Electronic retailing

He offers examples of how prominent companies in the electronics, retailing and consumer products sectors have adopted elements of the framework. 

Suppose you are the director of operations for the southeast region for consumer electronics retailer BigBuy. You have been asked by the chief operating officer of the company to review tiie inventory management processes and procedures in place at all BigBuy retail outlets in your region. 

Industry and Business Sectors. Computer science has led to the creation of electronic retailing (e-tailing). Online sales rose 15.5 percent in 2009, while brick and mortar (traditional) sales were up 3.6 percent from the previous year. Online-only outlets such as Amazon.com have been carving out a significant part of the retail market. Traditional businesses, such as Macy s and Home Depot, are finding that they must have an online presence. Online sales for the 2009 Christmas season were estimated at 27 billion. 

Design of Markets and Mechanisms of Transactions. Initially the business-to-business (B2B) types of transactions were the primary e-commerce activities. These activities quickly expanded to include sales to consumers via electronic retailing (e-tailing), often called business-to-consumer (B2G). Since the late 1990 s e-commerce has expanded to include consumer-to-consumer (C2C) Web sites, including eBay, and consumer-to-business (G2B), such as Priceline, where several airlines or hotels will compete for the purchase dollars of consumers. Each of these types of transactions can be completed within the general structure of one of the many different types of e-commerce models to generate revenue. 

The Orange company has introduced a new music device called the J-Pod. The J-Pod is sold through Good Buy, a major electronics retailer. Good Buy has estimated that demand for the J-Pod will depend on the final retail price p according to the demand curve... 

Key technologies that are used in modern lighting include electronic ballasts, more efficient tubular fluorescent lamps, compact fluorescent lamps, and lighting controls. Fluorescent lighting is the predominant lighting system installed in post-1980 buildings and is used in 71 percent of floor space. Specialty retail stores use a combination of fluorescent and... 

United States in 1998) from coal (56%), nuclear (20%), natural gas (11%), hydro (8%), oil (3%), biomass (1.5%), geothermal (0.2%), wind (0.1%), and solar (0.02%). Recently, wholesale and some retail markets have been unbundled, allowing competitors to sell electrons with the monopoly utility or municipality providing the transmission service. Open-access restructuring gives customers choices and creates a commodity market in which the lowest-cost electricity wins market share at the expense of higher-cost alternatives. 

If you re applying for jobs at a local retail store or small business, having an electronic resume is far less important, because to apply for one of these jobs, you will most likely visit the employer in person to submit a resume, complete a job application, and perhaps be interviewed on the spot. 

Well known examples in other, even mature, industries such as Procter Gamble in packaged consumer goods, Dell in consumer electronics, Wal-Mart in retailing, and Toyota in the automotive sector prove that outstanding performance is achievable and can contribute to the company s overall success through tailored service levels, fast and reliable deliveries, and lean and cost-effective operations, even in a complex environment. Though not directly comparable, these industries have developed solutions that, appropriately selected and tailored, can be of tremendous value and serve as a reference for all branches of the chemical industry. 

Andrea Cappello is a consultant in McKinsey s Milan office. He is a member of the European supply chain management practice and has worked in various fields with a particular focus on chemicals, consumer goods, and retail. Before joining McKinsey, he worked at SAP on supply chain management, manufacturing, and product development. He holds a degree in electronic engineering, with a specialization in automatic control, from the Politecnico di Milano. 

Small systems of a few kWe are not likely to operate under high pressure. Currently available high-temperature fuel-cell systems reach electrical capacities of around 250 kWe (for these systems, the integration of a gas turbine can raise electric efficiency up to 60%). Table 3.8 indicates the current investment costs for stationary high-temperature fuel cells (IEA, 2005 Blesl et al., 2004 Alanne el al., 2006). Today, the manufacturing cost of PEM fuel cells is reported to vary depending on scale, power electronics requirements, and reformer requirements, with retail prices varying between 3000/kW and 6000/kW (Cotrell et al., 2003 Fuel Cells, 2000). 

Range of performance can be increased by raising the power of the transmitter. Amateur transmitters in powers up to 1,000 warts can be bought from a number of retail and wholesale outlets. A skilled electronics technician can build a comparable instrument without any great effort. 

The global chemical industry today produces tens of thousands of substances. The substances can be mixed by the chemical industry and sold and used in this form, or they can be mixed by downstream customers of the chemical industry (e.g., retail stores that sell paint). It is important to note that most of the output from chemical companies is used by other chemical companies or other industries (e.g., metal, glass, electronics), and chemicals produced by the chemical industry are present in countless products used by consumers (e.g., automobiles, toys, paper, clothing) (OECD, 2001). 

PBMs have contractual relationships with retail pharmacies and share a common electronic network. Through this common network, prescription claims can be sent to a common point of collection (the PBM). Large PBM-retail networks offer customers easy access to prescriptions throughout the United States. Network relationships are less costly to PBM customers due to volume discount and greater billing/payment efficiencies (e.g., all pharmacies that contract with the PBM are part of that PBM s pharmacy network). 

A Common electronic interface. Will a single program interface with all benefit providers Will it interface with all retail pharmacy providers ... 

These regulations apply to electrical and electronic manufacturers, retailers and distributors, local authorities, waste management industry, exporters and re-processors and businesses and other non-household users of WEEE. 

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