Benetton's formula has been to establish a global franchise operation with very strict standards of control of products, supply. Presentation and stocking in stores. By rethinking the manufacturing process so that garments are dyed as the last step in the manufacturing process so that garments are dyed as the last step in the manugfacturing process, Benetton has minimized variation in manufacture and considerably shortened the supply chain. Further, by making heavy use of information technology, the company has been able to use EPOS information in over 7000 stores worldwode as replenishment orders for manufacturers of products that they have sought to make as uniform as possible worldwide.

These can be use to improve their core vusiness processes, they have been able to use improved capabilities to launch new products, taking advantage of these enhanced capabilities.

Delivery reliability through supply chain management for Wal-Mart

Bell Atlantic : Payment Processing Reengineers

improving customer service and streamlining operations

That reality is an advanced high speed remittance image processing system which is currently saving Bell Atlantic more than $2 million annually in processing costs and has improved overall quality by seventy percent, reduced administrative costs by twenty-five percent while processing more than eleven million payments per month. And that's not all. Bell Atlantic reports customer disputes have been cut by nearly two-thirds while the six payment centers have become two system sites providing backup and disaster recovery capabilities. Bell Atlantic also has seen a dramatic reduction in the item processing cost structure, as well as the total length of processing time and month. What's even more impressive is that they have accomplished all this while reducing staffing levels by almost a third.

Bell Atlantic endured the disparate systems for six years before searching for a new high speed remittance image processing system solution. The solution would be designed, created in duplicate and deployed in two locations - Hunt Valley, Maryland and Cranford, New Jersey - to provide total backup and disaster recovery capabilities

Task 6

Not only was it important for the company's vendors to understand the magnitude of the task at hand, it was just as important to convey the message internally. "Probably the easiest way for a project of this magnitude to fail, would be a lack of communication at all levels of the organization," White stated. People need to know, as far in advance as possible, that there is no hidden agenda and how their jobs will be affected. In some cases, Bell Atlantic was able to accurately project a couple of years in advance what the staffing requirements were going to be and what the impact was going to be from a personnel standpoint.

From the beginning there would be major procedural and cultural changes associated with implementing this system, but the existing staff was certainly capable of learning the new way of doing things. "Although there will always be a few who fight change, the bottom line was that we were changing because it was best for Bell Atlantic and more importantly, their customers," White said.

One specific issue Bell Atlantic addressed was regulatory quality and timeliness requirements provided for customer services. Using the old systems, it often became a challenge to provide this. Currently, the company far exceeds those requirements and there is never a question that customers are getting anything other than superior and outstanding service.

Bell Atlantic has also reduced the number of payment processing centers from six to two, which in itself is saving the company more than $2 million annually. To do this, there were many administrative headaches and unnecessary costs associated with managing those disparate sites. The two processing centers, which have been fully operational for two years, run six days per week, twelve hours per day.