Indian Organised Apparel Retail Sector and DSS (Decision Support Systems)

Indian apparel retail sector poses interesting challenges to a manager as it is evolving and closely linked to fashions. Appealing mainly to youth, the sector has typical information requirements to manage its operations. DSS (Decision Support Systems) provide timely and accurate information & it can be viewed as an integrated entity providing management with the tools and information to assist their decision making. The study exploratory in nature, adopts a case study approach to understand practices of organized retailers in apparel sector regarding applications of various DSS tools. Conceptual overview of DSS is undertaken by reviewing the literature. The study describes practices and usage of DSS in operational decisions in apparel sector and managerial issues in design and implementation of DSS. A multi brand local chain and multi brand national chain of apparel was chosen for the study. Varied tools were found to be used by them. It was also found that for sales forecasting and visual merchandising decisions, prior experience rather than any DSS tool was used. The benefits realized were; “help as diagnostic tool”, “accuracy of records and in billing”, “smooth operations”. The implementation issues highlighted by the store managers were; more initial teething problems rather than resistance on the part of employees of the store, need for investment of time & money in training, due to rapid technological advancements, time to time updation in DSS tools is required . Majority of operational decisions like inventory management, CRM, campaign management were handled by ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or POS (Point of Sale). Prioritization as well as quantification of benefits was not attempted. The issues of coordination, integration with other systems in case of ERP usage, training were highlighted. Future outlook of DSS seems bright as apparel retailers are keen to invest in technology.

RFID-enabled Supply Chain Collaboration Services in a Networked Retail Business Environment

Since the early 1990s, there has been a growing understanding that supply chain management should be built around information sharing and collaboration among supply chain partners. The emergence of RFID technology is expected to revolutionize many of the collaborative supply chain processes and to empower new collaboration scenarios, such as anti-counterfeiting, product recall and reverse logistics, collaborative in-store promotion management and total inventory management. This paper proposes eight RFID-enabled supply chain collaboration services (e.g. dynamic pricing, smart recall, in-store promotion management, out-of-shelf response) in a networked retail business environment. The services are characterized, on a high-level, by the information shared between retailers and suppliers, the level of tagging (pallet/case/item level) and the location of the tag readers. Also, a scalable-distributed network architecture, building on the possibilities provided by web service orchestration and data stream management systems, is proposed to support these collaborative supply chain management processes. However, this paper introduces into a research-in-progress with the ultimate purpose to assess and categorize the RFID-enabled supply chain collaboration services according to four dimensions: the extent of collaboration required between retailers and suppliers, the RFID technology requirements, the transformation of existing (or the introduction of new) processes and the business performance impact of the RFID-enabled collaborative service. This research is partly funded by the European Commission (IST-2005, FP6) through the IST SMART research project with participating user companies being European grocery retailers and suppliers from the fast-moving consumer goods sector

Investment Evaluation Of RFID Technology Applications: A Real Options Perspective

The majority of previous studies on investment evaluation of RFID technology ignore the flexibility and the Real Options that this kind of investment can lead to. However, studies on the evaluation of other Information Systems have acknowledged the importance of these options as they create future business opportunities or give to managers the opportunity to take actions that could favorably influence the future direction of an investment in response to external or internal events. Drawing on literature from the Financial Field (Real Options theory) and Information Systems (IT investment evaluation), this paper has the aim to apply the Real Options approach to the RFID context through a case study example. This study shows how and why this approach is applicable to the case of RFID technology, underlining its necessity for the RFID investment evaluation

Antecedents of Supply Chain Visibility in Retail Supply Chains: A Resource-based Theory Perspective

Although visibility has become a popular buzzword in the supply chain literature it remains an ill-defined and poorly understood concept. It is assumed that if companies across supply chains have visibility of demand, inventory levels, processes, etc., that organizational performance improves. This research explores the antecedents of high levels of supply chain visibility from a resource-based theory perspective across five different external supply chain linkages. We find that the level of visibility across these linkages differs considerably based on various contributing factors which are both technology and non-technology based. Using resource-based theory, we identify those factors that can give a sustainable competitive advantage to a supply chain linkage through a “distinctive” or high level of visibility

Internet of Things for improving Supply Chain Performance: A Qualitative study of Australian retailers

Internet of Things (IoT) is a global platform of Internet connected smart devices that have been argued to improve the supply chain integration (SCI). While the positive effect of IoT capability on SCI influencing supply chain and firm performance is empirically validated, exploratory study in this context is limited. Drawing upon the organisational capability theory, this study investigates the use of IoT in enhancing the integration of suppliers, customers and internal activities of the retail supply chain. Interviews of managers across Australian retail industry were analysed using Nvivo. The thematic analysis reveals the added capability of IoT that improves supply chain visibility, auto-capture and information sharing for greater SCI. The IoT-enabled integration capability demonstrates a positive effect on cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility of the entire supply chain and improves retail firm’s sustainable performance with financial,social and environmental outcomes

The Institutional Facets of Innovation Diffusion Initiating: The Case of Wal-Mart\u27s RFID Campaign

From two institutional perspectives, we discuss how an organization can initiate the diffusion of a radical IS innovation in its community by proactively exerting institutional influences. Through an in-depth historical analysis, we discuss how Wal-Mart initiated the RFID application in the retailing institutional field. From the institutional field angle, we discuss the structure, the scope, and the institutional carriers of the “RFID in retail” field in which Wal-Mart initiated the diffusion of RFID. From the institutional strategy angle, we profile Wal-Mart’s strategic concerns on RFID diffusion, its interests, and its resources. In the institutionalization processes of the RFID in retail field, we identified that an organizing vision was created, held, and evolved within the field, and played a critical role in Wal-Mart’s institutional strategy. By examining institutional perspectives of innovation fostering processes, this paper extends the literature on diffusion of radical IOS innovations in institutional fields

AN INTERNET OF THINGS–BASED APPROACH TO INNOVATE CANTEEN STORES DEPARTMENT’S RETAIL OPERATIONS

In a competitive business environment, retail organizations in the Western world are capitalizing on technological tools and solutions to enhance customer experience and boost sales. Specifically, retailers that adopt Internet of Things (IoT) technologies improve customer experience and achieve cost savings. Yet such innovation is rare outside the Western world. Hence, early adopters of IoT technologies in retail operations in Pakistan could gain a competitive advantage. This study aims to create a deeper understanding of how Pakistan-based Canteen Stores Department (CSD), a retail chain mainly serving service members and their families, can use IoT technologies to significantly modernize and improve its operations and distinguish itself from competitors. To do so, this study conducts a qualitative analysis of scholarly articles on the relevant technologies and on IoT-based products offered by commercial companies. The authors also include findings from discussions with CSD customers and management. The results of the study indicate CSD can use IoT technologies to optimize store layout, offer interactive in-store mapping, automate checkout systems, implement smart shelving and digital price tagging, improve in-store promotions, enhance customer relationship management, and modernize distribution, transportation, and warehousing. The study also offers CSD management guidance on how to implement IoT technologies into retail operations at one location as a pilot.Outstanding ThesisLieutenant Commander, Pakistan NavyWing Commander, Pakistan Air ForceLieutenant Colonel, Pakistan ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Hybrid Model for It Investment Analysis: Application to Rfid Adoption in the Retail Sector

One of the major obstacles in Information Technology (IT) adoption is its return on investment analysis. IT benefits in organizations are hard to measure and are usually realized over time. System dynamics approach has been used in IT literature to identify the impact of IT on business processes. Given benefits of any IT system in organizations, however, there is a high degree of uncertainty in achieving such benefits. Managerial flexibility in decision making process of implementing a new IT helps managers to overcome this uncertainty over time. Traditional cost benefit analysis such as NPV that is typically used to value any technology is unable to value managerial flexibilities while real options theory offers a model that can value a new investment as uncertainties about the system decreases over time. In this dissertation, we are proposing a new hybrid model for IT return on investment (ROI) that combines system dynamics and real options as two major techniques in economics of IT. This robust hybrid model takes advantages of both techniques while overcoming their weaknesses. We propose a systems dynamic solution to simulate the way an IT influences and improves an organization to be able to estimate the parameters used in the real options model. The hybrid model is used to find the best time for investing in item-level RFID in the retail sector.The results of return on investment analysis on item-level investment show that the variable cost of investment that is the tag prices dominates the return on investment. Other factors such as product unit price and consequently type of retail stores are important as well. The system dynamics simulation provided some major parameters of the real options model such as the expected payoffs and volatility of the expected payoffs that were hard to find in the literature.Business Administration (MBA