I need this question answered:

Using a systems thinking and process management approach along with the associated elements, what suggestions would you offer Nicole to include potential reengineering efforts?

The information you need to answer it:

Case 2 Getting the Data Right

Nicole Holdaway sat perplexed. As director of supply chain operations at Best Inc., she was responsible for making sure the right product was on the shelf for customers to buy. She was to do so at the lowest possible inventory costs. Until recently, she had felt pretty good about Best's ability to manage the inventory-service trade-off. After all, the company had invested millions in information technology to help managers track inven-tory from point of sale back to key suppliers' distribution centers. But after a 3-month study of inventory data accuracy, Nicole knew Best's inventory data wasn't accu-rate. Dramatic improvements were needed. The question was, "If technology investments hadn't improved inven-tory accuracy, what would?"

THE HISTORY OF BAR-CODE TECHNOLOGY2

Nicole couldn't help but think back to her high school days in the late 1970s when she worked as a grocery cashier. Back then cash registers were a place to store money. The idea of bar codes and databases had been completely foreign to her. Ringing up a customer's sale was a laborious task that depended on prices being clearly stamped on each item. Smeared prices required a price check that could cause long lines of customers to back up. Such lines led to palpable customer frustration.

Bar codes and scanners changed everything. Nicole thought it interesting to recall that the first retail bar-code transaction actually took place before she started working as a cashier. On June 26, 1974, a checkout clerk at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, made history as she slid a pack of Juicy Fruit gum over a bar-code scanner. Despite expectations, the use of bar codes didn't take off. Instead, bar-code adoption was so anemic that in 1976 BusinessWeek published an article titled, "The Supermarket Scanner That Failed." However, by the early 1980s mass merchandisers led by Kmart were adopting the technology. Retail practice was forever changed. Nicole smiled as she wondered if history would repeat itself with the RFID technology the industry was just beginning to adopt.

By the 1990s, bar codes and databases had changed distribution management farther up the supply chain. Procter & Gamble had achieved double-digit produc-tivity gains and inventory reductions. Kimberly-Clark had reduced shipping errors by over 50 percent. Warehouses up and down the supply chain put bar codes on cases, pallets, racks, and dock doors. Mobile scanners made it possible to track inventory from picking to shipping.

Nonetheless, Nicole knew that the most dramatic gains had taken place at the retail level. Wal-Mart was probably the leader in bar-code innovation, using bar codes to make cross-docking possible. Wal-Mart even put a bar code on every price label on every shelf. Associates, armed with wireless scanners, are able to scan the tags and then make price changes, place an order, or look up sales histories. Wal-Mart was even able to track sell-through rates, enabling it to position product where it would sell faster. Managers across the industry widely believed that Wal-Mart not only knew what was selling better than its suppliers but also understood purchasing habits better than consumers themselves.

Knowing what she knew about the revolutionary success of bar-code technology, Nicole couldn't help but rely on the inventory data provided by Best's information system. Bar codes had transformed industry practice, seemingly allowing stores to track the flow of goods and automatically place precise replenishment orders. Further, suppliers could now use point-of-sales information to synchronize production schedules to real-time customer purchases. In theory, inventory could be reduced without reducing service levels. But at Best Inc. the theory had broken down, and Nicole needed to find out why.

INVENTORY ACCURACY AT BEST INC.

Questions regarding Best's inventory accuracy arose when a disgruntled customer had written a letter to Best's VP of marketing, Kristine Thomson. The letter's tone riveted Kristine's attention.

Case 2 Getting the Data Right1

Nicole Holdaway sat perplexed. As director of supply chain operations at Best Inc., she was responsible for making sure the right product was on the shelf for customers to buy. She was to do so at the lowest possible inventory costs. Until recently, she had felt pretty good about Best's ability to manage the inventory-service trade-off. After all, the company had invested millions in information technology to help managers track inventory from point of sale back to key suppliers' distribution centers. But after a 3-month study of inventory data accuracy, Nicole knew Best's inventory data wasn't accurate. Dramatic improvements were needed. The question was, "If technology investments hadn't improved inventory accuracy, what would?"

THE HISTORY OF BAR-CODE TECHNOLOGY2

Nicole couldn't help but think back to her high school days in the late 1970s when she worked as a grocery cashier. Back then cash registers were a place to store money. The idea of bar codes and databases had been completely foreign to her. Ringing up a customer's sale was a laborious task that depended on prices being clearly stamped on each item. Smeared prices required a price check that could cause long lines of customers to back up. Such lines led to palpable customer frustration.

Bar codes and scanners changed everything. Nicole thought it interesting to recall that the first retail bar-code transaction actually took place before she started working as a cashier. On June 26, 1974, a checkout clerk at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, made history as she slid a pack of Juicy Fruit gum over a bar-code scanner. Despite expectations, the use of bar codes didn't take off. Instead, bar-code adoption was so anemic that in 1976 BusinessWeek published an article titled, "The Supermarket Scanner That Failed." However, by the early 1980s mass merchandisers led by Kmart were adopting the technology. Retail practice was forever changed. Nicole smiled as she wondered if history would repeat itself with the RFID technology the industry was just beginning to adopt.

By the 1990s, bar codes and databases had changed distribution management farther up the supply chain. Procter & Gamble had achieved double-digit productivity gains and inventory reductions. Kimberly-Clark had reduced shipping errors by over 50 percent. Warehouses up and down the supply chain put bar codes on cases, pallets, racks, and dock doors. Mobile scanners made it possible to track inventory from picking to shipping.

Nonetheless, Nicole knew that the most dramatic gains had taken place at the retail level. Wal-Mart was probably the leader in bar-code innovation, using bar codes to make cross-docking possible. Wal-Mart even put a bar code on every price label on every shelf. Associates, armed with wireless scanners, are able to scan the tags and then make price changes, place an order, or look up sales histories. Wal-Mart was even able to track sell-through rates, enabling it to position product where it would sell faster. Managers across the industry widely believed that Wal-Mart not only knew what was selling better than its suppliers but also understood purchasing habits better than consumers themselves.

Knowing what she knew about the revolutionary success of bar-code technology, Nicole couldn't help but rely on the inventory data provided by Best's information system. Bar codes had transformed industry practice, seemingly allowing stores to track the flow of goods and automatically place precise replenishment orders. Further, suppliers could now use point-of-sales information to synchronize production schedules to real-time customer purchases. In theory, inventory could be reduced without reducing service levels. But at Best Inc. the theory had broken down, and Nicole needed to find out why.