At a time when consumers expect rapid fulfillment as they shop online and from mobile devices, Target is writing custom software to improve its supply chain operations.
Target is building new supply chain software to better align inventory availability with consumer demands. To better position the retailer for online and mobile shopping, the retailer’s IT team is writing custom software to quicken the pace with which merchandise gets from its stores to consumers.
According to Target's CEO Mike McNamara" It was important to get the fundamental's of Supply chain " correct specially during today's uncertain times. Mike believes that as a company the stress and strain we put on our supply chain today is very different to what was the case four or five years ago
Target last year had allocated $1 billion for its digital business transformation, is modernizing an outdated supply chain predicated on a linear model in which goods went from the manufacturer to a distribution center and then one of its 1,800 stores for purchase.
Target's inventory lens has widened to include more products from countries such as China and perishable groceries for which timely arrival is a critical factor. Target is now shipping products directly from fulfillment centers, distribution centers and local stores to consumers' homes to accommodate preferences for online and mobile ordering.
In Target's fourth quarter, one third of its online orders were picked up in store or filled from inventory in stores. These factors have led Target to own a "longer bit of the supply chain," McNamara says. "We're using the whole enterprise inventory to service our guests in a way we never did before." The new apps are designed to better streamline increasingly complex operations.
Target naturally generates a lot of data, so it relies on several open source databases and data management tools, including Cassandra, Kafka, Couchbase, MongoDB and Hadoop
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