Suchergebnisse

The management philosophy of Management by
Holistics (MbH) is addressed, where attention is
paid to achieve a balance between four vital
resources: human, capital, materials and
information. The approach focuses on the fact that
"the whole is greater than the sum of the parts"
and is based on the conviction that everyone in
an organisation needs clear‐cut goals. A model
for the implementation of this management
approach is defined with reference to Swedish
industry.

Over the years billions of dollars have been invested in new and more advanced production and handling equipment and in computer systems for the efficient control and utilisation of the resources.

There are two, or to be more accurate, three different ways of conceiving the concept of Materials Administration. (1) MA can be conceived of as a philosophy aiming at improved effectiveness and efficiency in the company, i.e. as a rationalisation approach among others. (2) MA can be conceived of as an organisational concept focusing on organisational restructuring for increased co‐ordination of the materials flow. (3) MA can be conceived of as a combination of 1 and 2 above starting with an efficiency increasing rationalisation approach which later also has consequences for the organisational structure. According to the author's experience, the third conception is the most realistic. It has, in many cases, been possible to achieve considerable cost reduction in the materials flow without organisational changes. In other cases, however, it has been necessary to adapt and develop the organisation in order to achieve the objectives which were set.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to empirically test whether a "one size fits all" strategy fits the fashion e-commerce business and second, to evaluate whether consumer returns are a central aspect of the creation of profitability and, if so, to discuss the role of returns management (RM) in the supply chain strategy.


Design/methodology/approach
– Transactional sales and return data were analysed and used to categorise customers based on their buying and returning behaviours, measuring each customer's net contribution margins.


Findings
– The e-commerce business collects a vast quantity of data, but these data are seldom used for the development of service differentiation. This study analysed behaviour patterns and determined that the segmentation of customers on the basis of both sales and return patterns can facilitate a differentiated service delivery approach.


Research limitations/implications
– This research empirically supports the theory that customer buying and returning behaviours can be used to appropriately categorise customers and thereby guide the development of a more differentiated service approach.


Practical implications
– The findings support a differentiated service delivery system that utilises a more dynamic approach, conserving resources and linking the supply chain and/or organisational strategies with customers' buying and returning behaviours to avoid over and underservicing customers.


Originality/value
– Consumer returns are often viewed as a negative aspect of doing business; interestingly, however, the authors revealed that the most profitable customer is a repeat customer who frequently returns goods.