• Cost Reduction
• Higher Productivity
• New product/ Market Strategies
Typical supply chain as in case of Tesco can be split into 2 subchains. The first can be called as movement supply chain. This involves movement of raw material from suppliers to the company shop floor, cross functional movement of work in progress goods and the final movement of finished goods from warehouse to the retail stores. The other part of the supply chain is forward and backward information flow. The later subchain of information flow is rather more complex than the forward movement of the product from assembly line to the final retailing stage because of the integration of the multiple parties involved in the entire supply chain. Critical issue is of providing the right information at the right time at each stage of the supply chain, failure of which leads to passage of erroneous information across the supply chain which gets cascaded at each level. [King, J. (2000)]
Also the use of strong IT infrastructure and advanced software services have helped Tesco in identifying the usage patterns of the end customers and has aided in developing a strong loyal customer base. This has helped in accurate demand forecasting, low inventory levels and an efficient production scheduling.
Some of the advanced technological developments happening across different industries can be listed below