Reebok 2014 Annual Report Download - page 72

adidas Group
/
2014 Annual Report
Group Management Report – Our Group
68
2014
Global Operations
/
02.5
/
Providing industry-leading availability
Over the past years, Global Operations has built new supporting system solutions that use SAP as
a basis to standardise, automate, bundle and execute market processes and system functionalities.
The roll-out of these systems and processes is a prerequisite to enable enhanced value-added
services (e.g. labelling, price tags and RFID tags) at our factories and distribution centres. These
are also critical for our flexible make-to-stock service, which aims to improve product availability
and inventory utilisation by planning and building inventory buffers at different locations further up
the supply chain.
Other capabilities that the function has built include an increased level of transparency on inbound
transportation in our supply chain. This allows for timely and accurate instructions on delivery times,
planning and purchasing, resulting in a reduction of workload and increased customer satisfaction.
Another important aspect is the introduction of the capability to transfer inventory between locations
in a more automated manner.
Enabling later ordering
Enabling later ordering is a cross-functional priority in Global Operations focused on allowing our
customers and own-retail network to order products closer to the time of sale, thereby facilitating
buying decisions that are based on better market knowledge.
The initiative for reducing standard lead times focuses on shortening production lead times on
footwear and apparel to 60 days. This will allow us to align sales processes across the brands and
improve efficiencies. The majority of adidas footwear and apparel is already on 60 days.
In 2014, Global Operations launched the strategic initiative ‘Digital Creation’. One main objective
of this initiative is to increase the speed and efficiency of product creation by using digital instead
of physical product samples (virtualisation technology). The initiative was successfully introduced
for footwear in 2014 and will be rolled out for apparel in 2015, thereby significantly reducing the
production of physical product samples in the creation process.
Strategic priority
/
Product availability
Strategic priority
/
Later ordering
see Glossary, p. 258
see Sustainability, p. 89