On-shelf availability

In 2004, Scotts Miracle-Gro faced a crisis. Retailers were unhappy, sales were lagging, and on-shelf availability was an issue. Because of demand volatility (a combination of season, climate, weather, consumer preference and competifive behavior), Scotts traditional supply chain systems were just not up to the task of delivering the right product at the right time at the right place. The lack of supply chain reliability had become a major issue in their three major retail relationships Home Depot, Lowe s, and Walmart. This was significant. These three relationships represented more than 80 percent of the company s channel volume. 

Reducing the incidence of out-of-stocks at the point of sale (increase in on-shelf availability) improves the service to the consumer and reduces lost sales. Furthermore, the continued availability of the products increases consumer satisfaction and therefore benefits store loyalty for the retailer and the product loyalty for the manufacturer. 

Make to stock (MTS). Here, the key task is to offer products for customers to buy from available inventory. Customer service is determined by this availability, so a key performance measure in supermarkets is on-shelf availability (OSA). Achieving 100 per cent OSA would mean holding infinite inventories, so in practice a compromise of say 98.5 per cent OSA across most products at most times is targeted. MTS firms have to plan the availability of their inventory by means of a distribution network which may involve several levels (regional, national and local). In turn, this requires that models are determined for stock replenishment - how much, when and where. 

Table 12.8 shows the effect of three commercially available substituted ureas on shelf life, cure rate, exotherm, and glass transition temperature of a dicyandiamide cured epoxy adhesive. The accelerators are compared at use levels of 1, 3, and 5 pph in a one-component adhesive consisting of 100 pph of DGEBA epoxy, 8 pph of dicyandiamide, and 3 pph of... 

In most applications, it is reasonable to expect < w. For instance, this is the case when the outbound lead time is nearly deterministic, and the delay limit w is set to be safely laiger them L . Furthermore, can be estimated based on (45). Therefore, if we set the delay limit such that a -I- Tj with probability one, for aU i G S , then the response-time serviceabdity in (50) can be met at nearly 100% [taking into account (48)]. In other words, aiming for a high off-shelf availability (say, 90-95%) will usually enable us to set a reasonable response-time limit (yv, and to achieve a near-100% response-time service level. 

An improvement in this situation has occurred recently with the arrival on the market of a number of tracking devices from Human Performance Measurement, Inc. (Arlington, TX). These devices are a natural extension of those developed by Kondraske et al. [1984]. Off-the-shelf availability of computer-based tracking tests, including sensors for both upper- and lower-limbs, opens up the possibility of a much broader and widespread use of tracking tasks. In particular, one can look forward to a much greater utilization of tracking tasks outside of traditional research areas and in more routine assessment applications in clinical, rehabilitative, vocational, sports, and other environments. 

Various Technical Reports Posted on the Strategic Center for Natural Gas Fuel Cell Reference Shelf Available online at http //www.netl.doe.gov/scng/enduse/fc refshlfhtml... 

There is a need for experimental VLE work on systems comprised of non-off-the-shelf chemicals. Industrial colleagues have confided to me the suspicion that many academic studies are based primarily on the availability of certain reagents in chromato-quality grade. This is not entirely an unfair assessment. Whatever the basis for current neglect of such systems, the need is there, and must eventually be met. 

One of the advantages of having direct contact with the customer through online ordering is the dramatic improvement in visibility of real demand that it provides. For example, Tesco, one of the world s biggest online retailers (as well as one of the world s biggest bricks and mortar retailers), can see what its real product availability is because it is able to capture actual demand as it happens and is therefore able to measure on-the-shelf availability accurately. In the bricks and mortar business, even with sophisticated electronic point of sale (EPOS) data, the company cannot get the same level of accurate information. 

CSPE. Chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSPE), a synthetic mbber manufactured by DuPont, is marketed under the name Hypalon. It can be produced as a self-curing elastomer designed to cure on the roof. The membrane is typically reinforced with polyester and is available in finished thicknesses of 0.75 to 1.5 mm. Because CSPE exhibits thermoplastic characteristics before it cures, it offers heat-weldable seams. After exposure on the roof, the membrane cures offering the toughness and mechanical set of a thermoset. The normal shelf life of the membrane for maintaining this thermoplastic characteristic is approximately six months. After the membrane is fully cured in the field, conventional adhesives are needed to make repairs. 

There are, however, numerous appHcations forthcoming ia medium- to small-scale processiag. Especially attractive on this scale is the pharmaceutical fine chemical or high value added chemical synthesis (see Fine chemicals). In these processes multistep reactions are common, and an electroorganic reaction step can aid ia process simplification. Off the shelf lab electrochemical cells, which have scaled-up versions, are also available. The materials of constmction for these cells are compatible with most organic chemicals. 

Are there skills within the company or organization that can develop a cost-effective program specifically for the respective department, or would it be more economical in terms of costs and the proposed timetable for implementation of the program to purchase an off-the-shelf package Caution on which route should be taken must be exercised in that in-house staff may be available in the initial programming stages but as the system becomes more developed, they may not be free due to other priorities discussed above. 

However, even at room temperature, the shelf-life of batteries with nickel oxide cathodes (Ni-Cd, Ni-MeHy, and Ni-Zn batteries) is a source of difficulties for the consumer who relies on the state of charge of his power source when he needs it-without charging time available. Figure 7 compares the self-discharge of RAM cells with Ni-Cd and Ni-MeHy cells at 20 °C. 

Moisture. The effect of moisture on expls, propints and pyrots can be deleterious in terms of reliability, efficiency and safety. This unwanted ingrenlent can add uncertainty and possible hazard in the manuf, storage and eventual use of ammo. Moisture adds to the costs of ammo in many ways. These include less effective material being available per unit volume, with concomitant increases in malfunction rate, curtailed shelf life because of structural failures occasioned by moisture-generated chem reaction products and the cost of many investigations undertaken to understand and prevent effects (Expls Refs 6,8, 11, 12, 15,17,21,26, 28,31,34,35,39, 40,. 41, 43, 44, 46, 48, 52 54 Propints Refs 9, 13, 16, 19, 21, 23, 27, 29, 37 53 Pyrots Refs 5, 7,10, 14,18, 20, 23, 24, 28, 30 38)... 

These are commercially available off-the-shelf packages. They are used as is, with significant reliance placed on documentation provided by the developers to ensure that the package meets the user requirements specification (URS)... 

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