Top 5 Petsmart Supply Chain Management Lessons For Business Growth

PetSmart, the world’s largest specialty pet retailer of supplies and solutions was looking for a way to cut labor costs and reduce late and early deliveries through its 1,650 locations in the United States and Canada. Late deliveries and other supply chain delays were creating excessive contact loops between store employees, carriers, and company headquarters, as well as placing unnecessary pressure on customer-facing staff, with over 180,000 shipments each year.

The pet retailer chose FourKites in early 2019 to provide freight visibility to its supply chain as a strategic advantage. Petsmart supply chain was able to pinpoint the source of store delays and reduce the effects on employee efficiency by increasing insight into its in-transit deliveries. Instead of waiting at the loading dock, PetSmart was able to devote more associate hours to the crucial job of enhancing the consumer experience with pet parents thanks to their collaboration with FourKites.

As we come to the end of what has been an extraordinarily difficult year for many, here are certain Petsmart supply chain lessons that we can all learn from and implement beyond.

Global disruptions necessitate the use of cutting-edge business tools.

“This does not imply that you should abandon your current business structure in favor of one with all the bells and whistles. No two businesses’ needs are the same at this stage. Determine yours by identifying the most important roadblocks in your way. Find the best complementary tools that can work with your method to extract, evaluate, and leverage the data you need to be effective over the course of your digital supply chain journey. Your current system can’t adapt to overcome these hurdles.

Possibility that your new source of supply is right under your nose

As the present situation has brought some of the world’s most important manufacturing centers to a halt, several businesses started searching for raw materials and goods closer to home. This was a brilliant idea, and it was already being implemented as a result of the international tariff wars that began in 2019. When the supply chain is disrupted, the time it takes to get finished products to your factory becomes vital. Fastenal’s Jeff Hicks writes in Forbes, “Finding local or regional sources will minimize your transportation time and enable you to purchase goods in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks.” Local and regional distribution should still have global scope and preparation, according to him. Look for local service providers that can handle and implement a supply chain.

When there is a “fog of war,” technology offers transparency

Few supply chain managers anticipated that a significant portion of 2020 will be spent navigating the “confusion created by the uncertainty of war or battle,” also known as the fog of war. Although it’s common knowledge that technology makes teams more effective under normal operating environments, it can be even more useful when dealing with unknowns. Fastenal, for example, uses technology to provide insight into employee actions in terms of product use, according to Hicks: What’s going on here? How easily do you think it would happen? Are there any changes in the patterns? “Having access to this data allows you to rapidly identify patterns, prioritize what is most relevant, and prepare accordingly,” he writes, adding that technology can also help add a layer of control and prolong the life of existing inventory by systematically managing unnecessary consumption.

It is going be something else, if it isn’t that one thing

Businesses those were able to successfully survive the early stages of the global pandemic and resume operations in a near-normal state soon run into a new problem: a lack of transportation power. Forbes recommends including a pre-negotiated superior price escalator in your carrier contracts with specified circumstances to ensure stability now and in 2021. “Consider entering shipper cooperatives that pool volumes from a wide number of companies to achieve further collective blow on behalf of members,” it suggests. “As a final point, a good freight forwarder will take care of all of your shipping woes while ensuring technology, outstanding customer service, and visibility experienced by Petsmart supply chain.”

Investing in the digital supply chain

Disasters can strike in unpredictable ways, and that their supply chains can be easily exposed to previously unknown vulnerabilities. Thankfully, technology has progressed to the point that it can assist businesses in navigating VCDA (volatility, confusion, difficulty, and ambiguity) environments and events. In Retail Info Systems, Mark Burstein writes, “To reduce the effects of supply chain disruptions, businesses will need a digital supply chain that unites all the applications, procedures, and knowledge in the supply chain, linking all stakeholders on a single digital network which makes it an important platform for managing a supply chain crisis.” “Demand preparation and forecasting, postponement strategies, vendor control and procurement, Omni channel inventory visibility, and much more can all be done with it.”