Edwin Senjobe

London

IT

RFID promisses great improvements and efficiency to companies in any supply-chain. Take up of RFID technology in the UK is slow and companies like Sainsbury would have saved themselves the IT and distribution. It is 2007 and the Supply Chain problems at Sainsbury’s are still on-going. They will take out the automated depot and supply chain systems that failed and led to shelves being empty. The depots are now to work with a more manual intervention. According to Rene Carayol, the IT-based transformation should have been backed by the board but there was a lot of delegation of responsibilities.

Throughout this long story of the Sainsbury’s Supply Chain project, did Sainsbury’s simulate its Supply Chain to identify areas for improvement? At a great cost they shelved an RFID project?!?! A lot of time and money have been spent on trying to improve the business’ Supply Chain, but it seems they projects are handled half-heartedly. 3D Simulation would have highlighted key failings and helped with solutions for improvement. RFID would have helped them locate where goods were not moving.

The Japanese experiment is a good opportunity for Sainsbury’s to take heed, learn, adopt and start seeing improvements in its supply chain.