The Industrial Giant Reborn

"The name of this software, I intend to abbreviate it as SMS, that is, supermarket management software (supermarket management software), its main function is to monitor the storage of goods in the warehouse, the storage of goods in each independent supermarket, and then according to the security we input Value, to develop a set of guaranteed storage capacity at the lowest cost." In a large conference room on the ninth floor of Costco headquarters, Chen Zhiwen stood in front of the stage, explaining the most basic functions of future enterprise management software.

"Then how do you determine the most basic storage capacity?" Woz, who was sitting in front, said.

Chen Zhiwen said: "This is not a technical problem, but a supermarket operation experience. The sales speed of any product is different, so in the early stage, we need the operator to define the storage capacity based on their own experience, but any experience actually All can be analyzed into data. For example, an egg, basically 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 common Large supermarkets will pay attention to the products, but manpower is limited, basically only a few items can be made, and what we have to do is to monitor all items.

At the same time, it is also necessary to consider that some commodities are seasonal, so they need to be changed according to the actual situation. SMS must have a corresponding authority setting function, and the person in charge of the supermarket will determine the amount of each alarm. "

"It's not difficult, it's just how to transmit data between each branch, logistics center and headquarters?" Woz asked.

"Satellites can be used, but the cost is a bit high, but as long as I really need it, then I will invest the money." Chen Zhiwen said, 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 have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to launch its own satellites. The more data there is, the more expensive the satellite charges are, so expensive that even Wal-Mart, which is in the period of rapid growth, cannot bear it.

The current costco data is naturally much less, whether it is the number of its own stores or the SKU (category of goods in the supermarket) of warehouse supermarkets, it is much less than that of normal supermarkets such as Walmart, which makes the relative cost much better.

"Actually, satellites are not necessarily needed in the early days." Pierce took over the topic and said: "Although there is a lot of data in supermarkets, they are all the simplest bytes. A floppy disk can easily hold the data of a supermarket. Costco is now also There are only a dozen supermarkets, and the farthest distance is only more than 300 miles, so it is completely possible to drive the floppy disks to the headquarters, or the delivery driver is responsible for sending the floppy disks back to the headquarters.”

"That's okay, but it just won't be able to monitor 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 is not very accurate. The error is not more than 1%. I just need to know a relatively accurate data, not absolutely accurate." Pierce said with a smile.

Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "There is no need to pay too much attention to this point now. When we need it in the future, we will naturally invest in satellites, and we can even launch satellites ourselves."

It is true that cost optimization cannot be achieved overnight. It always needs to be done step by step. It is really difficult to pursue absolute accuracy at the very beginning. Even in the future 5G era, many companies have the most complete ERP management software, internal data It's still messy. This is not a problem of signal transmission, but a variety of management problems. Since there are shortcomings in other aspects, there is no need to require the software to be completely accurate.

And when the number of Costco is really large enough in the future, the company has enough profits, and when the signal transmission urgently needs satellite transmission, it will naturally go to the satellite, or even launch the satellite by itself, because a lot of core data is still mastered. Better in your own hands.

"What about the future East Coast branch?" Woz asked again.

"Let's get together first, such as New York, and then let one person fly back to Los Angeles, or set up a data headquarters on the east coast, specializing in processing 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 such a small country in Europe, it is normal for a product to be delivered online in half a month. Amazon began to invest heavily in logistics investment, only slightly better.

If the general efficiency of SF Express can be moved to Europe and the United States, it will definitely be able to achieve absolute monopoly.

Now, express delivery is even more difficult to explain in a word. If you want to deliver important documents as quickly as possible, the fastest way is to send it in person. Another method is fax, but it is not suitable for the transmission of such a large amount of electronic data.

"Then 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 the most suitable route 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 the supermarket, logistics is definitely the top priority. A large number of items are sent from the supplier to the logistics center, and then delivered to each supermarket branch by the logistics center. The needs of each supermarket are different every day, so How to arrange different goods to be loaded on the vehicle, which supermarkets a certain vehicle will send to, and which one to go to first.

When there are a few supermarkets, it can be calculated by manpower, but when there are more supermarkets and more locations, the data will increase exponentially, which is completely impossible to be calculated by manpower. This is why, the current supermarket gross The reason why the interest rate is very high is because it is not high enough, and the storage and logistics costs are too high.

At present, the only way to optimize logistics costs is to increase a large number of manpower. However, the labor cost in the United States is high, and it is not cost-effective to recruit too many people. High costs, directly charged to the company's operations.

"Such calculations will be very interesting. It is estimated that a supercomputer with a very high computing power is required to achieve a fast 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 the current supercomputers cost millions of dollars, and the computing power is not as good as an ordinary computer decades later, it is indeed the current technology. The ability is extreme.

"This algorithm should be divided into two parts. The first one is to determine the fastest route based on the location of each destination. If there is no map, I can only input the distance between each store and then convert it. The second is to calculate the required transport vehicles based on the size of all the commodity 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 ask about professional matters. What I can do is to put forward my requirements. The terminal retail cost of supermarkets has been reduced to an extremely low level by Costco. The rest is intermediate transportation costs and a large amount of storage costs. , as long as we solve this problem, then we will be able to gain a firm foothold in the retail field for a long time." Chen Zhiwen said solemnly.