THE SYNCHrONOUS SUPPLY CHAIN
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information of the US textile company Milliken with the Seminole Manufacturing
Company (a manufacturer of men’s slacks) and the retailer Wal-Mart. Information
on end-user demand was captured at the point-of-sale and rapidly fed back up
the supply chain, enabling dramatic reductions in lead times to be achieved and
hence substantial reductions in inventory.
Another case from the US is provided by the chain of retail fashion stores, The
Limited. Each of the several thousand stores in the chain tracks consumer pref-
erences daily using their point-of-sale data. Based upon this, orders are sent by
satellite links to the suppliers around the world. Using Hong Kong as a consolida-
tion centre, goods are flown back ...