Supply Chain Software eliminates inefficiencies.
Share:
Press Release Summary:
IMI Retail supply chain software increases product availability at store shelf by centering replenishment processes around customer demand. IMI Retail suite includes IMI Store, which generates recommended replenishment orders; IMI Replenishment, which shares said data with warehouse replenishment process; IMI Order capture and process module; and IMI Warehouse, which automates warehouse processes to enable distribution and flow-through operations.
Original Press Release:
IMI Americas Launches IMI Retail Solution
Mt. Laurel, N.J. (June 25, 2002), IMI Americas today announced IMI Retail, a supply chain solution that enables retailers to achieve dramatic improvement in order and replenishment processes. The software helps retailers drive out excess inventory costs by eliminating supply chain inefficiencies and increase product availability at the store shelf by centering replenishment processes around actual customer demand.
IMI Retail addresses the specific needs of grocery, hard goods, drug and convenience stores. Many of these companies face customer satisfaction challenges resulting from poor ordering and out-of-stock items. The solution provides retailers with end-to-end replenishment capabilities that focus on eliminating stock-outs all the way to the store shelf, enhancing customer retention and loyalty, and significantly improving profitability.
"The best way to address supply chain performance is to focus on demand the order," said Stephen D'Angelo, president, IMI Americas. "IMI is the Order Company, and IMI Retail helps companies align supply chain processes with the source of orders consumer demand at the store shelf.
According to Tom Nowak, senior vice president and CIO of Price Chopper Supermarkets, a major grocery chain in the Northeast United States, "IMI retail software has dramatically reduced the time it takes to generate a store order, while allowing us to realize substantial benefits during the initial phase of our implementation. Any retailer considering a project of this significance should focus on a solution that can be implemented in phases while still driving incremental benefit at each step. IMI Retail is currently ordering in all departments and has allowed our employees to focus on what they do best - service our customers."
The IMI Retail suite has multiple components and each product is designed for incremental implementation to support order and replenishment business processes. This approach minimizes organizational impact and resources required as well as maximizes time-to-benefit, producing results in months not years. The products are:
IMI Store leverages a combination of retail sales forecasts and point-of-sale data to generate recommended replenishment orders based on local conditions that are matched with product available from warehouses. When matched with the store's inventory, the system can fully automate the replenishment process, resulting in additional labor efficiency and improved service. This approach helps retailers successfully manage "the last 100 yards of the retail supply chain" by ensuring the products consumers demand are on the shelf at the right time.
IMI Replenishment utilizes the forecasting information from store replenishment processes and shares it with warehouse replenishment process, as well as with manufacturers and suppliers so the entire retail value chain is working from the same, accurate sales forecast and inventory data to meet consumer demand. Additionally, retailers can leverage Internet-based Collaboration capabilities to gain visibility of supplier inventory levels and find alternative suppliers when needed to source out-of-stock items.
IMI Order enables retailers to capture and process orders in high-volume environments and manage orders from multiple channels and disparate sources such as wholesalers, Internet merchants and independent retailers. By pulling the orders together in one system, retailers can eliminate inefficiencies and optimize inventory allocation. These capabilities can be added to existing back-office business solutions ? like SAP, Oracle, Retek, JDA, i2 and others to provide easy access to more information and services, and make it simpler for trading partners to interact with the entire enterprise.
IMI Warehouse enables companies to provide value-added distribution services and deliver product on time. The software automates warehouse processes to enable fast distribution and flow-through operations. It optimizes the use of warehouse resources and maximizes the efficiency of day-to-day operations such as receiving, put-away, order processing, picking, packing and shipping. IMI Warehouse supports Collaboration capabilities to improve visibility of in-transit inventory and accelerate the physical movement of product across supply chains.
