Australian retailer Coles has chosen Infor Nexus for its global trade platform to create enhanced international supply chain visibility for the organisation.
The deployment of the global trade platform will streamline imports, reduce costs and modernise Coles’ international supply chain. Coles will roll out the world-class solution in 2020, the first organisation in Australia to directly do so.
Infor Nexus is a scalable platform that will enable Coles to reduce working capital through lower stock in transit and distribution centre stock holdings; reduce transport costs, including freight, demurrage and customs clearance; and simplify transactions with freight service providers.
Kevin Gunn, Coles executive general manager for operations and transformation, said the Infor Nexus platform would enable real-time visibility of international stock.
“Availability is a key issue for customers, and some popular items — such as light globes, herbs and spices, and kitchen essentials like foil and garbage bags — cannot be sourced domestically so we need to look to international suppliers,” Gunn said.
“By understanding where our stock is in transit, we can better plan our stock movements to enhance availability for customers and reduce the time taken to move products into our stores, improving our use of working capital by reducing the time inventory spends in our supply chain,” he added.
Gunn said this will also support improved efficiencies through the supply chain by minimising the need to move stock between states, resulting in fewer truck movements which will also improve road safety and reduce carbon emissions.
Coles will run all international transactions through the Infor Nexus B2B information exchange.
“Ultimately, Infor Nexus will lead to better product availability on-the-shelf for customers,” Coles chief information and digital officer Roger Sniezek said.
Brett Egglestone, VP of commercial and retail at Infor ANZ, said the platform will provide multi-enterprise connectivity to help Coles digitise the flow of information between its trading partners and provide a single system of record to orchestrate the physical and financial supply chain.
