Features

The term "supply chain management" serves to conceal an important part of any business process. Your business is not just about getting supplies to you, but also to get your products to your customers. One of the strategies used to achieve this is efficient consumer response, or ECR.

The ECR movement kicked off in the US in 1993, heralding the emergence of new principles of collaborative management along the supply chain. Around the same time, technology was being heavily punted as the cure for all supply chain woes. Like earlier supply chain initiatives, ECR was criticised as being just another buzzword, or phrase, in a long line of buzzwords. Today, technology is more realistically seen as a supply chain enabler, as opposed to a saviour, and approaches like ECR are proving their worth. "ECR is not just about the supply chain," explains National Brands business systems head Eric Stockenstrom. "A better term would be collaboration or partnership. And yes, the supply chain does benefit, but so does the demand chain."