Communicate in real time with suppliers while providing a secure exchange of business documents. Extends shipment tracking and order visibility to the company's business partners through a booking information module (BIM) that effectively serves as an extranet to manage shipment informationSatisfies current project requirements, and positions Limited Brands to support future business initiatives and reduce development time and the cost of solutions a reusable framework so that software solutions can be replicated rather than created from scratch

Problems:The acquired companies typically had their own supply chain software which meant that Limited Brands was running sixty major systems with hopes of keeping everything organized. As was demonstrated in 2002 this would not be possible. Because the different systems did not have the ability to communicate to one another, there was no way to ensure proper coordination.3.) What management, organization, and technology factors were responsible for these problems?Management: The very rapid growth of Limited Brands was a driving force for the supply chain mess that was to come. Decisions to acquire companies, although potentially beneficial for the bottom line, must be well planned and orchestrated to make sure problems such as this one don't arise.Organization: The organizational problems were clear. People did not know what was going where, when. They were pretty much operating blindly not knowing if a shipment would arrive on time or if it was headed to the right location. For a company this big and wide spread it was not an option to have such disorganization.Technology: The main technology issue was the various legacy programs controlling specific materials throughout the supply chain. The use of mergers and acquisitions provided for a variety of supply chain management programs that could not be linked together intensifying the mess the company was already in.How did Limited Brands solve these problems? What management, organization, and technology issues were addressed by the solution?

Limited Brands set out to revolutionize their supply chain software. The company hoped to be able to "develop an enterprise-wide view of the supply chain" (385) by eliminating the legacy systems and consolidating it into one system. They hoped this would allow the customer to be at the front and back of the supply chain and allow them to address their customer's needs easier.Management: Limited Logistics Services launched several programs in attempt to ease the supply chain problems. They created two regional docking centers on either coast as a way to funnel products from the shipments directly to the stores. This reduced time to market by 10 days and allowed for more dependable deliveries.Organization: Limited Brands united their entire information operations under one entity called Limited Technologies Services. This allowed for a fully operating 750 employee subsidiary with a budget of $150 million maintaining operations and functionality of all Limited IT systems.Technology: Contracted Tibco to create a global SCM software to allow Limited to track the flow through the supply chain. Also enabled OSCAR (outbound supply chain and reporting) allowing the company to access real time records of shipments and gain a better grasp on their deliveries.

Why is it necessary:Limited Brands had already begun to contemplate its supply chain needs a year earlier when discount retailers were pushing Limited stores out of their market space. The company reacted to the threat by focl1sing on higher-end products, which carried the potential for higher profit margins. In order to get the most out of this strategy, the company needed to increase its speed to market for these prodl1cts. Improved supply chain technologies that integrate and leverage the supply chain and logistics for the overalI benefit of the brand were required. increased sales; better flexibility for responding to market trends and customer needs; and freeing up employees to concentrate on sales rather than on tasks related to supply chain and logisticswith over 1,000 suppliers around the world and multiple distribution channels it was imperative for Limited Brands to develop an enterprise-wide view of the supply chain. Such a view required visibility in the supply chain-often described as seeing it as a glass pipeline-views of the inventory and customer buying patterns, raw material transportation, and, most important1y, the ability to look at alI of these components siml1ltaneol1s1y.Solutions:Rick Jackson, executive vice president of LLS, won the brand executives over by showing them one by one how supply chain transformation would produce significant savings and strategic benefits. Jackson and his team also developed for each brand a customer service agreement and metrics for evaluating results. Jackson and his team launched several cross-functional projects to bolster their credibility. They built regional docking centers on the East and West Coasts to funnel products directly to stores, reducing costs and time to get products to market by as much as 10 days. This helped brand managers make much quicker decisions about which products to reorder. Brand executives embraced the transformation after they saw these results.Matthews parlayed his experience with the project into support for the ~ supply chain strategy that he had been promoting for I 25 years: bringing supply chain management (SeM) \ doser to the boardroom. Matthews had always \ believed that the corporate leveI of many businesSes \ was mistakenly ambivalent toward supply chain \ I management concerns. SCMhad been found to be a I major drain on revenues and was c10sely linkcd to other success-related factors such as pricing, quality, lead times, and customer satisfaction. Matthews was therefore very pleased to make SCM a large part of the corporate culture at Limited Brands, where he said it contributed significantly to overall corporate strategy.He also emphasized the impact of the supply chain on shareholder value. With the supply chain better aligned with the goals of the boardroom, the company was able to focus on improving revenue rather than simply keeping costs down.

The situation became acute when beginning in 2001, discount retailers started encroaching on Limited's market space. In response, the company began shifting to a high-end product line that would generate fatter margins. To make this new strategy work, however, Limited needed new supply chain technologies and processes to drive the speed-to-market requirements of the new growth strategy greater sales from its retail brands, greater flexibility in terms of being able to respond to market needs, and the capability of relieving the stores of processing and logistics tasks so the company's 100,000 associates can do what they do bestsellAn enterprisewide view is critical in dealing with supply chain efforts, Matthews said. "We often talk about visibility as looking through a glass pipeline, but it's not actually just looking at pipeline, not just looking at inventory or customer buying patterns or raw-material transportation. It's actually looking at all of the above and, more importantly, all at the same time." These, Tibco and Limited Brands agree, were the result of rudimentary point-to-point interfaces that Limited Brands had been using to link one system to the next based on specific criteria. For instance, the monolithic interfaces typically linked an individual shipping facility to a point of distribution and transmitted data on a batch basis. - See more at: http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Supply-Chain/The-Limited-Designs-Supply-Chain-to-Begin-and-End-With-the-Customer/1#sthash.oB1J5kSN.dpufbusiness integration framework can be readily replicated each time a new delivery agent, who receives merchandise from the manufacturer, joins the network, integration is efficient, rapid and lowers developmental costs The Tibco solution also enables Limited to communicate in real time with suppliers while providing a secure exchange of business documents. In addition, it extends shipment tracking and order visibility to the company's business partners through a booking information module (BIM) that effectively serves as an extranet to manage shipment information."The Tibco solution satisfies current project requirements, and positions Limited Brands to support future business initiatives and reduce development time and the cost of solutions," said Darrell S. Riekena, director of logistics systems at Limited Brands, in the implementation white paper after the Tibco work was completed a little more than a year ago.Limited has now managed to consolidate its technology operations into a single shared service for all of its brands. This is operated centrally by Limited Technology Services, a subsidiary company run by CIO Jon Ricker. It employs some 750 information-technology professionals and has an annual budget of approximately $150 million.- See more at: http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Supply-Chain/The-Limited-Designs-Supply-Chain-to-Begin-and-End-With-the-Customer/1#sthash.oB1J5kSN.dpufISCM creates a new business design, one that cuts across organizational boundaries and establishes direct communication, information, and structural links across firms. ISCM supports cross-organizational innovation by removing the waste caused by miscommunication, fragmentation, and interorganizational tension, as well as by leveraging the competencies of multiple organizations into a new competitive weaponemphasize the creation of mutually beneficial procedures and processes, knitting participating organizations together with a common vision and strategyto deliver superior service and value to the supply chains customers.

Also enabled OSCAR (outbound supply chain and reporting) allowing the company to access real time records of shipments and gain a better grasp on their deliveries, and, most importantly, the ability to look at alI of these components simultaneously.With the supply chain better aligned with the goals of the boardroom, the company was able to focus on improving revenue rather than simply keeping costs down

Emphasize on the creation of mutually beneficial procedures and processes , knitting participating organizations together with a common vision and strategyto deliver superior service and value to the supply chains customers Business integration framework can be readily replicated each time a new delivery agent, who receives merchandise from the manufacturer, joins the network, integration is efficient, rapid and lowers developmental costs