How Macys.com cut order fulfillment time by 25%
With a sharpened focus on business processes and an improved system of monitoring its technology infrastructure, Federated Department Stores Inc.`s Macys.com has reduced the time it takes to fulfill online orders by 25%, to three days from four, Macys.com president Kent Anderson tells InternetRetailer.com.
Anderson attributes part of the improvement to a new Tivoli infrastructure management system from IBM Corp., which enables Macys.com to better detect computer system problems. "One way to improve a system`s up-time is to detect problems before they develop," he says. He adds that the Tivoli system is helping Macys.com get closer to 100% up-time with servers and other infrastructure, up from a more common 95%.
In addition, Macys.com has been increasing employee training in its fulfillment operations, following a Six Sigma process that identifies weaknesses and the most effective ways to address them. For example, this has helped employees to better monitor and share information about the constantly changing rate at which different products sell. In turn, that has better enabled the retailer to keep popular products in stock and avoid back-ups in fulfilling orders.
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