David Simister

IN MORE than 20 years with Sainsbury, Britain's second largest supermarket chain, Dave Simister has worked in a range of roles, from logistics through to marketing, writes David Hewson.
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Today, Simister's working life revolves around the very latest technology - an e-collaboration system that links the chain to its suppliers more closely than he could have dreamed possible

Collaborators: Andy Anderson of AAH, top, Dave macInnis of Woolworths, left, and Dave Simister of Sainsbury
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"Suppliers can see stock running down for themselves and the good ones will then ramp up production, even before they get the call from us," says Simister.

The award was accepted by David Simister, Collaborative Systems Manager of

David Simister and Diane Carter, J Sainsbury Logistics Collaborative Systems and Senior Manager Logistics Operations, J Sainsbury
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David Simister joined Sainsbury's Supermarkets in 1979 as a student and has stayed with them ever since.Gaining experience in Retail Management, Systems Development and support , Logistics Event Planning and Instore Marketing he is currently helping to develop and implement collaborative systems and implement the Category Management programme into Logistics.

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Dave joined the company in 1979, which says he's either loyal, or un-adventurous.He's worked in the stores, systems development, marketing and now, he's joined my team in logistics operations concentrating on developing, but more importantly implementing, collaborative systems.

David:

A little bit about the company.Sainsburys is a company that was formed in 1869 by John James and Mary Ann, who opened their first store in Drury Lane, London.From those humble beginnings, we now trade in 413 stores in the U.K., 306 Homebases in the U.K. and in the States, we trade under the name of Shaws and Star Markets.

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You need a good relationship as Dave has already said.Four years ago, Sainsburys were known as having an adversarial relationship with suppliers and were not approachable for new ideas.We can't afford to be like that, we had to change.We feel we've worked hard at this and realising that, we had to change to move the business forward.To do this, you have to have trust.You have to trust us and we have to trust you.And in the trust, there are three elements of it.

An example of this is the work being done by David Simister , logistics manager at J Sainsbury.In 1994 , he says , the company was not in a happy place as far as its supply chain was concerned , with high stock levels , availability issues , what he calls adversarial relationships with suppliers , and a lack of visibility of information".At its 380 stores across the UK , it was experiencing ‘out of stock' notices on far too many items.By collaborating with Nestle on ways to better manage promotions , the retailer has been able to turn that around , creating Web sites for suppliers , increasing promotional lines by 20 % and offering the potential for large reductions in planning chain administration and paperwork.

David Simister, manager of collaborative systems at Sainsbury Supermarkets Ltd. in London. said the incremental approach is like eating an elephant - you do not try it all at once - or boiling a frog - you should slowly turn up heat on employees to minimise pain.

At Sainsbury's a collaborative promotion program with suppliers brought hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra sales, slashed the hours devoted to paperwork and yielded 20 % greater availability of rnerchandise.-Simister said.

Phoenix-based PetsMart Inc. also preached the benefits of a collaborative supply-chain pilot.

It is an opportunity for Sainsbury's and our supplier partners to improve availability, reduce inventory and increase sales on all products, focusing on product ranges that have a significant impact on the end to end supply chain -- for example promoted products or seasonally impacted lines," said David Simister, Supplier Relations manager, Sainsbury's Supermarkets Limited.

It is an opportunity for Sainsbury's and our supplier partners to improve availability , reduce inventory and increase sales on all products , focusing on product ranges that have a significant impact on the end to end supply chain -- for example promoted products or seasonally impacted lines , said David Simister , Supplier Relations manager , Sainsbury's Supermarkets Limited.GNX provides implementation support and training , consistent collaboration standards for all trading partners , shared learnings , and is actively developing additional functionality to take CPFR to the next level..

J. Sainsbury Moving Out of Egypt : ReportLONDON ( January 29 , 2001 ) -- J. Sainsbury here has reportedly decided to pull out of Egypt after a mere 18 months operating in the country , and despite of an investment of more than $140 million.The most likely buyer of Sainsbury's Egyptian holdings , which include 17 supermarkets , is a Saudi-Yemeni consortium , according to a report by the Intelligence Unit published Friday.The article noted the Egyptian government was not pro-active in helping Sainsbury overcome either chronic difficulties clearing goods through customs or a campaign of vilification against the retailer orchestrated by local competitors that led to mob stoning of stores and a consumer boycott that lowered sales 40 %.

It is an opportunity for Sainsbury's and our supplier partners to improve availability, reduce inventory and increase sales on all products, focusing on product ranges that have a significant impact on the end to end supply chain -- for example promoted products or seasonally impacted lines, ' said David Simister, Supplier Relations manager, Sainsbury's Supermarkets Limited. ``GNX provides implementation support and training, consistent collaboration standards for all trading partners, shared learnings, and is actively developing additional functionality to take CPFR to the next level.''.

``CPFR can potentially bring process and structure to supply chain management.

Dave Simister, supplier relationships manager at J Sainsbury, says: "Out of all the products we sell, promotions cause the biggest problems because they create spikes in the supply chain.You can improve forecasting and improve your capacity, but it's more about ensuring everyone involved in the supply chain can see the information."

He adds that while in the past it could take up to a month to measure demand on a particular promotion, now one supplier on the system has reported getting feedback the day after kicking off a promotion.
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Simister says there are soft and hard benefits.For a start, the company reckons to have taken £2 million a year in costs out of the supply chain.But in addition, he says: "It has improved sales to the customer.Before this, a number of stores might not have had the product at the time of a promotion, the customer was frustrated, we lost sales, and it was the biggest complaint we had."J Sainsbury plans to extend the system to cater for new product introductions, where information about an offering needs to be at the supermarket eight to nine weeks before it is launched.It is also linking up with an Internet catalogue provider, Udex, to maintain all information on lines remotely.Simister says it is keen to get an industry standard in place.

J Sainsbury's drive is tied up in its own and its suppliers' moves toward Efficient Consumer Response, a US-based initiative which was set up in Europe in 1994, estimating that $4 billion could be saved across Europe from inefficient promotions.

Of course, the data to enable more efficient response to consumer demand has been flowing in since EPOS systems began to be adopted more widely, around the same time.At first, companies were overwhelmed by the deluge of data."You can't just draw a line under it and say we will start analysing it.