ECR - Efficient Consumer Response Australiasia

ECRA announces the launch of an Industry Toolkit for Shelf Ready Packaging

The Board of Efficient Consumer Response Australasia (ECRA) recognised that there was the potential for a multiplication of shelf ready packaging standards within the Australian and New Zealand food and grocery industry leading to a risk of proliferation of contradictory guidelines, which would endanger the initial vision of bringing more value to the consumer.

This guide provides

- coverage of the potential benefits of improved scorecarding together with the relevant background and 
  issues.
- a standardised scorecard to be used between individual trading partners, including definitions, desired
  measurement frequency and units of measure.
- an outline of the steps that companies should follow to establish relevant and effective KPIs between trading
  partners.

-  the key success factors for the successful implementation of effective scorecards.
-  recommended next steps for KPI measurement and scorecards both at the trading partner and industry levels.

This is the fourth study commissioned by the ECRA Board, facilitated by IBM Global Business Services. The objectives are to: assess industry maturity development vs targets previously set; benchmark industry maturity vs Europe and the USA; estimate potential remaining benefits of full ECR adoption at an industry level; and provide each participating company with visibility of their maturity vs others in their industry.

The Product Introduction and Delisting report evaluates the operational inefficiencies and unnecessary costs for supplier, retailers and wholesalers through the introduction of new product lines and delisting of others, and outlines processes aimed at optimising the management of ranging decisions.

The From Barcode to Electronic Code report evaluates the readiness of the Australasian market to embrace the Electronic Product Code (EPC) network.
What emerges is a picture of a region where many companies have moved beyond a “wait and see” approach to a “watch and learn” phase which is a preliminary to implementation.

The Data Integrity & Synchronisation – Building a foundation for industry collaboration report has been developed by a team of consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers, grocery retailers and wholesalers brought together by Efficient Consumer Response Australasia (ECRA). The ECRA Board commissioned this work to facilitate progress towards full implementation of data integrity and synchronisation (DIS) across the Australasian grocery industry based on a single regional data pool, EANnet.

With the vital support of IBM Business Consulting Services, the latest report, “Efficient Product Movement” brings together the expertise of a project team drawn from suppliers, retailers and wholesalers at the leading edge of process change in the transport and distribution of food and grocery products in Australia and New Zealand. It reflects increased attention by trading partners to increased efficiency in the handling and transport of products through the supply chain.

The ECR Australasia (ECRA) Board commissioned PwC Consulting (PwC) to conduct the 2002 Tracking Study as part of its ongoing process to monitor and encourage the development and implementation of advanced demand and supply chain management processes in Australasia. The major objectives of the study are to identify:

The benchmark ECR Europe shrinkage project reported early in 2001 and took up from the many retail loss prevention studies and surveys, to further investigate loss within the fast moving consumer goods and supermarket sector.

The publication is intended as an operational guide that is applicable across a variety of trading environments and provides an improvement path for companies with varying levels of experience and capability. The concepts in this guide reflect the conclusions of studies in Australasia and the USA that were accessed in the preparation of the report. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the stock out rate at retail may be 5%-10%, while for fast moving consumer products and during periods of high demand, stock outs may reach 15% or higher.

The Grocery Industry Supply Chain Committee's (GISCC) 1999 Tracking Study identified that there were several opportunities for significant improvement in demand forecasting. General operating practices revealed that there were few instances of trading partners sharing information, few companies were actively developing forecasting capabilities and most forecasting was done on a monthly cycle rather than weekly using different forecasts for sales/marketing, etc.

The ECR Australasia project team has developed a framework for demand forecasting including recommendations for improving the process, developing organisational capability and acquiring the right technology. "A Guide to Demand Forecasting within the Grocery Industry" includes two case studies which clearly demonstrate the improvements that can be made using the methods it recommends.

To quote from the 1999 Grocery Industry Tracking Study, "The role of activity based costing in ECR is to understand the likely impacts of new ways of doing business. However, the results of that study indicate that there has been relatively little progress with activity based costing". In view of the lack of progress in activity-based costing across the Australasian grocery industry this project was established to evaluate and trial a methodology developed by ECR Europe, for the pre- and post-implementation analysis of the cost and profit impact of ECR initiatives.

The ECRA Board recently commissioned a review of it's initiatives with the aim of maximising their effectiveness and identifying relevant future work streams. The review included a desktop evaluation of existing work activities, including communication and education and analysis of a questionnaire issued to retailers and suppliers in the food and grocery sector to gain an appreciation of the adoption of report recommendations.