The first part of the article describes how large of a company Avon is. They market women in 143 countries, have 3.9 million Representatives, and have a global annual turnover of 6.2 billion. With a market this large, there were wide variations in supply needs, and a complex supply chain. They needed to find a way to become more efficient in the way it dealt with product availability and inventory.
They decided to implement Manugistics NetWORKS across 29 markets and completed it in four months. They had a team of ten delivering training courses across the region in eight languages. Every night Manugistics collected supply chain information such as inventory, future sales demands, transport schedules, and sales history. This gave Avon its distribution and manufacturing plan.
Avon and Manugistics have been working together for two years now and have saved over 20 million. The inventory levels have been reduced by 17% in just six months, and the customer satisfaction had increased to 99.5%, all while reducing costs. .
The Global Supply Management Imperative.
Beyond the textbook definition of GSPM, The Global Supply Management Imperative by Glen Meakem, brings GSPM to top management perspective. It puts GSPM in bottom line terms and illustrates that GSPM is a staple in the market and is here to stay. Now, not only is GSPM a technique but a requirement in profitable capitalism; both domestic and abroad.
GSPM is gaining popularity among management circles for several reasons; globalization has driven firms to compete on several aspects in more than one hemisphere, consolidation (through mergers and acquisitions) has led to a marketplace where only the strong survive (more specifically-those firms with the most efficient supply line), velocity has been increased by numerous technologies, and firms are usurping the historical "make v. buy" option and discovering the benefits of outsourcing.