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Non-Tech : Radica Games (RADA) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David who wrote (3389)	3/9/1998 11:12:00 AM
From: Sigmund	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7111

David. This approach might be the best given the circumstances but it can hardly be described as "efficient". Or if "efficient" it is certainly not the most "effective" inventory replenishment strategy ever devised. Presumably you gain manufacturing cost savings this way. But the penalty in terms of inventory in the pipeline, potential for obsolete merchandise, time to market and most importantly these days stockouts is very high. A very good inventory control system might ameliorate some of the problems. For example if you knew who was short and who was long re each sku you might be able to divert some shipments to where they were most needed. It might require some agreement from your customers but they would as a group benefit from this approach. I gather that there is a large cost to you to move the stuff through warehouses but again they may need to play a larger role. Of course if you are manufacturing limited it probably doesn't matter since you can't sell what you haven't manufactured. But that situation will not last forever as I understand you are increasing capacity. Have you ever thought about doing some manufacturing closer to your markets?

To: David who wrote (3389)	3/9/1998 3:02:00 PM
From: chaz	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7111

David H: Perhaps the thread might be helped by you a bit on this distribution matter. It is our general understanding that, considering the company's "old" history, there has been a tendency to avoid building much beyond sales, though in the recent CC there was a hint that this might be changing somewhat. In the light of the products' obvious popularity, has production restraint meant some customers did not get all they wanted during the past, or that sales people were on a tighter rein than they would have liked? You have previously attributed POS shortages to distribution problems at the customer level. Do you view the current spate of shortages as retail based, or is there also some factory involvement? Also, can you tell us something about the amount of production that goes to warehouse, and the number of turns there? Chaz.