Examples Show the Way to Success

Essentially, a certain amount of tires were already in the pipeline when the tire maker began increasing shipments. Before the promotion, however, the retailer had sold more Michelin tires than forecasted. The CPFR tool allowed Michelin to compare what Sears had already sold, what it had on hand, and what it expected to need for the promotion. Then the firm was able to determine what was needed from the factories to make up the shortfall. To provide an idea of how much work it takes to get to this level, Jim Sullivan, director of demand-service planning for Michelin says, The two companies worked together for more than two years to create and implement the system that made the promotion work (Konicki, 2002, p. 42). 

Sears and Michelin have developed the close, trusting relationship that eludes most other players in the retail arena. Using the GlobalNetXchange, 

The problem was eventually addressed by a focus group set up by a transportation association representing many of the western coal operators. An early determination was that the mine producers and their utility customers had differing expectations about loading and delivering the coal. As a first step toward a better system, a monthly reporting system was put into place, based on e-mail, fax, and telephone communication among the involved parties. With this data, the railroad then attempted to reconcile the supply plans for coal with the demand plans from the utilities to assure the correct number of dedicated train sets was established. The flow of the coal supply was smoothed and many of the bottlenecks were eliminated for about 25% of the utilities involved. 

---