《供应链管理》第四组作业.doc

Case： 7-Eleven: A Convenience Store With more than 17,000 stores in more than 20 countries, 7-Eleven is one of the largest convenience store chains in the world. It has more than 7,000 stores in Japan and almost 5,000 in the United States. Its growth in Japan has been phenomenal, given that the first 7-Eleven store opened in Japan in 1974. 7-Eleven Japan is one of the most profitable companies listed on the Tokyo stock exchange. It has been tremendous growth in sales and profitability while simultaneously decreasing its inventory relative to sales. 7-Eleven Japans success is attributed primarily to its supply chain design and management ability. A key reason for its success is 7-Elevens efforts to obtain a strategic fit between its competitive strategy and its location, transportation, inventory, and information strategy in the supply chain. 7-Eleven aims to provide customers with what they want, when they want it. Form a strategic perspective, one of the companys key objectives is to micro-match supply and demand by location, season, and time of day.7-Eleven designs and manages location, inventory, transportation, and information to support this objective. 7-Eleven follows a dominant location strategy and opens new stores in target areas to establish or enhance a strong presence. In Japan, for example, 7-Eleven stores are present in less than half of the prefectures (roughly equivalent to a county in the United States). However, 7-Eleven has a strong presence, with several stores, in each prefecture where they are located. In the United States, 7-Eleven stores were not as concentrated prior t0 1994. Between 1994 and 1997, 7-Eleven closed several of its stores in isolated locations. Today, the company targets new stores in areas that already have a strong 7-Eleven presence. This strategy is consistent with the location strategy in Japan. This dominant location strategy allows the company the benefits of consolidation in both warehousing and transportation. In Jap