Crocs: Revolutionizing an Industry's Chain Model for Competitive Advantage

The company started off producing 20,000 units of mountain bikes. We did not change the production quantity. Last year our forecast sales were 24,000 when we only sold 19,866; therefore we thought it would be best to leave production at 20,000 bikes. Having excess inventory, we concluded that 20,000 units should be enough considering our quality has not changed and our advertising will not increase the sales dramatically. Although we had the choice to produce as much as 30,000 units, we felt as though we did not have sufficient money to increase production. We were interested in allocating the money towards marketing as opposed to production. We realized that without awareness, no matter how many units we make, sales would be inefficient.

The company has been functioning well in terms of generating profit and demand so far. However, there will be a 20% increase in demand for the next month of operations as predicted by management, and the production and supply management's problems may come as a problem they can no longer afford.

Unlike its competitors, Crocs had a highly responsive and flexible supply chain. Owing to the Crocs executives’ experience in electronics industry, they were accustomed to producing what the customer needed and when it was needed. Thus the business model was focussed on customer needs and responded promptly to changes in demand and trends. The retailers of shoes, therefore, had neither the pressure to forecast exact demand nor the obligation to order bulk orders several months before the selling season.

The company is looking to increase profitability and find a long-term solution to the inventory problem.

- well-organized of the distribution of the manufacturer will lessen the shopping delays of raw materials

Minimize risks due to uncertain demand. L.L. Bean would be able to manage ordering process and quantities based on actual demand and adjust more effectively.

With revenue from Crocs shoe sales reaching to $680 million in 2007, it is clear that the company has developed a successful strategy. Not all of the success can be contributed to the design of the product. Although their products were in high demand, there are more underlying factors that have paved the way for Crocs to be competitive in the shoe market. Crocs’ supply chain design and use of vertical integration revolutionized speed and quality of order fulfillment.

This causes more trade debt, which means a higher the tax penalty. Furthermore, age of payables has increased from 98 to 154 days, nearly tripling over the last four years. This is damaging to the image and trustworthiness of the company, even causing issues from the bank trusting them with grant of loan. Having a large amount of inventory can conclude additional problem involving cost of capital, maintenance cost, aging inventory and the cost of space or storage. This therefore proves the poor management skills that are required to operate a booming and profitable business.

[pic]s a senior in a professional services firm, you have been assigned to plan the financial statement audit of a private company named Toy Central Corporation (TCC). In addition, the partner on the engagement has asked you to identify business risks that could adversely affect TCC’s sustained profitability, so that they can be brought to the attention of the company’s board of directors. These tasks will require you to draw on your knowledge of supply chain management, marketing, internal controls, audit assertions, and financial accounting.

The inventory account has the greatest risk due to the numerous business and economic factors the affect AEO’s industry. As a specialty retailer, AEO must continue to maintain it’s competitive advantage in terms of forecasting customer trend preferences or risk producing out of date product styles that will lead to excess inventory.

With this company the inventory management ratios further indicate that there may be an issue with inventory and inventory controls. The inventory turnover ratio is lower than the industry average and the days’ sales in inventory are high. A company wants to turn inventory quickly to reduce storage costs, and

Crocs, Inc. is a U.S. based shoe designer, manufacturer, and retailer that launched its business in 2002 selling Crocs™ brand casual plastic clogs with straps in a variety of solid, bright colors, Crocs™ introduced an innovative shoe made of a revolutionary material called Croslite™ technology which held unique characteristics that allowed it to perform on both land and in water. The company created its own fashion phenomenon and was given the name Crocs™ after the multi-environment, amphibious nature of Crocodiles in which they add fun by designing a crocodile face logo to build a light-hearted.

Cartwright is a retail distributor of lumber products. It built its competitive edge based on pricing and having a careful control over its operations. The company reported an operating income of $86,000 and $111,000 in 2003 and 2004, respectively. This is a 29% increase in operating income in one year, which shows the firm’s strong ability to generate cash. The firm’s account receivables and inventory are increasing from year to year which is a good sign of a growing business. Cartwright is not an asset intensive company. It does not have to have huge fixed assets; most of its assets are cash, accounts receivable and inventory which all depend on future sales. Sourcing of materials is managed very well, purchased at discounts most of the time and contribute to having lower prices.

In reducing the number of vendors, the company was able to maintain high quality levels through close quality control measures and maintain its brand image of working to create the perfect shoe.

The company’s creams inventory remains constant because it does not follow a trend in innovation and changes so often as the other products. The surplus in inventory is a big disadvantage since; last year’s products may not be in style this year in addition to the cost of storage. For all these reasons their cash flow is less in comparison with previous years causing that Luxor Cosmetics keeps increasing their bank loans, creating more debt, making it harder to pay out as 2011. In this particular situation the company could have either decrease its budgeted sales (productions) or increase its actual sales by improving more effective marketing strategy and research and development of its products in the markets. This way their inventory would decrease and their cash flow would increase. (Hopkins, 2009)