Retail industry study

Wamba, S., Lefebvre, L., Bendavid, Y. and Lefebvre, E., 2008. E q)loring the impact of RFID technology and the EPC network on mobile B2B eCommerce A case study in the retail industry. International Journal of Production Economics 112(2), 614-629. 

A Harvard Business School study in 2007 reported that the consumer goods industry carries, on average, 11 weeks (77 days) of inventory and retailers carry 7 weeks (49 days) of inventory. In spite of that, the stock-out rate in the retail industry averages nearly 10% Note that, increasing the days of inventory is one means of attempting to increase customer responsiveness, but this increase would come at the expense of additional supply chain cost. 

The information was compiled from paper and on-line research and from direct phone conversations and meetings with industry representatives. The more comprehensive overview of case studies of company substitutions for brominated flame retardants demonstrates both the complexity and feasibility of implementing safer alternatives. Other case studies show how leading retailers are moving to phase-out hazardous materials and how some chemical industries are researching and implementing Green Chemistry alternatives. 

To examine this question, we provide an example context and then provide details of a model. The example is based on work done by Iyer and Sommer [47] for the Indiana Department of Transportation. The goal of the study was to understand the effect of improving transportation infrastructure in southern Indiana on competitiveness of the local industry. Southern Indiana s Dubois County is home to a thriving commercial furniture industry. In the furniture supply chain, product flows from forest owners who grow the trees to lumber distributors to veneer manufacturers to component suppliers to furniture manufacturers to — retailers and to the flnal customers. 

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