Manhattan Associates' CEO Eddie Capel Reveals Essential Elements for Commerce-Ready Supply Chains
The two key essentials, ready to sell and ready to execute, build on the theme for Momentum 2014 - Get Commerce-Ready - and complement
"Commerce-ready supply chains are ready to sell and ready to execute any way, anytime, anywhere – all the time," said Capel. "In a market where peaks have become more extreme and cycle times have accelerated, you simply can't build a distribution center that can handle maximum conditions year round. To be operationally and financially viable, networks need to dynamically flex in response to today's changeable demand."
Ready to Sell
To be "ready to sell," enterprises must evolve from just fulfilling products across multiple channels to offering the right products to the right customer at the best margin even before the sale is made.
"When you consider all of the possible points of fulfillment today, the rules for what makes inventory ready to sell have mushroomed," said Capel. "The challenge in today's market is how to differentiate between inventory visibility and inventory availability. If companies wait until after an order is captured to figure out what merchandise makes sense to offer, it's too late."
To help companies optimize decisions on what inventory to sell prior to taking an order, Capel outlined
Ready to Execute
"Ready to execute" supply chains must be scalable, dynamic and incorporate Flexible Fulfillment in order to adapt to market dynamics. Flexible Fulfillment is an approach that helps companies quickly respond to fluctuations in demand and strategically fulfill customer orders from the optimal source – such as a specific distribution center or within the store's existing inventory. This establishes a scalable infrastructure to help supply chains respond to the highly seasonal, highly variable nature of demand; and ultimately get the customer whatever they need, whenever they need it — in a profitable manner.
In the keynote, Capel also demonstrated new tools to help companies create labor productivity gains and retain experienced employees. See today's related release: "Manhattan Associates Showcases Mobile Innovations at Momentum 2014."
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CONTACT:Amber Freeman Manhattan Associates (678) 597.6820 afreeman@manh.com