An example of one of the many projects that Men’s Warehouse does is a new store opening. TMW is always looking for new exciting locations where there maybe an unmet demand in men’s clothing. For a new location, some tasks will include first to choose a location. Once the location is chosen then a renovation will be required depending on what the building was before. The place needs to accommodate for all the suits, registers, tailor shop, fitting rooms, and proper lighting. After this, they need to hire employees for such positions as managers, tailors, wardrobe consultants, and sales associates. To complete this project they need to stock all the merchandise for example the suits, shirts, and materials for the tailors.
Although I am not positive if the Men’s Warehouse uses Gantt charts, it would definitely make such a process a lot clearer, easier, and time effective. If TMW does not use the Gantt charts, I recommend they start. This chart allows you to see which tasks need to be completed, when they should start and by when they should finish by, in a very clear visual way.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Supply Chain Management
A supply chain is the sequence of business processes and information that provides a product or service from suppliers through manufacturing and distribution to finally, the customer. Mens Wearhouse uses two different supply chains (there is only one diffenrece between the two). First they have the suppliers who provide the materials for making the suit (ex. cloth and thread). Then there are the brand name factories in which brand name suits, sport coats, and shoes are made (ex. Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Bostonian). These items are bought by TMW and delivered to a warehouse. From this central hub (Mens Wearhous owned) the products are shipped to individual MW stores across the country. Once they are delivered to the stores, the products are put onto the selling floor ready to be sold to the customer. Finally the customer can purchase a suit, get it altered for the best fit and take the item home. The other supply chain is used for dress shirts, casual shirts, and custom clothing. the only difference is that the factories are not other brand name owned factories; TMW owns the labels for these items.
TMW delivery performance is quite satisfactory. Each store gets a shipment of products twice, every week. The qualtity is also very good. The return rate is very low, while the rate for a customer who becomes a regular shopper at TMW is pretty high. The Mens Wearhouse uses an innovative supply chain managment for quick respose to unpredictable demand to minimize stockouts, lost sales, and markdowns. The only part that is unsatisfactory is the custom orders and improvements need to be made. It can take anywhere from four to six weeks to arrive for a customer. One way to improve this it to use the techniques used by dell, in which when an order is made, the inofrmation is sent out to all departments at one time rather than one department at a time. This will speed up this process significantly.
TMW delivery performance is quite satisfactory. Each store gets a shipment of products twice, every week. The qualtity is also very good. The return rate is very low, while the rate for a customer who becomes a regular shopper at TMW is pretty high. The Mens Wearhouse uses an innovative supply chain managment for quick respose to unpredictable demand to minimize stockouts, lost sales, and markdowns. The only part that is unsatisfactory is the custom orders and improvements need to be made. It can take anywhere from four to six weeks to arrive for a customer. One way to improve this it to use the techniques used by dell, in which when an order is made, the inofrmation is sent out to all departments at one time rather than one department at a time. This will speed up this process significantly.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Managing Quality
The Mens Wearhouse (TMW) is a company that takes pride in the service and the quality of the merchandise they offer. Although they are achieving their goals and are headed towards their intended path, Mens Wearhouse is always looking for improvements that can be made. TMW believes that they should continuously strive to improve quality by meeting customer needs and reducing variability in all processes by introducing new products when needed.
TMW takes full use of the four dimensions of quality in which first, before there is any production, specifications must be set for the product (Quality of Design). Then they produce the product that meets the required specifications set forth in the design stage (Quality of Conformance). For example, Mens Wearhouse produces a suit that is aimed for the inexpensive shoppers. The customers get a great suit for that price range; these are the specifications. After these two steps, Mens Wearhouse continues its promise of quality by Guaranteeing that it is available, reliable, and maintainable. An example of maintainability is the MW's guarantee on alteration. Once they have done a specific alteration on a product, they will re-alter that same alteration again, for free. Another example would be if the hem of a pair of slacks became undone; they would fix it right away. And finally they have their customer service, which ensures that any problems will be taken care of effectively and immediately.
TMW takes full use of the four dimensions of quality in which first, before there is any production, specifications must be set for the product (Quality of Design). Then they produce the product that meets the required specifications set forth in the design stage (Quality of Conformance). For example, Mens Wearhouse produces a suit that is aimed for the inexpensive shoppers. The customers get a great suit for that price range; these are the specifications. After these two steps, Mens Wearhouse continues its promise of quality by Guaranteeing that it is available, reliable, and maintainable. An example of maintainability is the MW's guarantee on alteration. Once they have done a specific alteration on a product, they will re-alter that same alteration again, for free. Another example would be if the hem of a pair of slacks became undone; they would fix it right away. And finally they have their customer service, which ensures that any problems will be taken care of effectively and immediately.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Quality Control
The quality control that Mens Wearhouse utilizes is the Quality Control Chart. This chart has a center line and lines above and below the center one. the center line is the average quality characterstic being measured. The line above is the upper control limit which represents the maximum acceptable random variation. The below line is the lower control limit which represents the minimum. If normal probability is assumed, these control limits will include 99.74% of random varations observed. Then attribute control is used using samples of 50-300. This uses a discrete scale rater than a continuous scale. With this, you consider the percentage of defectives occuring in a sample as the attribute measured. The percentage defective is estimated by taking a sample of units random at specific time intervals.
The six sigma quality approach is used. This process is usually applied to service and manufacturing comapnies. With this method, imporvements of merchandise and service are made using five steps.
1. Define: a process is chosen for improvements and a charter is specified.
2. Measure: quality is measured by customer tendencies and reactions. Goals are set for improvements.
3. Analyze: the reasons for the defects are indentified and alternatives are considered.
4. Improvements: the process is changed and double checked for improvements.
5. Control: this ensues that the prcess is not lost over time.
One improvement that can be made is instead of producing the items and then waiting to see customer reaction; whether it will sell or not, or whether the fitting is comfortable or not; they should test out the product on a small group to see their reactions instead of producing all of it and then fixing the problems.
The six sigma quality approach is used. This process is usually applied to service and manufacturing comapnies. With this method, imporvements of merchandise and service are made using five steps.
1. Define: a process is chosen for improvements and a charter is specified.
2. Measure: quality is measured by customer tendencies and reactions. Goals are set for improvements.
3. Analyze: the reasons for the defects are indentified and alternatives are considered.
4. Improvements: the process is changed and double checked for improvements.
5. Control: this ensues that the prcess is not lost over time.
One improvement that can be made is instead of producing the items and then waiting to see customer reaction; whether it will sell or not, or whether the fitting is comfortable or not; they should test out the product on a small group to see their reactions instead of producing all of it and then fixing the problems.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Proces Selection
The Men’s Wearhouse conducts its operations using the batch flow method. They have different products to accommodate for a range of customers. In other words, they have a “medium” variety of inventory to sell to a “medium” volume of customers. It does not follow the same tasks and product flow repeatedly for every product but instead can use different approaches to manufacture their product.
Their customer order is the “make to stock” process in which they have their products physically in the stores as inventory to sell. In some cases, they use the “assemble to order” process. For example, the stores carry unhemed pants in which they finish them based of the customer’s exact height or do other alterations to fit the individual and give him a custom feeling. Another example would be their tuxedo rental process. The employees take the measurements of the customer and orders the tuxedo based of the measurements from a central hub located in Texas. The tuxedo is already made, but the last minute measurements (sleeve length and pant length) can be adjusted for that order. the same goes for it custom suit department. With these procedures, the Men’s Wearhouse falls under the “disconnected line flow” process life cycle and the “multiple products with medium volume” product life cycle.
With all the men’s clothing companies out there, Men’s Wearhouse had to provide the products and services that were high in demand to stay in the competition. They used technology to their advantage for their tuxedo rental and custom suits department. As soon as and order is made by a customer, it is processed directly to the central hub. The way they run their business can allow them to adopt the postponement method of mass customization.
Their customer order is the “make to stock” process in which they have their products physically in the stores as inventory to sell. In some cases, they use the “assemble to order” process. For example, the stores carry unhemed pants in which they finish them based of the customer’s exact height or do other alterations to fit the individual and give him a custom feeling. Another example would be their tuxedo rental process. The employees take the measurements of the customer and orders the tuxedo based of the measurements from a central hub located in Texas. The tuxedo is already made, but the last minute measurements (sleeve length and pant length) can be adjusted for that order. the same goes for it custom suit department. With these procedures, the Men’s Wearhouse falls under the “disconnected line flow” process life cycle and the “multiple products with medium volume” product life cycle.
With all the men’s clothing companies out there, Men’s Wearhouse had to provide the products and services that were high in demand to stay in the competition. They used technology to their advantage for their tuxedo rental and custom suits department. As soon as and order is made by a customer, it is processed directly to the central hub. The way they run their business can allow them to adopt the postponement method of mass customization.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Inventory
The Men’s Wearhouse has over 500 hundred stores nationwide. With such a large company, the inventory system is computerized to ease the process of restocking its merchandise. Men’s Wearhouse uses the Continuous Review System or the "Q" system. The company follows this process in two ways; first by the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) and second by the manual counting of suits in each store.
The computer makes a report of every time a suit's SKU is scanned and sold. This report goes to the Merchandiser for the suits division. He examines the report and then determines which products sold well and in what sizes. Every store has a set day for when they receive stock, for example every Wednesday. They get specific items that the Merchandiser chooses based off of a previous report of the items sold.
When a store manger does the counts for his inventory, he records it into the computer. This will help keep track of how many suits the store has in total to see how much more or less they need for the next shipment of stock, again determined by the Merchandiser. By doing the counts, they will be able to determine if there was any theft or if there is some sort of computer glitch.
Both reports are important in determining how many items should be shipped and when.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)