OVERVIEW

In the previous chapter, we highlighted the success of Warner-Lambert and Wal-Mart's pilot of CFAR, but there is much more to the Warner-Lambert story. It is both a cautionary tale and a success story.

Let's recount the Warner-Lambert experience through Jay Nearnberg's viewpoint. In the spring of 1995, he was the Director of Customer Replenishment for Warner-Lambert. In this capacity, Nearnberg was not looking forward to an upcoming meeting with Wal-Mart's buyer.

Warner-Lambert, before being acquired by Pfizer in 2001, produced household health and beauty care products as well as pharmaceuticals. Its Listerine product was, and still is, a top seller. At that time, Listerine could sell much more than its current performance, but product availability problems kept the product from getting on store shelves. Out-of-stock situations with Wal-Mart and other retail customers were the norm.

Nearnberg knew that the inability to keep product on store shelves and in the distribution centers was costing Warner-Lambert millions of dollars in lost sales as well as credibility with its retail customers and consumers. To Nearnberg's credit, his approach to the upcoming Wal-Mart meeting was not to be defensive or to try to placate the buyer. Rather, he admitted there was a problem and asked for help. He wanted to leverage Wal-Mart's supply chain experience and insight to help structure improvements at Warner-Lambert.

Nearnberg was astute in understanding that there was more than one reason for the product availability problems. Obviously, Warner-Lambert's internal planning processes were ineffective. He also believed that the...