Puma Upgrades It's Supply Chain

Puma recently selected JDA Allocation's software to upgrade their supply chain in a move to increase their manufacturing and delivery process.  Its hard to imagine, but in a time of greater streamlined supply chains practices, Puma was still shipping a predetermined number of items to each store. With products available in over 120 countries JDA's software will be able to support distribution operations by offering more accuracy in terms of  demand patterns and ordering information. The goal of the new system will be to allow Puma to track inventory levels, down to the shoe size, and provide a greater precision in restocking individual stores.

By no means is this a groundbreaking technology, but I found  it interesting that such a large multinational retail company would wait until now to upgrade their supply chain software.  The benefits will be seen immediately as there will be a lesser need of manual labor within the distribution process, subsequently cutting costs, and less markdowns due to overstocking.  As Stefan Meyrat was quoted  such store specific optimization is just the first step in Pumas overhaul of its supply chain "to achieve globally integrated planning and assortment management" which will be able to distribute the right products to the right stores at the right time across the world.

Perhaps since we only examine  first rate supply chain practices in class it was surprising to learn that such analytics were not already applied at such a large manufacturing and retail corporation.  In turn, I think would be interesting to look at a real life example in which a company was lagging behind in such supply chain management reforms.  However, as these practices directly relate to profit, I find it hard to believe most companies don't employ many of these techniques.  What software, do Pumas competitors use, such as Nike and Adidas?

Source: http://www.cfoworld.com/technology/57709/puma-chooses-jda-software-supply-chain-management