READERPROFILE
as told to Karen Kroll
Embracing the System
RESPONSIBILITIES: Merchandise planning and demand forecasting, supply and inventory planning, inbound logistics, warehousing and distribution, final-mile delivery, supply chain technology process and analytics, and quality assurance. EXPERIENCE: Senior vice president, global planning and logistics, and vice president, global planning, both with Hasbro; head of retail and CPG consulting, North America, Tata Consultancy Services; vice president, business development, KKM; vice president, inventory replenishment, CVS Pharmacy; managerial and executive positions with Retail Solutions, Inc.; American Greetings, Arthur Andersen, E&Y, and Ciba Corning Diagnostics. EDUCATION: M.S., biomedical engineering, Boston University; B.S., biomedical and electrical engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. RAMESH MURTHY is executive vice president and chief supply chain officer with Bob’s Discount Furniture, a rapidly growing omnichannel furniture retailer, with 164 stores across 24 states.
a large number of carriers to make sure that we have the capacity we need to move all our goods. The third step was boosting visibility. That is a big challenge and a big opportunity for everybody in the supply chain. INSTOCK LEVELS With these initiatives, we were able to drive our in-stock levels to where they needed to be. Today we’re about back to pre-pandemic levels. That has been exciting for us.
months into this effort. Our goods come from abroad in many cases. During and coming out of the pandemic, the thinking was, ‘just get your hands on whatever goods you can get your hands on.’ At some point, though, we have to prioritize. We have several thousand stock-keeping units (SKUs) across 75 suppliers, and all have nite capacity. We worked to help our suppliers prioritize our critical needs. As a second step, we spent a lot of time this year building relationships with
M y role at Bob’s Discount Furniture is a new one. We brought all the supply chain areas across our organization into one place, and I’m responsible for moving goods from start to nish. A rst step was getting everyone to work together. I started with a weekly call with the leadership team. I love making sure everyone knows exactly what everyone else knows. MAKING IT RIGHT The lightning rod that brought together every function was asking: ‘How do we make it right for the customer every time?’ If we promise we’ll get a product to a customer in one week, then we have to deliver on that promise. To get there, we are working hard to make sure our in-stock levels are where they need to be. We are nine
The lightning rod that brought together every function was asking: ‘How do we make it right for the customer every time?’ If we promise we’ll get a product to a customer in one week, then we have to deliver on that promise.
22 Inbound Logistics • July 2023
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