AUGUST 29, 2017 BY SOCIAL MEDIA
How do you conduct a Price Increase process in a supply chain?
In the electrical industry supply chain it is important for the manufacturer to provide product and pricing data well in advance for the electronic commerce of the business. That means the future effective prices are to be supplied at least 45 – 60 days in advance to the channel partners i.e., industrial distributors like Grainger, Graybar, etc. for planning and stocking purposes and the retail powerhouses like Home Depot, Lowes, Menards etc.
What about including any product obsolescence to the mix? Say a certain line of products have a newer product release that replaced the older ones. How do you communicate the cross reference from the old to the new ones? Is it based on form, fit and functions or a direct replacement? How do you ensure to maintain the data integrity all the way until the data is ingested in the down stream processes?
dataZen Engineering created an unique system and a process. We worked with the manufacturer’s product Information and pricing teams along with the associated data exchange pools to schedule & implement future pricing data well in advance. And, communicate any product obsolescence. When the future prices are effective, dataZen Engineering automatically notifies the distributors via data exchange pools of a price change on the effective date on time and before schedule. That also includes communicating effectively and technically to the retail power houses.
How do we do that? Well, first we focus on the process as it exists today. Then we looked for process improvements and finally simplified the process using the right technology. Again, it is the process that comes first and technology later.