Home Depot Supply Chain Management
The History of Home Depot
Growth of the Organization
Home Depot (TheHomeDepot, n.d.) began as a two store operation in Atlanta, GA in 1979. The concept was the brainchild of Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, with inspiration from investment banker Ken Langone and well know merchandising expert Pat Farrah. They envisioned a one stop, do it yourself store that carried most of the products needed to do common home care projects.
The first two Atlanta based stores were 60,000 square foot facilities that carried approximately 25,000 different Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) maintained in large, open warehouse style isles (The Home Depot, n.d., The Alfano Group, 2015). According to the Home Depots (n.d.) history bio, the volume of products available dwarfed typical hardware store inventory and variety, while empty boxes stacked on shelves above gave the illusion of carrying an even larger volume of product on a daily basis.
Associates provided the best customer service industry wide, were rigorously trained on product knowledge, and conducted free “clinics” and “how to” demonstrations on common do it yourself projects such as laying tile, and power tool use and operation to name a few (TheHomeDepot, n.d.). The concept combined products, skills, and teaching venues that saved money for the do it yourself customer, as opposed to paying professional craftsman a higher price for easy to master skills and competitively priced products.
Home Depot
The Home Depot (Ticker: HD) is the world’s largest home-improvement retailer along with being an American Fortune 50 company. The company operates 2,259 retail building supply/home improvement “warehouse” type stores all across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The Home Depot has over 340,000 team members and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The average store size is just over 100,000 square feet along with an additional 24,000 square feet set aside for seasonal gardening.
Home Depot is the fastest growing retailer in the U.S. by some accounts. It has a fascinating history of innovation and entrepreneurship. The company had some difficulties in the mid-2000s that some attribute to cultural clashes. However, during this period the company was able to take full advantage of the housing boom. Yet when the bubble burst, Home Depot was forced to claim substantial losses. Despite these loses Home Depot has weathered the storm fairly well and is in prime position to take advantage of an economic recovery; if it ever comes.
The Home Depot knows that they must stay on top of technology and management must be able to organize this function in a way that surpasses the competition, pleases the customers, and keep the employees satisfied.
Home Depot is also known for its high productivity. The company likes to maximize the efficiency of the space it uses. International Home Depot stores in 2014 averaged $297 earned per square foot. Lowe’s international stores only averaged $280 per square foot (Trefis Team, 2015). The growth of Home Depot’s e-commerce sales is another testament for its productivity. Home Depot’s had online sales of 500 million in 2009. E-commerce sales have grown to over 5 billion (Birkner, 2017). In 2007, the company’s store were in charge of stocking and replenishing inventory. The staff spent as much as 60% of their time working with inventory instead of working with customers. To solve this problem the company created algorithms that autonomously kept track of the inventory for the management (Bond, 2017). The company also created 18 rapid deployment centers from 2007 to 2015. These centers move products between stores in a more efficient rate utilizing a for just-in-time replenishment model. Lowes also has rapid deployment centers, but has only built 15 in the same amount of time. The high productivity of Home Depot is one of the reasons it continues to outperform its competition.
Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. In 1979, the first two stores were opened in Atlanta, Georgia. The Home Depot’s mission is to provide the products and know-how to enable people to take their dreams for their homes into their own hands. Home Depot sells an assortment of building materials, home improvement products, lawn and garden products and provides a number of services. Home Depot stores average about 105,000 square feet of enclosed space, with approximately 23,000 additional square feet of outside garden area. The company also operates 34 Expo Design Center stores, two THD Design Center stores and five Yard birds’ stores. Home Depot 's stores stock about 35,000 to 45,000 different kinds of products
Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. These founders envisioned providing one-stop shopping for the “do-it-yourselfer,” and this vision became a reality after working with investment banker Ken Lagone and merchandising expert, Pat Farrah. The first two stores were opened on June 22, 1979, in Atlanta, GA. These first stores were approximately 60,000 square feet in size each, and stocked 25,000 products, which made the stores drastically larger than any competitor or hardware store at that time. In addition to offering more products than competitors, store associates were also expected to offer the best customer service in the industry. Associates at
The Company was founded in 1978 in Atlanta, Georgia and has since become the world's largest home improvement retailer, operating more than 1,500 stores (Home Depot, EXPO, and other subsidiary companies) across North America. Home Depot caters to both do-it-yourselfers and professional customers who serve the home improvement construction and building maintenance market segments. Today, Home Depot’s stores stock up to 35,000 different kinds of building materials and lawn and garden products. Home Depot’s unique services include free in-store clinics for home improvement
Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank founded Home Depot Corp in 1978 (The Home Depot, 2013). The business created strategic product analysis providing an assortment of items to consumers. From the beginning, workers have been able to deliver superior customer satisfaction in the business, helping consumers with jobs such as handling power tools, changing out parts on appliances, laying tile, etc. The Home Depot employees all underwent arduous training to familiarize each employee with products. In addition, the business began hosting workshops to teach consumers on how to do things themselves.
The Home Depot provided a different kind of home improvement store that was unmatched, because of their ability to sell to retailers and individuals, while fitting the needs of both. Smaller scale stores were around, but the massive supplies and range of choices the brand offered were unmatched. The current mission statement according to their corporate website is, “to provide the highest level of service, the broadest selection of products and the most competitive prices.” Based off of their website, I have come to the conclusion that they target hard working men. They seem to focus on community outreach and military outreach specifically. A lot of their websites designs cater to the purpose of their business. References and
The Home Depot gives their associates the autonomy to provide creative and innovative solutions for serving their customers. They encourage their associates to find alternative solutions that best fit the situation and will positively impact the business and the customer’s experience.
Home Depot Inc. is a home improvement retailer who sells a variety of building materials, home improvement products, lawn and garden care, appliances, and many other professional services for the homeowner. Home Depot Inc. also provides professional installation programs in many categories. Some of the services may include but are not limited to: roofing, windows, bathroom remodels, kitchen remodels, flooring, and central air systems. Part of Home Depot Inc.’s charm is their ability to help the average homeowner with the maintenance of his or her home. Home
The Home Depot Inc. was founded in 1978 and is the world’s largest home improvement retailer and the second largest retailer in the United States. The sales for the fiscal year 2000 were $45.7 billion, compared to $38.4 billion in fiscal 1999. As of January 2001, the company was operating 1,134 retail stores in forty-seven states, six Canadian provinces, Puerto Rico, Chile and Argentina.
Home Depot was one of the biggest home improvement retailers of America with more than 2248 stores around the world. It was established by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank in 1978. Home Depot is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For two decades after its commencement the organization experienced quick development. Be that as it may, in the mid 2000s the organization execution backed off and Bob Nardelli was named the new CEO. Prior the organization took after a decentralized authoritative structure and that functioned admirably until 2000.
In 1978, Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus, after having been fired from their jobs at Handy Dan hardware store, established The Home Depot (referred to as simply HD throughout the remainder of the audit) in Atlanta, Georgia with assistance from Kevin Langone, a marketing pundit, and Pat Farrah, a Wall Street investment banker. They built their first two 65,000 square foot stores in spaces leased from J.C. Penny. The young company began with a dream of offering up a retail space for the do it yourself (DIY) customer as a one stop shop for their home improvement needs. During HD’s infancy, there were several other home improvement retailers in the Atlanta area, yet HD’s creators aspired toward their goal of developing the finest retail establishment that would transform the entire industry. The founders of the company not only wanted to be distinguished from their competition, but wanted to be the largest amongst them. Mr. Blank once said that him and Bernie founded HD with the vision of creating a company that would retain the values that were important to them: respecting people regardless of circumstance, providing superior customer service, and paying it forward to the community and society that allowed them to build their empire.
The company also ensured that its store-level operations were at least as efficient as its logistics operations. The stores were simply furnished and constructed using standard materials. As Wal-Mart distribution centers had close to real-time information on each store 's in-stock levels, the merchandise could be pushed to stores automatically. The display of merchandise was suggested by a storewide template after analyze historical store sales and community traits. If Wal-Mart discovers that a supplier promotes its own products at the expense of