Hp Deskjet Supply Chain Analysis
HP Deskjet Printer Supply Chain Case Analysis – This case study deals with Hewlett-Packard (HP), a famous manufacturer of computers and peripherals. In the early 1990s, HP faced a so-called “Inventory/Service-Crisis” concerning one of their high volume products, the DeskJet printer. Despite growing inventory levels at the distribution centers in Europe and Asia-Pacific, customer service levels were unsatisfactory.
Affected by growing competition this problem had to be handled quickly.Brent Cartier, Manager for Special Projects in the Materials department of HP Company’s Vancouver Division, had tried his best to find the possible solutions of the issues related with inventory of DeskJet printers that were arisen at world level specially, at Europe. He had short time for these tasks because preparation was needed to be done for Monday’ s meeting with Group Management on worldwide inventory levels for the DeskJet Printer product line.Finally, opinions and reactions of different company divisions concerning the implementation of DC localization are analyzed. Although HP’s new inkjet printers were selling well, inventory levels worldwide were rising as sales rose. In Europe, high product variety was making inventory levels especially high.
HP considered several ways to address the inventory issue: airfreighting printers to Europe, developing more formalized inventory planning processes, or building a factory in Europe.
The case is classic example for inventory analysis and to identifying the organizational challenges which companies face in implementing supply chain solutions.
Recommendations:
- ? There is no coordination among channel members so HP must improve this deficiency through information flow.
- ? DC localizations ? To reduce lead time, Air transportation can be considered as suggested by traffic manager Kay Johnson.
- ? R;D team can visit the markets of Europe and Asia Pacific to understand the customer needs and for demand analysis.
- ? Improve forecasting by adopting contemporary strategies.
