"The name of this software, I plan to call it SMS for short, is supermarket management software. Its main function is to monitor the storage of goods in the warehouse and the storage of goods in each independent supermarket, and then based on the security information we input value, to develop a system to ensure storage capacity at the lowest cost." In a large conference room on the ninth floor of Costco's headquarters, Chen Zhiwen stood in front of the stage and explained the most basic functions of future enterprise management software.
"Then how to determine this most basic storage capacity?" Woz, sitting in the front, said.
Chen Zhiwen said: "This is not a technical problem, but the experience of supermarket operations. The sales speed of any product is different, so in the early stage, we need operators to define this storage capacity based on their own experience, but any experience is actually It can all be analyzed into data. For example, for an egg, many people will need it every few days, so it has an average consumption rate. This data can be roughly obtained through daily observation. In fact, this kind of egg is very common. Large supermarkets will pay attention to all kinds of products, but manpower is limited and can basically only handle a few items. What we have to do is to monitor all items.
At the same time, it is also necessary to consider that some products are seasonal, so they need to be changed according to the actual situation. SMS must have corresponding permission setting functions, and the person in charge of the supermarket will decide the amount of each alarm. "
"This is not difficult, but how to transmit data between branches, logistics centers and headquarters?" Woz asked.
"You can use satellites, but the cost is a bit high, but as long as it is really needed, I will invest the money." Chen Zhiwen said that the cost of satellites in this era is really super expensive. Otherwise, in the original history, in the 1980s In the mid-term, Wal-Mart will not spend hundreds of millions of dollars to launch its own satellites. The more data there is, the more expensive satellite charges will be, so expensive that even Wal-Mart, which is in its rapid growth period, cannot afford it.
Today's Costco naturally has much less data. Whether it is the number of its own stores or the SKUs (types of goods within the supermarket) of warehouse supermarkets, they are much smaller than those of normal supermarkets such as Wal-Mart, which makes the relative cost much better.
"In fact, it is not necessary to use satellites in the early days." Pierce took over the topic and said: "Although supermarkets have a lot of data, they are all the simplest bytes. A floppy disk can easily put down a supermarket's data. Costco now also There are only a dozen supermarkets, and the farthest distance is only more than 300 miles. You can drive the floppy disks to the headquarters, or let the delivery driver be responsible for returning the floppy disks to the headquarters."
"That's okay, but it just can't be monitored in real time." Woz nodded and said.
"Actually, it doesn't matter whether it can be real-time or not. It doesn't even matter if it's not very accurate. The error is no more than 1%. I only need to know a relatively accurate data, not an absolutely accurate one." Pierce said with a smile.
Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "We don't need to pay too much attention to this now. When we need it in the future, we will naturally invest in satellites, or even launch satellites ourselves."
Cost optimization cannot be achieved overnight. It always needs to be done step by step. It is indeed difficult to pursue absolute accuracy from the beginning. Even in the future 5G era, many companies have the most complete ERP management software and internal data. It's still very messy. This is not a problem of signal transmission, but a variety of management issues. Since there are shortcomings in other aspects, there is no need to require the software to be completely accurate.
In the future, when the number of Costcos is really large enough, the company has enough profits, and signal transmission urgently needs satellite transmission, it will naturally be on satellites, and even launching satellites by itself is inevitable, because a lot of core data is still mastered. It's better to have it in your own hands.
"What about the future East Coast branches?" Woz asked again.
"Gather them together first, such as in New York, and then let one person fly back to Los Angeles, or build a data headquarters on the East Coast to specifically process data on the East Coast." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.
In the United States, or Europe, even in later generations, what is most lacking is the rapid express delivery speed of the mainland in later generations. In the 21st century, in Europe, such a small country, it is normal for a product to be purchased online and it will take half a month to be delivered. Later, until Amazon started to invest heavily in logistics, and it was only slightly better.
If we can move the general efficiency of SF Express to Europe and the United States, we will definitely be able to achieve an absolute monopoly.
Nowadays, express delivery is even more difficult to describe. If you want to deliver important documents as quickly as possible, the fastest way is to do it in person. Another method is fax, but it is not suitable for the transmission of such large amounts of electronic data.
"Then let's try it like this first." Woz nodded and said.
"If it doesn't work in the future, we will go to the satellite." Chen Zhiwen continued: "The second use of SMS is to collect big data and use software to calculate what kind of route is most suitable for us to take when delivering goods to different supermarkets. The fastest way to calculate the most time-saving and logistics cost-saving method.”
The main operating cost of a supermarket, logistics is definitely the top priority. A large number of items are sent from suppliers to the logistics center, and then from the logistics center to various supermarket branches. The needs of each supermarket are different every day, so How to arrange different goods on the car, which supermarkets a certain car should send to, and which one to go to first and which one to go to later.
When there were only a few supermarkets, it was possible to do the math with manpower, but when there were more supermarkets and more locations, the data would grow exponentially, which was completely beyond the ability of manpower to calculate. This is why the gross profit of supermarkets now increases. The reason why interest rates are very high is because the storage and logistics costs are too high.
At present, the only way to optimize logistics costs is to add a large number of manpower. However, labor costs in the United States are high, and it is not cost-effective to hire too many people. Therefore, we can only turn a blind eye and ignore these problems caused by the lack of time to calculate. The high cost is directly factored into the company's operations.
"Such a calculation will be very interesting. It is estimated that a supercomputer with very high computing power will be needed to achieve rapid response." Woz thought for a while and said.
"So we will also buy supercomputers. The main problem is the algorithm." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Although today's supercomputers often cost millions of dollars and their computing power is not as good as that of an ordinary computer in a few decades, it is indeed the latest technology. The ultimate ability.
"This algorithm should be divided into two parts. The first one is to determine the fastest route based on the location of each destination. Without a map, I can only enter the distance between each store and then calculate it. The second one is to calculate the required transport vehicles based on the size of all product boxes. The latter one is not difficult, but the former one may take a certain amount of time to develop." Woz said while drawing something in his notebook .
"I don't care about professional matters. All I can do is make my request. The terminal retail cost of supermarkets has been reduced to an extremely low level by Costco. The rest is the intermediate transportation cost and a large amount of storage cost. , as long as we solve this problem, we will be able to gain a firm foothold in the retail field for a long time." Chen Zhiwen said solemnly.
(End of chapter)
