Jeremy Wong (Assistant Manager, Fresh Food Department, Woolworths Town Hall store). But it still feels unbecoming to criticize a body of work and its institutions, after spending only a couple of weeks of poking around for information, especially those market-sensitive ones.
             The paper looks first into the company background, with emphasis on the management team and the new initiative called "Project Refresh". We then examined the existing supply and demand network of Woolworths, with a special focus on the following: i) stakeholders and partners; ii) distribution system; iii) vehicle routing and scheduling (VRS), and iv) order fulfillment. This is followed by a discussion and analysis of Woolworths' distribution and VRS system, where we attempt to detect sub-optimal segments of the supply chain and to propose for better solutions.
             We conclude this paper by validating the positive impact of a stable and proactive management to the continued success of an organisation. In addition, we remind ourselves that there are always trade-offs when dealing with logistical costs. But we believe that these can be subdued, if one follows the company's objective, whether targeting to be a cost leader, a service leader or both.
             Woolworths Limited is an ASX-listed retail company, which was founded in Sydney, Australia in 1924. Today, the company consists of three main divisions: i) Supermarkets (e.g., Woolworths), ii) General Merchandise (e.g., BIG W), and iii) Continuing Operations (e.g., Australian Independent Wholesalers). It has more than 1400 stores in Australia and 33 Dick Smith Electronics stores in New Zealand. It employs about 140,000 people (50,000 of these are in rural areas). The company has over 285,000 shareholders, plus around 45,000 employee shareholders (Woolworths Limited 2003a).
             Woolworths average annual sale is over $20 billion since 1999, with year-on-year increase of about +10%. The Super...