How Sears’ new web CPFR initiative kept a tire promotion from going flat

Sears, Roebuck and Co. used a web-based collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment system recently to overcome a shortfall of 8,000 Michelin tires and save a winter tire promotion, Sears tells Internet Retailer.

In July, Sears received an electronic alert through the CPFR system that Michelin would not be able to deliver the tires in time for a September promotion, says Hank Steermann, senior manager for supply chain at Sears. "We saw this and talked about it with Michelin,” Steermann says. “They agreed to make changes to their production schedules so we could flow the goods through."

Sears uses a CPFR system as part of its enrollment in the Global Net Exchange, a retail industry b2b e-marketplace.

Steermann says that without the CPFR system, Sears probably would not have caught the problem in time to deliver on its September tire promotion. "In the old world, we probably would have discovered the problem in August while generating our orders for stores,” he says. “But then there would little Michelin could do. The tires probably would have arrived in the stores late and we would have had disappointed customers."

He adds that Michelin is Sears`s first partner in the CPFR system, which Sears expects to roll out to additional suppliers.