DST Asks: Do You Sell from Inventory Locations that are Not Your Own or Are You Making Plans To?
The old maxim “You can’t sell from an empty shelf” has become outdated. Why? Because technology can ensure that shelves are never bare, at least from the customer’s standpoint, with the advent of the Virtual Inventory Network (VIN) — a term coined by DST to encompass B2B, B2C, and Peer-to-Peer e-commerce. A VIN, also sometimes referred to as a Virtual Sales Network, can provide leverage and cohesiveness of shared inventory across multiple trading partners both up and down and across the supply chain.
Defining Your Process Model
In our last article we identified seven critical attributes of the process enterprise. Starting today, we’ll spend several weeks exploring some of the practical issues involved in bringing these key attributes to your own organization.
DST Asks: Do You Support Vendor Managed Inventory as a Business Practice?
“The Right Goods at the Right Price in the Right Place at the Right Time…”
DST Asks: Where Do Your Profits Come From — Products or Customers?
Last week we asked: Internally does your current computerized business system provide comprehensive data for managing stocking decisions? This question begs another related question: Where do you make your profits, from your products or from your customers?
Defining The Process Enterprise
In this week’s article we’ll deal with a fundamental question: What is a “process enterprise” and how does it differ from the kind of enterprise most of us are living in today?
DST Asks: Can Your Business Measure Return on Customer Investment?
Although most businesses have the means for measuring their Return On Investment, DST has coined the term Return on Customer Investment as a more accurate method of determining profitability of the customer base. Many firms believe that their largest customers, or the ones they have been supplying for the longest time, are the most profitable ones, but access to pertinent data can contradict those assumptions.
DST Asks: What Value Do You See in Sharing Detailed Sales Data?
An ongoing dilemma exists between all tiers of the supply chain due to the gulf caused by lack of collaboration and sharing of sales information that would ultimately benefit all — manufacturers, distributors, parts retailers and service providers. Where do you stand on these issues? Our objective is to generate the thought and dialogue that might provide energy to new initiatives. See our special offer at the end of this week’s column!
Final Deadline for AASA Top Suppliers List — Friday, March 5
The final deadline to submit information for the 2004 Top Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers List is quickly approaching. Information for this free listing must be submitted by Friday, March 5. Published by Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA), the aftermarket segment of the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA), and produced by Babcox Publications, this multi-page, full-color publication will be distributed with the May issue of Counterman magazine, which reaches more than 50,000 automotive aftermarket parts distribution professionals every month.
DST Asks: Do You Get Everything You Need from Your Current Computer System?
The database engine is the foundation of a computerized business system, used to abstract very specific sorts of information about your business and organize it in a way that will prove useful. The database should ultimately be viewed as a representation or model of the business.
“DST Asks” Parts Distributors: Which Features of a Computerized Business Management System are Most Useful to Your Business?
Our youngest readers may not be able to remember that there was a time before remote control technology when changing the channel on your television actually required getting up off the couch and making the long walk over to it. “Channel surfing” only existed when you could get one of your kids to sit next to the TV and turn the dial for you. Life was brutal then.