Bangkok Post, Thailand, The Weekly Link Column.

Aug. 6--We continue this week with our series on the topic of Efficient Consumer Response. In a nutshell, the approach that is ECR is intended to incorporate everything that it would take, in theory, for the entire grocery industry supply chain to respond to the actual consumption by a consumer of a product. As we quoted a Procter & Gamble executive some time ago: "When the consumer opens a bottle of juice, we want that to trigger us to do everything all the way back up the line and to, ultimately, pick another apple."

So, what does it take to achieve such a coordinated response? Last week, we cited the original four strategies of ECR: Efficient Store Assortment, Efficient Replenishment, Efficient Promotion and Efficient New Product Introduction. Looking at things at that level enables one to grasp the basic approaches. But the industry and ECR movement has progressed from that point and is now much more comprehensive and detailed.

We find that the language of ECR is now very consistent with that of other supply chain initiatives. As you can see in the diagram, there are still four major sections but they are quite different. They are:

--Demand Management -- comprises three of the original strategies, regarding assortment, promotions, and new product introductions, but now also articulates the need for demand strategy and capability development. Significantly, the objective of Create Consumer Value is emphasised.

--Supply Management -- the final one of the original four strategies, responsive replenishment, is incorporated here along with development of supply strategy and capabilities, operational excellence, and integrated demand-driven supply.

--Enablers -- this section recognises the enabling technologies and the need for performance measures that will drive the behaviours that are needed.

--Integrators -- since integration, collaboration, and especially trust are keys to ECR (indeed, for ...