What is ECR?
Efficient Consumer Response Ireland (ECR) was established in 1998 to promote and educate the Irish Business Community about Efficient Consumer Response and the benefits it brings. It is the official ECR Organisation in Ireland and is a member of ECR Europe. The board is comprised of Senior Executives from a selection of retailers & suppliers operating in Ireland whose purpose it is to represent the sectors within which they trade.
ORIGINS OF ECR
Working Together to Fulfil Consumer Wishes Better, Faster and a Less Cost.
The ECR ("Efficient Consumer Response") movement effectively began in the mid-nineties and was characterised by the emergence of new principles of collaborative management along the supply chain. It was understood that companies can serve consumers better, faster and at less cost by working together with trading partners.
At the heart of ECR was a business environment characterised by dramatic advances in information technology, growing competition, global business structures and consumer demand focused on better choice, service, convenience, quality, freshness and safety and the increasing movements of goods across international borders aided by the internal European market.
This new reality required a fundamental reconsideration of the most effective way of delivering the right products to consumers at the right price. Non-standardized operational practices and the rigid separation of the traditional roles of manufacturer and retailer threatened to block the supply chain unnecessarily and failed to exploit the synergies that came from powerful new information technologies and planning tools.
To better serve the consumer, ECR set out to invert the traditional model and break down non-productive barriers. The impacts were extensive and continue to resonate across industry.
Focus Areas of ECR
There are four focus areas under ECR. These areas are broken down further into core and advanced improvement concepts. They form the basis of the ECR Global Scorecard.
Individually these concepts are commonly known and well documented methods to improve effectiveness and efficiency. However, when applied under ECR, they have a distinct difference
Challenges and key benefits of ECR
Implementing ECR means dramatic change in current business practices. ECR is about redesigning the processes, altering paradigms and changing attitudes. Proper management of the ECR process is effective in mitigating resistance and increasing co-operation. A clear communication by top management of the benefits and rewards of ECR will make the process more effective.
ECR challenges many existing approaches, which can often lead to inefficiency. Trading partners are asked to work together in order to increase value to the consumer. The intensifying competition amongst trading partners often presents an apparent barrier to achieving this. However, just the opposite is true – ECR allows companies to seek a competitive advantage by demonstrating their superior ability in working with trading partners to add value for the consumer.
Before they are ready to start with ECR companies should ask themselves:
Efficient Consumer Response Ireland (ECR) was established in 1998 to promote and educate the Irish Business Community about Efficient Consumer Response and the benefits it brings. It is the official ECR Organisation in Ireland and is a member of ECR Europe. The board is comprised of Senior Executives from a selection of retailers & suppliers operating in Ireland whose purpose it is to represent the sectors within which they trade.
ORIGINS OF ECR
Working Together to Fulfil Consumer Wishes Better, Faster and a Less Cost.
The ECR ("Efficient Consumer Response") movement effectively began in the mid-nineties and was characterised by the emergence of new principles of collaborative management along the supply chain. It was understood that companies can serve consumers better, faster and at less cost by working together with trading partners.
At the heart of ECR was a business environment characterised by dramatic advances in information technology, growing competition, global business structures and consumer demand focused on better choice, service, convenience, quality, freshness and safety and the increasing movements of goods across international borders aided by the internal European market.
This new reality required a fundamental reconsideration of the most effective way of delivering the right products to consumers at the right price. Non-standardized operational practices and the rigid separation of the traditional roles of manufacturer and retailer threatened to block the supply chain unnecessarily and failed to exploit the synergies that came from powerful new information technologies and planning tools.
To better serve the consumer, ECR set out to invert the traditional model and break down non-productive barriers. The impacts were extensive and continue to resonate across industry.
Focus Areas of ECR
There are four focus areas under ECR. These areas are broken down further into core and advanced improvement concepts. They form the basis of the ECR Global Scorecard.
Individually these concepts are commonly known and well documented methods to improve effectiveness and efficiency. However, when applied under ECR, they have a distinct difference
- They are intended to be addressed as an integrated set, not individually.
Challenges and key benefits of ECR
Implementing ECR means dramatic change in current business practices. ECR is about redesigning the processes, altering paradigms and changing attitudes. Proper management of the ECR process is effective in mitigating resistance and increasing co-operation. A clear communication by top management of the benefits and rewards of ECR will make the process more effective.
ECR challenges many existing approaches, which can often lead to inefficiency. Trading partners are asked to work together in order to increase value to the consumer. The intensifying competition amongst trading partners often presents an apparent barrier to achieving this. However, just the opposite is true – ECR allows companies to seek a competitive advantage by demonstrating their superior ability in working with trading partners to add value for the consumer.
Before they are ready to start with ECR companies should ask themselves:
- Which activities are done in different departments?
- How are these activities related to each other?
- Is there a more efficient way that we can organise our business?
- What about costs and profitability? Do we have an insight into the costs and profitability at product, distribution channel and customer levels?
- What kind of information is available in the different departments, and how can we use this information to create greater value to the business as a whole?