M&S Case Study

BRUNEL UNIVERSITY? SCHOOL OF engineer AND DESIGN LOGISTICS AND GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT M&S Case study Assignment Mark&Spencer As it is well known, the retail merchant M&S had been a giant in the UK grocery, offering some(prenominal)(prenominal) products and services that reserve had a big discontinueicipation in the day-by-day life of the population that in some way had been influenced by either oppositeiate of this caller-up in any place where they stay channel its goods, whether in the UK or on foreign places. attach & Spencer owns no situationories and does not feature the goods, which be sold in its stores, which represent a different approach path to the retailer business and gives some advant periods that M&S enjoy. The key portion in furthering its competitive advantage has been the development of strong supplier relationships which although induce had suffer several(prenominal) changes in the past few years because of strategies in the market and di stinct factors, they declare as an essential slice of the business. Marks and Spencers mission statement is broken into 3 parts which acknowledgeVision To be the standard against which others are measured Mission To educate aspirational quality accessible to all and Values note value, service, innovation and consider. mission on M&S general operations * Given that M&S had an image problem in the past, what change did it make and is qualification to its clothing business to enhance its competitiveness? The serious problems of image that M&S had in the pass were consequence of several conclusivenesss and assessments do by its board and especially very often by the chairman and the nous executive.There is one factor that shaped for long quantify all the decisions make in the company the agri subtlety of Marks&Spencer, this way of thinking was the method to use for manage the firm for many years from its starting signal until the changes in the market and in the custom ers did not fit with that culture anymore. In lights of these events and in the increasing problems, severe changes has to be made, changes that were fair to middling to return the plot to the company in their market that was falling as consequence of this.The quality of the garment was not the same(p) and the customers get realised of that as they begun to claim virtually it. More all over, the bad winter season in 1999 coinciding with the retail gross sales downturn rate a starting point in the classical necessity of changes in M&S. 1999 was a year to forget in the UK clothing sector. Can be said that the beginning of the first change made was the incorporation as chief executive of Peter Salsbury to make headway eventually to Sir Richard Greenbury.The first approach to changes was a series of radical culling in the board of the company, which meant a change from the top-down in the structure of the brass instrument and the incorporation of the technology in the communica tional way among the board members which it have to be stress, they were not familiarised with new technologies, these initial changes made by Salsbury were aimed to vanish the old fashion way of manage the company and pull down symbols of the old regime many people were removed from the administration calculate to go to ingesting with costumers needs.A general reorganization that split the company into UK retail, overseas and financial services was made as well. As another unprecedented change, was the approach to the renewed focus on the client itself and the fulfilment of its necessities, part of the image problems was because of the treatment to the customer from the stave of M&S, as part of the change process, a new department of marketing was created in shape to enhance the advertisement and to gain customers over from the dynamical market they deal with, new thinking and new minds were ired, and the marketing department would take over many decisions of the buying depart ments to support in the decision of what the customers wanted. Within this integral stop the board of the firm had realised that some of the overseas business and UK suppliers had create a millstone for M&S rather than a support, and were put up for sale and dismissed respectively.The period of changes that M&S was sledding trough with the severe culling and reorganization processes, brought a new image problems to the company, as consequence the entire personnel was demoralized and downright, the spirit of the company to its staff and the trust of its suppliers was totally destroyed. Being clear that these methods and managing was not working anymore as a part of a past of revolution in the company, new changes have to come. Although, Peter Salsbury had accomplished the evolution and change of the culture of M&S.After this Luc Vandevelde as a chairman contri simplyed with several changes in the garments line of M&S, as was the entry of George Davis to the firm to develop and ram home to the public a new brand called Per Una, in aims to revitalize the womens clothing sales as a strategy from the board. New changes are being made in order to enhance the competitiveness in the clothing business, changing the look to the stores with lighter colours, new tills, better lighting.M&S has turn itself in a company that owns a staff full of youth and freshness, consequently, the company has give back the quality to its goods, quality that was a flag in the golden years of M&S, with several new clothing brands fitted to both g expiryer and to every stage in the life of people, this unsubtle range of goods cleverly design on age and occasions are the product of selected designers and their teems pushing to deliver nothing but the very best to all the M&Ss customers, this fact is a sample of a great change that the company has made managing to recover the trust of the customers and the treatment of excellence to the clients that the current business and the market re quire.As part of the new times and challenges, the board of the company nowadays in effect had set clear points in the taking-decision process as is to debate and crack the best strategy for the Company and hold the executive team accountable for its execution, this permit a very dynamic way to involve anyone to the nett decision in order to guarantee a wise decision that push to the continue enhancement and development of the current business conception and finally, to set the tone of doing the right thing, supported by the right politics structures and their effective implementation. * Specifically and in detail, what changes were made to the M&S bring out chain strategy in the light of these changes?Evidently as the culture of M&S was created and leaded by several men with the same way of thinking, the most remarkable characteristics of this culture was the relationship with the suppliers of M&S, that was base on an close and unmatched relationship that have been prevailed by several decades in some cases. This supply chain based on trust from the firm to its suppliers gave shape to the UK retail market for many years. The board think the new strategy implemented to the supply chain by the end of the year 2000 this strategy consisted on the change of suppliers from the UK to other overseas instead. Amid the changes on reorganization of M&S in general, the board had realised that the tender link with the traditional suppliers in the UK was no longer affordable enough and represent a millstone for the company.The first place to be pointed as an overseas supply branch was in Portugal owing to the mix electropositive factors of cheaper manufacturing costs and the short distance to the UK that would not affect the supplement of goods in the stores for time reasons as start happening with others overseas supplier that because they were so far from UK the time of delivery influenced in the schedules and logistics of M&S. Nevertheless, some UK suppliers t hat unlikeable their factories repositioned themselves in North Africa, Indonesia, Thailand and China Looking for cheap workhand and opening in this way an overseas market of suppliers for the company and at the same time a beneficial reduction of cost for M&S disdain the exportation activities involve in this operations, demonstrating this way that the strategy implemented in lights of the changes has just paid off.Another important change was specially related to the clothing range Per Una leaded by the designer George Davis which consist in the rent delivery of the clothe and accessories from nothing more but his organisation to M&S, as part of a agreement maid at the beginning of his business relationship whit the company, this represent a self-sufficient branch in the supply chain of the firm. Some other changes were made on M&S regarding to its branches in Europe, specifically to the supply chain that maintain the European branch of the company in countries as Spain, Hollan d, France and Germany. They have to deoxidize the efforts in the UK market so they decided to finish the overseas branches, representing a culling on the supply chain to those countries and leaving the supply chain operations directly to UK. * What are the different supply chain performance objectives for the different product groups? Classic Autograph Per Una Indigo Blue Harbour harvest-home Range piteous Mature Customers gigantic Wide Range Customers Short fashion Woman 25-35 years old Short women with busy lives Long Mens quotidian raiment for weekends Design Changes No grass Trend Frequent Seasonal Seasonal Price Expensive value-for-money prices free-enterprise(a) High Street Pricing Good Value Average Expensive value-for-money prices Quality High Aspirational Quality High Aspirational Quality High Sales saturation High Low Limited Low Limited High seasonal worker High seasonal Order Winners Smart, Elegant & quality clothes Fashion ability Exclusivity Fashi onable for everyday use Casually smart clothes Order Qualifiers Quality and value on the clothes Clothing wide range and high street prices Affordable price Everyday-workday casualwear Smart casual menswear for weekends occasion operation Priorities Reliability aimed to mature costumers Cost Sharpen set great value Flexibility Very fast response speed high fluency on the selling of this clothes Quality unique menswear brand References The rise & fall of Marks & Spencer And how it rose again by Judi Bevan, edition revised and updated in 2007. Bookmarque, Croydon, Surrey. ISBN-10 1 86197 898 7. * Logistics and supply chain anxiety by Martin Christopher, Fourth Edition, FT Prentice entrance hall Financial times. * Operation Management by Nigel Slack, Stuart Chambers and Robert Johnston, Sixth Edition, FT Prentice Hall Financial times. * Marks & Spencer annual Report and Financial Statements 2000 * Marks & Spencer Annual Report and Financial Statements 2006 * Issues of M arks & Spencer by OxbridgeWriters. com * Marks & Spencer by Nardine collier and Gerry Johnson, Case Teaching Notes, Pearson Education Limited 2005.