Supply Chain Retail
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Background Information
Five years ago a 20+ million dollar, 18 month integrated software development effort was undertaken. Meijer foods Inc was (and still is) in a head to head battle with Wal-Mart. The two store chain infrastructures are similar. Meijer believes that because of Wal-Mart's size, it has an economy of scale that allows it to operate approximately 5 percent cheaper. It was stated that Meijer could save a million dollars a day per store if they could cross-dock five percent of their warehouse product.
Existing Process:
The overall software effort became known as the Combo Program. Meijer wanted to tackle three major areas. These areas were: Meijer Integrated distribution System (MIDS), Order Flow to Distribution (OFTD), Meijer Corporate Inventory System (MCIS). These areas needed to be closely coupled and integrated into one smooth flow of ordering, stocking (warehouse and stores), and selling of product
These processes required approximately 100 programmers 18 months to upgrade the existing system. The existing system was doing major portions of the effort and required significant upgrade to make the entire system integrated...