The Sports Authority: Improved Logistics Process

The Sports Authority is the world's largest full-line sporting goods retailer. Each store features up to 45,000 items. Supplied by more than 850 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) enabled vendors, The Sports Authority had been using 100 percent Direct Store Delivery (DSD) with no warehouses or distribution centers, placing orders with vendors electronically.

Given this operations environment, The Sports Authority wanted to improve the speed and reduce the costs of its logistics process while maintaining or improving in-stock position and inventory turns. After exploring more than 50 complex models or scenarios developed by Accenture, The Sports Authority decided to make a major shift from its current DSD strategy to a flow-through, regional-distribution-center network.

Accenture helped The Sports Authority make this major transition and boost business performance through:

• Decreased transportation costs and cost of goods sold, as vendors now ship to a finite number of distribution centers instead of to more than 160 stores.
  
  
• Reduced labor costs, as many functions that were administered at each store location are now consolidated at the distribution centers.
  
  
• Improved customer service, as sales associates are more focused on selling activities rather than performing back room and administrative tasks.