What other supply chain opportunities should West Marine pursue as the

company looks forward?

 CPFR training program for all new recruits: Organizational change is necessary to support and enable the
process of CPFR. On the supplier side, supply chain, sales and customer service roles will need to be
reorganized into virtual CPFR teams. On the customer side (i.e., the distributor or retailer), buying,
marketing and merchandising functions will need to be organized and managed as a CPFR unit. Thus,
training and education is very necessary.

Real time, quick follow-up mechanism should be installed ---Since CPFR collaboration efforts typically
occur on a weekly or monthly basis and not in real time, quick follow-up is necessary to prevent exception-
management processes from going off track. In situations where trading partner agreements include
financial penalties, exception management is especially vital to controlling costs.

Data mining and AI ---Since huge amount of data is present in the spreadsheets which is being separately
managed by company and multiple vendors, West marine can look for data analytics firm to mine the data
it has accumulated over the years which can result in much better forecasting models in long run. Also, in
future, company can use AI to cut its cost and automate some of its supply chain operations
 Using six sigma, why why analysis : WestMarine should use methodologies such as six sigma, control chart
, 7 QC tools for measuring multiple metrics like deviation from required time granted to vendors or
distributors and also use why-why analysis and other tools for letting know the root cause of any problem
and then taking corrective actions to overcome it.

Using acceptable data standards and protocols in sharing data----- Huge data get piled up in spreadsheets
across multiple vendors and transfer of this data can be a messy task. Both parties typically agree to use a
common data-transfer protocol like electronic data interchange (EDI) to exchange data. The key to making
technology decisions regarding CPFR is agreement on the use of acceptable data standards and protocols,
particularly when there are multiple trading partners in your CPFR marketplace