Project Scheduling

1. 
   One example of a project is Victoria’s Secret Annual Fashion Show. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is a centerpiece for the brand’s intricately designed and elegantly functioning advertising machine. With this event, Victoria’s Secret reaches an audience of over 1 billion people, including news coverage.2 Televised annually, the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Extravaganza has an exclusive contract with nationwide broadcasting station CBS. A symbiotic relationship exists between the two firms. Victoria’s Secret obtains one hour of nationwide advertising, while CBS holds the exclusive right to one of the most popular programs on TV. For one full hour, beautiful supermodels parade about in Victoria’s new-line of beautiful lingerie with chic special effects and music that heightens the fashion show to the level of a Broadway production. Women are persuaded that Victoria’s Secret lingerie will win the enthusiasm they see plainly in their male colleagues.
   
   Project Tasks:
   
   Budget preparation
   Contract negotiation with venues, caterers, event personnel
   Hiring of speakers
   Video
   Still photography
   Publicity/media relations
   Preparation of promotional materials
   Invitations
   Internet presence
   Handling of RSVPs
   Non-profit event fund-raising
   All aspects of production from lighting to sound to staging and backstage.

Victoria’s secret new line collections are produced each year, and they’re introduced in these shows through their designer. But these shows are considered projects because of their humongous preparations. When customers see these fashion shows they get an idea of Victoria’s Secret new product collection which benefits the company a lot. Victoria’s Secret customers increase sales after each fashion show.

Victoria’s Secret Definitely uses the Gantt chart which is a table with time across the top and a scarce resource, such as machines, people, or machine hours, along the side. After a Gantt chart has been constructed, it should be evaluated with respect to both job and machine performance. One way to evaluate machine performance is on the basis of the time it takes to complete all work, which is called the makespan. Victoria’s Secret uses the batch process to produce their products in the factory; they always need to evaluate their machines performance in order to get the work done in a certain amount of time. Because there’s always a high demand on the products, these products need to be finished, packed, and ready to be retailed and taken to the stores as soon as they’re ready to be marked down.

Recommendations to Victoria’s Secret, is to keep on introducing new line of products for every season in order to attract more buyers. This way the company would be a very strong competitor against various companies in the similar retail market. It is very difficult to stay in the right pace if the management process goes wrong. The customer satisfaction is number one focus which Victoria’s Secret should pay more attention to, this is very critical because without customer satisfaction there wouldn’t be any Victoria’s Secret stores around. What keeps Victoria’s Secret going strong is their customer satisfaction, this is a key success to the company and they should take it in consideration in any of their future decisions.

Supply Chain Management

Victoria’s Secret Supply Chain (Limited Brands) start from raw materials which is chosen by the designer and gets shipped from China that is cheaper for the company, but their raw material is high quality which satisfies the customer. Victoria’s Secret care about the customer satisfaction, they always look for the best quality in their raw material, to make the best out of it. Then the raw material gets processed at the factories which uses special equipments for Victoria’s Secret products, these equipments are highly qualified for specific uses to process the material. After the raw material gets process it becomes a product, the product is made in batches in different colors, sizes, designs, and cuts depending on the product design. Then the finished product gets retailed at Victoria’s Secret stores.

Their performance is determined depending on delivery, quality, time and cost of their products. Unfortunately, due to certain trademark, labeling, product content and embargo restrictions, Victoria’s Secret currently do not ship all products to all countries. If you have a restricted item in your bag you will receive a message during checkout that lists the restricted item along with specific instructions to remove the item from your shopping bag or change the shipping method or address if applicable. Shipping and handling charges are determined by the merchandise dollar amount of your order before any deductions. Not subject to special offers. Charges are calculated before taxes. All orders are subject to verification. If items are backordered, the total shipping and handling charges will be. Allocated proportionally and charged as the merchandise is shipped. Please note that the total shipping and handling charge will not increase. All backordered items ship out via Standard Delivery. Quality and cost of their products are usually at reasonable prices, they’re fairly descent and their quality is considered to be excellent depending on other retail stores. The Time of the delivery is usually 4-7 business days, which is fair.

The critical processes that make up the Victoria's Secret's supply chain are:
1) Product Design and Product Launch; 2) Merchandise Planning, Allocation and Forecasting; 3) Production & Sourcing; 4) Logistics; and 5) Store Operations. A design idea, from the point it is conceptualized to the point the product is delivered to the Victoria's Secret Stores, termed by the company as "Concept-To-Market", traverses through each of these processes comprising the supply chain. Figure 13 helps positions these various processes among departments within the organizational structure of the Victoria's Secret Stores organization.
On holidays like Black-Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, when many consumers begin Christmas shopping, the corporate head-office has to deal with huge volumes of hourly phone calls from individual stores for updates on sales figures. Another supply chain challenge from the merchandise planning viewpoint, is that the decision gates in Victoria's Secret's concept-to-market calendar are only planned for dropping styles out of line plan, and do not allow the flexibility of adding new styles closer to the selling season. When a style is dropped from the line plan, volume drops with it. And, at that point, the only alternative for the company is to produce another pre-existing category to fill the gap, if possible.

Limited Brand’s division Limited Logistics Services (LLS) is the $9.7 billion supply chain management operation. It supports the global supply chain service needs for Limited Brands brands. The company has supporting departments including Limited Customs Services, Product Quality and Regulatory Assurance, Strategic Procurement, Supply Chain Planning and Analysis, Operations Engineering, Facilities Services, Logistics Operations and Operations Support. The products are distributed to 4,600 stores and catalog customers. Columbus operations contain seven distribution and fulfillment centers and two shipping facilities. LLS serves all Limited Brands businesses - The Limited, Express, Victoria's Secret Stores, Victoria's Secret Beauty, Victoria's Secret Direct, Bath & Body Works, and The White Barn Candle Co. LLS is one of the best retail logistics industry with a balance of state-of-the-art technology and automation, and trained logistics employees.

LLS has set up some functions to manage the company's supply chain processes. LLS wants to concentrate on maximizing distribution and logistics efficiency, fulfilling with international trade and customs laws, ensuring regulatory compliance and facilitating product allocation and flow planning. All departments also have to make sure there are no weak links in the supply chain management. One of the important facts is LLS investing in its employees.

Victoria’s Secret’s supply chain management is well managed. They could; however, start supplying their stores with clothes which are offered through Internet and catalogues. Since manufactory is in Sri Lanka, it would be good if all stores could place an order and the products would be sent directly to the store from the manufactory. Victoria's Secret should keep using the same manufacturing process which is being used in present.

Quality Control

The "best fashion brands" are those customers can trust for fashion, value, availability, and of course, quality. Victoria’s Secret customers want it, and we expect it. The Quality Assurance team at Limited Brands is responsible for building quality into every facet of the production and sourcing process and for protecting the integrity of our brands.

We do that by:
•Assessing and assuring capabilities of raw material suppliers
•Evaluating vendor compliance with Victoria’s Secret sourcing agreements
•Inspecting and testing product quality from pre-production to post-production, including issues related to product color, construction, labeling, packaging, and pricing
•Fixing — not just finding — noncompliance issues with vendors and manufacturers — through active problem-solving and analysis
•Raising quality across the board by checking new products, monitoring existing ones and working with our partners in the Raw Materials, Technical, Sourcing and Product Development areas in product innovation.

Victoria’s Secret uses the attribute measurements for larger sample sizes, that help the company test all their products efficiently. For an attribute control chart, samples should be fairly large, frequently in the range of 50 to 300 observations. As a general rule, the sample must be at least large enough to allow for the detection of one defective unit. If the process being controlled produces 1 percent defective units.

Victoria's Secret uses continuous improvement in its quality control and within the company. They use cost reduction in their production - cost reduction is used in reducing the amount of paper that the company uses for catalogues. Victoria’s Secret takes steps to protect forests and also use recycled paper or forest-friendly paper in its catalogue. Victoria’s Secret has been improving and changing ways to improve in the policy around continuous improvement. The company uses also technical, investigative and quality control work on fabrics to make sure that everything is met for specifications. There is continuous improvement used also for current products and improving qualities of the products.

Victoria’s Secret uses Pareto analysis to eliminate the problems in quality control. Since Victoria’s Secret is well-known brand and it offers higher quality products, it is very important to investigate problem areas and correct the problems.

The company practices Six Sigma program like many other industries and manufacturers have started to use the program today. Victoria’s Secret has manufacturing company Brandix Group which is the biggest exporter in apparel sector in Sri Lanka. Brandix Group has already 7 Black Belt employees and there will be numerous Black Belt employees by the end of this year. Six Sigma is also used in the parent company of Victoria’s Secret – The Limited Brands. Six Sigma helps the company shorten lead times, cut development and manufacturing costs, and improve the quality of the products. It also improves in structural, organizational, and technical use of DFSS within the apparel industry.

One of the recommendations is to look into fishbone diagrams which give deeper and detailed than Pareto analysis. Also, dramatic results will happen only through aggressive senior management leadership, Six Sigma trainings within the company, and full-time improvement specialists. Victoria’s Secret has been improving in that field and project leaders oversee some of the projects.

Managing Quality

Quality of Design:

Perhaps given a boost by the openness of the Sexual Revolution, the Victoria's Secret retail chain almost single-handedly redefined America's conception of lingerie beginning in the early 1980s. Despite the secrecy promised in the franchise's moniker, each of its stores replaced the modest, tucked-away, department-store displays of women's underwear with an openly luxurious atmosphere that recreated a nineteenth-century boudoir. At the same time, Victoria's Secret decidedly built its image with a fairly conservative, middle-class shopper in mind and avoided any connotations of sleaziness which lingerie might carry. While some critics have contested the sometimes reactionary portrait of femininity developed in the store's designs and advertising campaigns, Victoria's Secret helped women of all shapes and sizes, if not tax brackets, feel that sensuality need not be limited to models and celebrities. The company was able to vend a widened range of products with the aid of a popular mail catalog issued eight times annually. While corsets, teddies, and silk pajamas remained at the hub of the Victoria's Secret wheel, home shoppers could buy shoes, evening wear, and perfumes--such as Wild English Gardens and Heather's Embrace--all under a single banner promising both middle-class refinement and daring sexuality.Victoria’s Secret offers hundreds of products that are each part of a Victoria’s Secret “line” or “collection”. Victoria’s Secret has patented and copyrighted many of their collections and product technologies because of their outstanding quality and innovation. Most of their targeted customers are teenage girls and women between the ages of 18-30. Victoria’s secret quality design is very special it is made to be worn right after it gets design and produced. They have special lines for Victoria’s secret collections under Victoria’s secret designs, but they have also added other designer collections that are sold at a higher price than Victoria’s secret brands, and this is because these special designs are bought through the designer’s collection.

Quality of Conformance:

Victoria’s secret has been known for its quality of conformance, the products are meeting the specifications and limitation of their designs. Victoria’s secret manufactures its products according to the time limits, different designs, colors, sizes etc. According to the specifications that are given to them from operations managers. Victoria's Secret is the leading specialty retailer of lingerie and beauty products, dominating its world with modern, fashion-inspired collections, prestige fragrances and cosmetics, celebrated supermodels and world-famous runway shows. Victoria's Secret lingerie and beauty stores, the catalogue and www.VictoriasSecret.com allow customers to shop the brand anywhere, any time, from any place.

The “Abilities”:

Victoria’s secret has the top quality products which lasts for years. Through Victoria's Secret Catalogue and VictoriasSecret.com, Victoria's Secret Direct makes it possible for customers to experience the sexy and sophisticated intimate lifestyle of Victoria's Secret 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Victoria's Secret Direct reaches more than 390 million customers each year through Victoria's Secret Catalogue - and our Web site is one of the fastest growing and profitable e-commerce destinations on the Internet.

Field Service:

VictoriasSecret.com takes the following types of security measures: use of technologies and policies such as limited access data-centers, firewall technology, secure socket layer certificate authentication and limitations of administrative access to our systems. In addition, it is our policy not to send your credit card number via e-mail. In fact, this is a practice we encourage you to adopt in all of your Internet activities.We designed VictoriasSecret.com to accept orders only from Web browsers that permit communication through Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology; for example, 4.0 versions or higher of Netscape Navigator, versions 5.01 or higher of Internet Explorer, versions 0.8 or higher of Firefox and versions 1.2 or higher of Safari.While we implement the above security measures on this site, you should be aware that 100% security is not always possible.

1. General Browsing InformationVictoriasSecret.com gathers navigational information during each visitor's use of our Web site. In the process of gathering navigational information, non-personally identifiable information (i.e. domain type, browser version, service provider and IP address) may be collected. The navigational information tells VictoriasSecret.com about the use of our Web site by visitors, including the areas of our site that are most visited or the time of a last visit to a page on our site. It also tells us about the technical efficiencies of our Web site and services (i.e. the time it takes a visitor to connect to our Web site or download pages). The navigational information helps us better understand a visitor's experience at VictoriasSecret.com and improve upon that experience by recognizing and delivering more of the features, services and products our visitors prefer.

2. Personal InformationVictoriasSecret.com may ask you to provide personal information when you establish or update a VictoriasSecret.com account, sign up for Victoria's Secret E-mail, enter a contest, participate in a survey, shop online (including the purchase of a gift card or to shop as a result of a link from VSPINK.com), check the status of an order, request a catalogue, purchase and send an e-gift card and/or create, send a wish list or gift reminder or if you sign up to receive information about our products, promotions and events through text messaging.Categories of information collected include name, address, e-mail address, recipient's name and e-mail address, order information, telephone number, mobile phone number, credit card information and messages or reminders you create.
USING PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT ONLINEVictoriasSecret.com uses the personal information we collect from you to deliver products that you have ordered, to fulfill requests that you have created, to contact you or the product recipient(s) in the event of order or delivery difficulties, for verification purposes, to respond to your inquiries, and to deliver services and information about our products, promotions or Web site, including adding you to the Victoria's Secret E-mail list and to our print catalogue mailing list when you sign up or make a purchase.Return PolicyWe take great pride in our reputation for quality and excellent value. If for any reason you are dissatisfied with a purchase, we'll assist you with a prompt refund or exchange. No sale is final. Refunds for items returned within ninety days of the purchase date will be credited in the same form as the original payment type. Refunds for items returned more than ninety days after the purchase date will be in the form of a merchandise credit redeemable with your next purchase. Unfortunately, you cannot return merchandise bought through Victoria's Secret Catalogue or VictoriasSecret.com at Victoria's Secret Stores.


In the meantime Victoria’s Secret quality systems are Quality of design, The “abilities”, and quality of Conformance. They are coming up with new lines and new designs for their customers which is making them unique to their competitors. These products are manufactured and designed according to the seasons of the year, they always have something special for each season, and these products cannot be found anywhere else except at victoria’s Secret stores or catalogues. Victoria’s Secret should have their clothese line not only online or on Victoria’s Secret catalogue, but they should consider opening a new secret for Victoria’s Secret Clothes, and shoes at all Victoria’s Secret stores, this would increase profits and more quality design would be made into consideration. This would even attract more customers who like to shop for clothes or shoes.

Process Design

The three elements of the service-product bundle for Victoria's secret are: Explicit service is availability of delivery service which Victoria’s Secret uses to deliver the product, also the time it takes for delivery (fast or regular shipping). Explicit service is also Victoria’s Secret stores where there is interaction between the customers and employees. Visual experience is also big part of it because the layout in the store is divided: lingerie and clothing in one side and perfumes, lotions, and makeup on the other side. Victoria’s Secret also offers a credit card Victoria’s Secret Angel and gift cards for its customers.Implicit service in Victoria’s Secret includes customer’s feelings - likes and dislikes about products and from services provided by Victoria’s Secret. For example, trying on clothes can give customer either positive or negative feeling about the product. If it is positive then customer more likely will purchase the product. Also, the store provides testers which are set up for customers to test the scents (perfumes, lotions, lipsticks, etc). Looking at fun and feminine lingerie on mannequin’s also give some women positive attitude and try on the same clothing. Facilitating goods are the products – clothing, footwear, lingerie, fragrances, lotions, makeup.

The service matrix Victoria’s Secret uses is co-routed service matrix. In Victoria’s Secret customer base most of the customers already know the brand. Even though customer’s needs and wants are different, Victoria’s Secret’s customer base have the same interests and wants. The products are sold in stores (1000 stores in the U.S.), through Internet, and catalogue. Victoria’s Secret offers a moderate number of choices that satisfy many different customers. In the mean time many customers’ interests are also the same. Therefore, customers have high power in decision-making process.

Victoria's secret encounters customer contact in many ways. In stores customers interact with associates to help them find what they are looking for, and to further assist customers. In order to give customers the best overall experience Victoria's Secrets put a lot into training their associates. They support employees to make sure they have the proper training, and are well educated about the products. Which makes Victoria secret stores a high contact service that requires employees who are flexible, personable, and that are willing to work with customers. As for the catalog and the Internet which is low contact service that focuses on technology. Technology helps them as a company reach more of an audience and reach customers that do not make into the stores. Technology has also allowed Victoria's Secret to offer more products, and more of a selection than stores offer on the in Internet.

Service recovery is a very important element of service management. Victoria's secret offers service guarantees that if customers are not satisfied with their products they can get their money back. Even if the product is used, or worn customers can still received their money back. Which makes Victoria's secret is all about customer satisfaction.

Process Selection

Victoria’s Secret product flow is the Batch flow which produces medium variety and medium volume depending on the customers needs. The products are produced in batches according to their characteristics and sold in batches. Each batch of the product flows from one operation to another. A batch process executes different production runs for different products. The disadvantage is the setup time required to change from one product to the other, but the advantage is that some flexibility in product mix can be achieved. A batch process is similar to a job shop, except that the sequence of activities tends to be in a line and is less flexible. In a batch process, dominant flows can be identified. The activities, while in-line, are disconnected from one another. Products are produced in batches, for example, to fill specific customer orders.

Victoria’s Secret customer order process is Make to stock (MTS) which provides faster service to customers from available stock and lower costs than a make to order process. It has higher flexibility for product customization. Most of Victoria’s Secret products are customized in different colors, sizes, and designs. The MTS process has a standard product line specified by the producer, not by the customer. The products are carried in inventory to immediately fulfill customer demand. Before customer demands the product is all ready in stock. If the product is not available, a back order can be placed or the order can be lost. The MTS process is measured by service level and efficiency in replenishing inventory.

Victoria’s Secret fall into the process of low volume multiple products characteristics matrix were the product is produced in low volume with multiple variety. The life cycle of the product is medium it doesn’t last short and it doesn’t have a long life either. Firms utilizing batch processes provide similar items on a repeat basis, usually in larger volumes than that associated with job shops. Products are sometimes accumulated until a lot can be processed together. When the most effective manufacturing route has been determined, the higher volume and repetition of requirements can make more efficient use of capacity and result in significantly lower costs. Since the volume is higher than that of the job shop, many processes can be utilized in repetition, creating a much smoother flow of work-in-process throughout the shop. While the flow is smoother, the work-in-process still moves around to the various machine groupings throughout the shop in a somewhat jumbled fashion. This is described as a disconnected line flow or intermittent flow.

Victoria’s Secret process selection is influenced by various factors, labor supply and cost, customization, competition in the market, and state of technology. There is competition with other department stores that sell similar products. There’s mostly price competition between other stores and Victoria Secret, however everybody knows Victoria’s Secret brand and that is beneficial for Victoria’s Secret.

Victoria’s Secret cannot adopt a mass customization method because it does not have standardized products with few options. With Victoria’s Secret process selection they do not customize their products for their customers. However their beauty products have different scents to give customers a variety. With Victoria’s Secrets other lines such as its intimate wear it cannot be customized however it is distributed with different sizes and different colors to meet different customer’s wants. Mass customization has changed the dynamics of the product-process matrix.

Inventory Management

Victoria’s Secret has used an "average store" concept in its inventory management system. Today the company uses a joint data warehouse and intranet application system. The result is based on MicroStrategy's DSS Server, a relational On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) server optimized for very large database (VLDB) analysis. The data warehouse that drives the application contains detailed information about the sales and inventory levels for each item in each store. The application enables associates to make decisions to improve their in-stock position and create individualized color/size models for each store. MicroStrategy's DSS Web has an access to the database and helps communication between the data warehouse and the browser. About 20 million rows of data are loaded into the system weekly. Over 1,000 queries are run each week, with the most frequently-executed queries coming from intranet users.
Victoria’s Secret has about 20 percent growth rate per month in users. When a user queries the data warehouse and receives an answer, guided walk-throughs, tutorials, and customized help screens gives instructions for what actions to take based on the results of those analyses. New intranet application program lets associates access detailed information and take action based on the info they receive from the data. It makes easier to adjust to reorder products based on store's selling patterns and inventory.
Victoria’s Secret plans to use DSS Web and the data warehouse to use a point-of-sale decision support system and using Web terminal in every store. When a product is sold out, the employee can see the situation (is the product in transit and if nearby stores have that particular product in inventory).