Loblaws

1. What competitive priorities are most important for Loblaws?
2. What competitive priority is least important to the company?
3. What are the order qualifiers in the Canadian grocery retail industry?
4. What are the order winners for Loblaws?
5. Who are the suppliers for Loblaw?
   • How many are there?
   • What are the main locations
   • What is the criteria used in selecting suppliers?
   • Does Loblaw monitor suppliers regularly?
6. What kind of facilities does Loblaw have and what is its significance?
   • What are the locations of those facilities?
   • What kind of transportation does Loblaw use?
   • Does Loblaw view inventory as stock on raw materials or bring them Just-in-time?
   • Is the distribution model used by Loblaw direct-to-store OR traditional?
7. Does Loblaw use MTO/MTS/ATO? Explain.
8. Where is the company located on the product-process matrix? Explain.
9. How does capacity play a role in the company? Does capacity management present it with any special challenges?
10. Does the company need and use excess capacity? Explain.
11. What forecasting components are present in the demand for the products or services (trend, seasonal, cyclical, random components)? Does the company use short/medium, or long-term forecasting? What are the difficulties in forecasting demand for the company?
12. Does the company use lean/JIT/6-Sigma techniques? Explain.
13. Identify an 'unknown-unknown' significant supply chain risk Loblaw is exposed to. How do they mitigate this risk?
14. Identify a 'known-unknown' significant supply chain risk Loblaw is exposed to. How do they mitigate this risk?