Detailed Abstract on Cosmetics Logistics

The purpose of this report was to investigate a cosmetic company, which is called Stila Cosmetics, in United States of America.

RFID systems are currently being used in manufacturing plants to track parts, stay informed of work in progress, reduce product defects, increase throughput, and manage production of given products. Big name retailers such as Best Buy, Metro, Target, Albertson’s, Hewlett Packard, and Wal-Mart are leading the way in implementing RFID systems. These retailers recognize the need to improve inventory efficiency, ensure products are available to customers as needed, decrease theft, and cut down on costs associated with tracking and processing inventory.

However, it is important to mention about an active RFID technology in order to understand why it is not suitable for the case of the production in-house logistics. Active system provides constant visibility of inventory, they are placed in the zones wherever inventory needs to

The RFID is considered a significant improvement over the conventional barcode, which needs to be read by scanners in "line-of-sight" fashion and can be stripped away if the paper product labels get ripped or damaged. RFID can also facilitate inter-organizational E-commerce initiatives such as continuous replenishment or vendor-managed inventories (Smaros and Holmstrom, 2000).

The RFID system will open new sales opportunities to larger markets such as the Department of Defense (DoD) and Wal-Mart. Who are now demanding that RFID tracking as a condition of contracting.

Since the delivery of these goods is based off customer orders, refusals and returns could be conceivably eliminated. This will aid to prevent waste, which in the long run could become a considerable cost (Bowersox, Closs, & Cooper, 2010).

RFID data is visible and trackable across the supply chain and reduces scanning error, stockouts and the labour required to move inventory (Shin & Eksioglu 2014, p. 633). Importantly, as Concept2creation (n.d.) shows picking and scanning cartons from the cages is labour intensive and requiring audits. Alternatively, RFID transmitters on pallets and cages, can automatically be scanned upon receipt. Cartons without RFID can be placed in totes to be tracked internally (Michel 2014,

Today, RFID is used in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, travel, entertainment, etc. RFID increases efficiency of operations, decreases reliance on manual process, improves asset visibility and traceability, reduces operation costs, and provides useful data for business analytics. There are many different reasons why companies and firms are beginning to make the switch to RFID, some examples are: automating inventory and asset-tracking in healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and business sectors; identifying the source of products, enabling intelligent recall of defective or dangerous items; prevent use of counterfeit products in the supply chain; improve shopping experience for consumers; provide visibility into the supply chain

Estée Lauder has an extremely large presence as the global leader in prestige beauty with products being sold in more than 150 countries. This global success is attributed to their focus on cultural relevance, making sure that their products, signage, marketing etc. appeals to consumers in each local market.

RFID (radio frequency identification) is an new technology that threatens to take the place of bar codes in the supply chain world. The technology uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. This innovation can provide many benefits in logistics and may revolutionize the entire industry. But, even though the technology provides many benefits, it also has many drawbacks and may not yet be developed enough to become the industry standard. The technology also may not be beneficial or cost effective for every business and will require a total overhaul of a businesses infrastructure, which can be extremely costly. Furthermore, both bar codes and RFID technology have many pros and cons, also industry may not be ready to implement RFID into their infrastructure.

RFID, or radio frequency identification, is the new system that is replacing the use of barcodes. RFID tags allow users to more quickly obtain information from the object that the RFID tag

In understanding that inventory management must include the entire supply chain, Wal-Mart’s implementation of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology at its dock doors enables operations teams and suppliers know when a shipment arrives. The data is useful to determine when to order additional stock or to figure out if a store has over ordered.

There are a variety of distribution channels used in the marketing of cosmetic products which include examples such as product counters set up in department stores and product distribution through shelf display in supermarkets. These intermediaries make selling more efficient by minimizing the number of contacts a company has to make by handling all the individual contacts with customers and providing a range of goods to customers at one location. All

Rivalry is intense among the competition in the cosmetic and skin care industry. There are numerous existing cosmetic companies competing in the market. The giant corporations acquire numerous brand name products and compete for the same number of customers. The competition consists of companies such as, Procter & Gamble, L’Oreal, Unilever, Avon Products, Inc., Estee Lauder, in addition to competing with large retailers, who order mass

Some of the disadvantages of the RFID technology are that it is expensive to install. Small and medium scale enterprises find it costly to use it in their firms and offices. In the case of Harley Davidson, getting products from many different suppliers’ would mean that the tags may have to be installed in liquid and metal products. The problem is that the liquid and metal surfaces tend to reflect the radio waves, which makes the tags unreadable. The tags have to be placed in various alignments and angles for taking proper reading. This is a tedious task when the work involves a large organization like Harley Davidson. Another disadvantage of the technology is that interference has been observed if devices such as forklifts and walkie-talkies are in the vicinity of the distribution centers. The presence of mobile phone towers has been found to interfere with RFID radio waves. Wal-Mart, the retail sector giant, has installed billions of RFID tags in their products throughout the world and they have encountered such problems.