Arlington, VA, 2016-Jun-29 — /EPR Retail News/ — Two new tools to help retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers analyze and improve On Shelf Availability (OSA) have been created by a joint industry group.
On Shelf Availability is a key issue for the consumer products industry, as out-of-stocks remains at an 8 percent average rate, according to joint research by The Trading Partner Alliance (TPA), an industry affairs leadership group formed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and Food Marketing Institute (FMI).
The Best Practices Solutions to Address On Shelf Availability (OSA) Guide and On Shelf Availability Root Causes Ishikawa Diagram were developed to help companies reduce out-of-stock levels. The best practices guide addresses root causes – and potential solutions – of challenges across five retail functional domains: Store Execution, Ordering and Execution, Forecasting, Manufacturing, and Category Management and Merchandising. It also identifies process owners to deal with these product availability issues throughout the supply chain. The Root Causes Ishikawa diagram highlights the leading causes of failures across these areas and is tailored for use across the supply chain.
“These tools are critical to helping industry reach the goal of 98 percent On Shelf Availability,” said Daniel Triot, Senior Director of the TPA. “All trading partners must be firmly engaged and implementing best practices most applicable to each trading partner relationship or category and measuring the impact. Our project team is seeking companies willing to implement these practices and build use cases to help get us there.”
The TPA began researching the out of stock problem in 2013 and released a joint study in 2015 that included a “One Supply Chain” Good-Better-Best maturity model with definitions and recommendations to address the identified gaps in metrics/data, process/practice, organization and technology.
The Best Practices Solutions to Address On Shelf Availability Guide can be accessed here.
The On Shelf Availability Root Causes Ishikawa Diagram can be accessed here.
Past TPA Research on On Shelf Availability can be accessed here.
For questions relating to this research or On Shelf Availability overall, please contact the TPA at osateam@gmaonline.org.
Food Marketing Institute proudly advocates on behalf of the food retail industry. FMI’s U.S. members operate nearly 40,000 retail food stores and 25,000 pharmacies, representing a combined annual sales volume of almost $770 billion. Through programs in public affairs, food safety, research, education and industry relations, FMI offers resources and provides valuable benefits to more than 1,225 food retail and wholesale member companies in the United States and around the world. FMI membership covers the spectrum of diverse venues where food is sold, including single owner grocery stores, large multi-store supermarket chains and mixed retail stores. For more information, visit www.fmi.org and for information regarding the FMI foundation, visit www.fmifoundation.org.
Contact:
2345 Crystal Drive
Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22202
Tel: 202-452-8444
Fax: 202-429-4519
Source: FMI