The Most Important Time of the Year for Supply Chain Managers

As the holidays are approaching, so is one of the most demanding times of the year for supply chain managers. For retailers, during the holiday season, the importance of getting their shipments and orders quickly is crucial to the success of their business during this time of year.

Global supply chain leader Roddy Martin, attests that the holiday season is one of the largest challenges supply chain managers in retail face. For satisfied holiday customers the minimum needed for success is on-time deliveries, not to mention extreme weather and the abnormally large amount of supplies moving through the same framework (Hudson).

His recommendation for cooperation’s is to begin starting planning for the following season on the tail end of the previous. In February is when he believes that companies should begin developing their plan for the upcoming season, and talking to merchandisers to find out what products they will be releasing, and decide what are going to be hot sellers.

Many companies have to internally re-construct their supply chain models and systems, to keep up with the holiday season and all that it demands. As Green Mountain Coffee Roasters grows as a cooperation, its supply chain system has evolved specifically to keep up with holiday sales. The company doubles their sales during the months of November, December, and January. The companies prior system was ordering product when it was needed, but for the upcoming holiday season they have incorporated a production planning software that will eliminate much of the stress that the urgent and last minute orders put on the supply chain managers to keep up with costumer demands while maintaining profits.

-Kenzie Miller

Work Cited

Hudson, Scott. “Supply Chain Management During the Holidays - SCM | Supply Chain Resource
Cooperative (SCRC).” Supply Chain Management During the Holidays - SCM | Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) | North Carolina State University, (SCRC) Supply Chain Resource Cooperative | Poole College of Management | NC State University, 6 Dec. 2004, scm.ncsu.edu/scm-articles/article/supply-chain-management-during-the-holidays.