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The Impact of Automatic Store Replenishment Systems on Retail
DISSERTATION of the University of St. Gallen Graduate School of Business Administration, Economics, Law and Social Sciences (HSG) to obtain the title of Doctor of Business Administration
submitted by
Alfred Angerer from Austria
Approved on the application of Prof. Dr. Daniel Corsten and Prof. Fritz Fahrni, PhD
Dissertation no. 3123
The University of St. Gallen, Graduate School of Business Administration, Economics, Law and Social Sciences (HSG) hereby consents to the printing of the presented dissertation, without hereby expressing any opinion on the views herein expressed. St. Gallen, November 17, 2005
The President
Prof. Ernst Mohr, PhD
dedicado a las dos mujeres más importantes de mi vida: mi madre y Anne
VI
VII
Foreword
Fast moving consumer goods retailing is a highly competitive market. European retailers are continuously aiming to improve customer loyalty by offering good service. At the same time, they are struggling to reduce costs in order to stay competitive. One technology that promises to decrease the number of out-of-stocks while simultaneously reducing store handling costs is automatic store replenishment (ASR). At the heart of ASR systems lies software that automatically places an order to replenish stocks. Many European grocery retailers have started to implement such decision support systems.
Surprisingly, although several retailers have automated their order process in the last few years, there is almost no academic source examining this topic at the level of the store. It is worth noting that other technologies in retail, such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and the introduction of the barcode, have received far greater attention from the public and from researchers. Furthermore, while the topic of extent and root-causes of retail out-of-stock has received substantial interest over the course of the last years, the question to
DISSERTATION of the University of St. Gallen Graduate School of Business Administration, Economics, Law and Social Sciences (HSG) to obtain the title of Doctor of Business Administration
submitted by
Alfred Angerer from Austria
Approved on the application of Prof. Dr. Daniel Corsten and Prof. Fritz Fahrni, PhD
Dissertation no. 3123
The University of St. Gallen, Graduate School of Business Administration, Economics, Law and Social Sciences (HSG) hereby consents to the printing of the presented dissertation, without hereby expressing any opinion on the views herein expressed. St. Gallen, November 17, 2005
The President
Prof. Ernst Mohr, PhD
dedicado a las dos mujeres más importantes de mi vida: mi madre y Anne
VI
VII
Foreword
Fast moving consumer goods retailing is a highly competitive market. European retailers are continuously aiming to improve customer loyalty by offering good service. At the same time, they are struggling to reduce costs in order to stay competitive. One technology that promises to decrease the number of out-of-stocks while simultaneously reducing store handling costs is automatic store replenishment (ASR). At the heart of ASR systems lies software that automatically places an order to replenish stocks. Many European grocery retailers have started to implement such decision support systems.
Surprisingly, although several retailers have automated their order process in the last few years, there is almost no academic source examining this topic at the level of the store. It is worth noting that other technologies in retail, such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and the introduction of the barcode, have received far greater attention from the public and from researchers. Furthermore, while the topic of extent and root-causes of retail out-of-stock has received substantial interest over the course of the last years, the question to
References: 23 For an explanation of make-to-stock see Alicke (2003, p 24 Source: adapted and translated from Ulrich (2001, p