. Having worked at a Retailer myself I have first hand knowledge of the challenges there can be in running a Retail Supply Chain. What is it that makes Costco’s Supply Chain so effective? High ceilings, rows and rows of pallet racking, and concrete floors.Īt its core the Costco business structure is a great example of a lot of Supply Chain principles implemented with great efficiency. When you consider the physical layout of the store you are really walking through a warehouse.
And the standard items are invariably great deals, even if the quantities are larger than you will find in other stores. Stereotypically I almost always buy more than I intended given the unique things that you find in their aisles. I started thinking about the Costco Supply Chain. To begin I must admit that Costco is one of my favourite stores.
0 kommentar(er)
