There’s a new Santa Claus

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/kentucky-man-buys-kmart-inventory-gives-away-220043176.html

 

 

 

 

In early May of this year, a Kentucky man bought every last inventory item that a Kmart store had in Kentucky. Due to the store closing in only a couple of days,  Rankin Paynter decided it would be best to buy everything the store had left and give it away to charity. He donated all items, from office supplies to clothing to Clark County Community Services. He was an unprivileged boy when he was younger only owning a pair of summer slippers as shoes. Now that he makes enough money to buy $200,000 worth of Kmart inventory, he is giving back to those in need.

 

With Kmart store not selling enough to make up for their cost of goods, they are being forced to close down several stores across the country. Their inventory is just sitting in the warehouse or backroom or even their front of the store without selling. Because Kmart still has debt to pay, they are forced to liquidate everything they have, starting with inventory, to pay off their heavy loans. The cost of holding inventory is higher than having just in time inventory like DELL is known to have started.

 

Even though there are several factors feeding into their decreasing sales, Kmart’s lack of efficient inventory management is costing them a lot more than just sales.

Going Eco-Friendly Worldwide

Honda is expanding its environmental purchasing guidelines to cover all its suppliers around the world, the company has announced.

Honda is has continuously tried to improve their supply management strategies not only in North America, but they have recently tried to change their global strategy. Many car companies are now trying to go-green and become more eco-friendly. Honda said the change reflects the globalization of its purchasing practices, which are part of their expanding supply chain. The company has also added “environment” to the list of evaluation items for suppliers, alongside quality, cost, delivery and development.

Furthermore, Honda is not only bringing their environmentally friendly supply chain to where and how they manufacture cars, but they are going cross functional divisions. This is much better than focusing only on one sector of the company instead of making this same effort in different departments.

“With the new guidelines, Honda will strive to better track and reduce the environmental footprint of Honda products throughout the supply chain beyond primary suppliers,” the company said in a statement.

A Honda North American environmental report stated that the North American Purchasing Division launched a supply chain sustainability initiative to reduce CO2.

Honda has had a eco-friendly strategy, but now they are expanding it now to their new cars, put to their supply chain management.