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Excel Logistics Essay

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rP os t KEL019 SUNIL CHOPRA Excel Logistics Services Background op yo “The quality of our performance has improved significantly, but stores continue to complain about our deliveries,” said John Margolis, general manager of the Springfield Warehousing and Distribution Center (WDC) run by Excel Logistics Services. Margolis looked at the customer satisfaction survey for the fourth quarter of the previous year. “At this point, it is becoming increasingly difficult for us to make further improvements. We need a detailed plan of action regarding what to do next. Robin, I would like to see an initial plan from you in the next couple of months. Why don’t you begin by looking at the receiving function?” Robin Stalk, …show more content…

The WDC at Springfield had a total area of 1.1 million square feet and was divided into six modules (see Exhibit 1). Breakpack items were stored in Module 1, while full-case items were stored in Module 3. The other modules were used for sorting and the staging area. On average, Springfield had an inventory worth $46 million, which corresponded to about a one-month demand from stores in the region. op yo Margolis was hired as the general manager at the Springfield WDC in January of the previous year. A portion of his bonus was based on a quarterly survey of store managers taken by ELS management. The last survey prior to Margolis’s arrival indicated that store managers were very dissatisfied with the performance of the Springfield WDC. Springfield was a poor performer and ranked last within the ELS network. Customers (retail store managers) complained that orders were late and not delivered in the right quantity. No tC Upon arriving, Margolis focused his attention on service quality at the WDC. Margolis quickly realized that no performance data was available within the Springfield WDC. In fact, none of the processes were well defined. He had to put an entire quality program in place and appointed Robin Stalk as quality manager. Stalk had spent considerable time at Springfield and was knowledgeable about the processes and problems. As a first step, Stalk and Margolis identified receiving, inventory storage, order filling, and shipping as

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