Barilla Spa
Barilla Spa
We need to regroup now and decide where to go with JITD. Is this type of program feasible in our environment? If so, what kind of customers should we target? And how do we convince them to sign up?
Against
Vitali’s proposal, “Just-in-Time Di stribution,” met with significant resistance within Barilla. The sales and marketing organizations were particularly vocal in their opposition to the plan. A number of sales representatives felt that their responsibilities would be diminished if such a program were put in place. A range of concerns were expr essed from the bottom to the top of the sales organization. The following remarks were heard from Barilla sales and marketing personnel:
“Our sales levels would flatten if we put this program in place.”
“We run the risk of not being able to adjust our shipments sufficiently quickly to changes in selling patterns or increased promotions.”
“It seems to me that a pretty good part of th e distribution organization is not yet ready to handle such a sophisti cated relationship.”
“If space is freed up in our distributors’ wa rehouses when inventories of our own product decrease, we run the risk of giving our competit ors more of the distributors' shelf space. The distributors would then push our competitor s’ product more than our own, since once something is bought it must be sold.”
“We increase the risk of having our custom ers stock out of our product if we have disruption in our supply process. What if we have a strike or some other disturbance?”
“We wouldn’t be able to run trade promotions with JITD. How can we get the trade to push Barilla product to retailers if we don’t offer some sort of incentive?”
“It’s not clear that costs would even be reduced. If a DO decreases its stock, we at Barilla may have to increase our own inventory of those products for which we can’t change production schedules due to our lack of manufacturing flexibility.”
We need to regroup now and decide where to go with JITD. Is this type of program feasible in our environment? If so, what kind of customers should we target? And how do we convince them to sign up?
Against
Vitali’s proposal, “Just-in-Time Di stribution,” met with significant resistance within Barilla. The sales and marketing organizations were particularly vocal in their opposition to the plan. A number of sales representatives felt that their responsibilities would be diminished if such a program were put in place. A range of concerns were expr essed from the bottom to the top of the sales organization. The following remarks were heard from Barilla sales and marketing personnel:
“Our sales levels would flatten if we put this program in place.”
“We run the risk of not being able to adjust our shipments sufficiently quickly to changes in selling patterns or increased promotions.”
“It seems to me that a pretty good part of th e distribution organization is not yet ready to handle such a sophisti cated relationship.”
“If space is freed up in our distributors’ wa rehouses when inventories of our own product decrease, we run the risk of giving our competit ors more of the distributors' shelf space. The distributors would then push our competitor s’ product more than our own, since once something is bought it must be sold.”
“We increase the risk of having our custom ers stock out of our product if we have disruption in our supply process. What if we have a strike or some other disturbance?”
“We wouldn’t be able to run trade promotions with JITD. How can we get the trade to push Barilla product to retailers if we don’t offer some sort of incentive?”
“It’s not clear that costs would even be reduced. If a DO decreases its stock, we at Barilla may have to increase our own inventory of those products for which we can’t change production schedules due to our lack of manufacturing flexibility.”