Unlike buying or marketing, supply chain isn’t up there as one of the sexy functions within retailing. That’s an oversight that this column aims to put right.

That’s because, now more than ever, supply chain staff can make their mark on retail with the intelligent use of technology.

This week, some 300 supply chain and IT staff, from 24 countries, have been gathered at a hotel near Heathrow for Red Prairie’s international user conference. And Retail Week was there, too.

Success stories came thick and fast. One British retailer has achieved a 27 per cent improvement in productivity at one of its distribution centres since making a labour-management system live at the start of the summer. Such an improvement right in time for the Christmas peak certainly caught Retail Week’s eye.

In France, another supply-chain software success story comes from Auchan, which is building circular warehouses behind its stores. Customers have plenty of room to fill their trolleys with the sexy, higher-margin stuff in stores. After they have finished shopping, they drive round the back to the warehouse, where they can collect lower-margin bulk items like toilet paper.

It’s a strategy that is proving successful enough that the retailer plans to roll out the Auchan Drive concept to 70 of its 120 French hypermarkets and will consider taking it to other countries, too.

Other developments mentioned include the creation of Apparel City, a massive project in Northern India that will handle the manufacture of clothing from yarn right through to warehousing finished products – products that your business might well soon be selling.

An improved ability to turn catwalk trends into products for sale through technology-driven best-practice with massive economies of scale certainly sounds a little sexy, too.

So, while warehouses, transportation, picking and packing may never be glamorous, it’s time that well-organised supply-chain systems got the love they deserve.

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