Abstract
M.Com. (Logistics Management)
In modern days’ dynamic and ever-changing consumer markets that are characterised by the ‘empowered consumer’ and shorter product life cycles, supply chains need to be value driven and consumer oriented. The South African clothing industry is one of the industries that has a consumer market typified by this trend. A valuable feature in consumer-oriented supply chains is an understanding of what the consumer needs are. This is essential as consumers have become an increasingly fundamental part of the value creation processes. Demand planning as a supply chain task provides the supply chain members with an opportunity to better understand the nature of consumer demand.
From the literature review it is evident that demand planning is a supply chain activity concerned with effective management of demand and requires improving forecasts, reducing costs, minimising risk, and increasing sales and profit. Demand planning is fundamental in supply chain management (SCM) as it allows the supply chain members to focus on the consumer and effectively and efficiently create optimal value. This understanding of consumer demand ensures that the supply response is suited for the demand thereof. In demand planning, point-of-sale (POS) data is an essential and highly valuable input to the process thereof; however, literature suggests that POS-based demand planning is one of the least utilised and often overlooked demand planning approaches.
This study focused on the South African clothing retail industry; an industry that accounted for 21% of South Africa’s total retail sales in 2014 and reported for having experienced continual growth in the past few years. Effective SCM has also become a critical issue in the clothing industry because high standards of customer service must be maintained throughout the supply chain. Clothing manufacturers and retailers also need to achieve a balance between their demand and supply processes and therefore effective demand planning is an important activity in this industry.
The main purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which businesses in the South African clothing retail industry use POS data in demand planning. Furthermore,..