Seven Eleven Case
1. What are different ways that a convenience supply chain store can be responsive? What are the risks involved?
A convenience supply chain store can be responsive in a variety of ways but the condition is that these ways must be implemented with extreme care and after evaluation. For example they can be responsive by investing in their distribution and information systems. By enhancing these two systems they can be more responsive towards their customers and their needs. Moreover such stores can be more responsive by developing their franchise network. Additionally the network expansion policy should be based on market dominance strategy. In this way they can reap the benefits such as increased distribution efficiency, boosted system efficiency, prohibiting competitors to enter in the area where they dominate, increased brand awareness, enhanced services of stores and enhanced effectiveness of advertisements of the brand. Eventually all these will make a supply chain store a better responsive towards its customers and this in turn will increase sales and market share. There are certain risks that are involved like in case of franchise network there may be increased density of stores in the area where already many stores are. So this will lead to affect sales. Because if there is a cluster of stores in a single area than the customers of the other areas may not be covered. So they should manage their franchise network in a way that it captures all areas equally well.
2. Seven Eleven’s supply chain strategy in Japan can be described as attempting to micro match supply and demand using rapid replenishment. What are risks associated with this choice?
Though Seven Eleven’s supplychain strategy focused on expanding franchise network in areas with already existing stores. Their strategy emphasized on enhancing supply of their products through their stores but in the areas where they examined the demand already existed. This strategy was beneficial up to some extent but this limited their presence within some areas in Japan. The risks associated with this strategy are that the customers outside those specific areascannot be covered. They strategy makes them responsive to only some particular areas. They focused on concentrating stores in some specific areas where they already analyzed demand. But due to this they did not pay attention towards the demand that existed in other areas outside those particular areas and outside Japan as well. They kept their existing customers towards them through this but this choice affected the sales.
3. What has Seven Eleven done in its choice of facility location, inventory management, transportation, and information infrastructure to develop capabilities that support its supply chain strategy in Japan?
Seven Eleven used advanced information technology to simplify its operations. Its success is attributed to its information infrastructure in Japan. This