A Healthy Bottom Line

Meet: Glen Pirie, COO & VP/Operations, Swanson Health Products

July 2002 By Alicia Orr Suman

CS: What’s the relationship between marketing and operations at Swanson?

Pirie: To maintain our high fill rate—98.2 percent—we work closely with marketing. Planning is key. We have a committee of six that meets once a week to discuss budget projections, order projections, and how many books will be mailing and when. Representatives from our call center, MIS, accounting, operations and executive management also are involved, with the intent to share information.

CS: How large a role does technology play in the operations side of your business?

Pirie: The bigger we get, the more technologically advanced we need to be. Right now, we’re in the midst of a big technology project installing radio frequency technology. This will allow paperless stock transfers and item-by-item location of products, which will enable us to better plan space requirements and track all products to consumers. It also will enable us to eliminate some physical inventory, reduce keying errors and cycle inventory more efficiently.

We also look to improve our inventory turns above eight per year, even though we’re already at a 99.6-

percent accuracy rate on inventory in the building.

Companies Mentioned:

Home Depot

Wal-Mart

MORE ON
OPERATIONS & FULFILLMENT

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A Healthy Bottom Line