H i e r a rc h i e s :

Merchandise & Organisation

S u m m a r y o f Ke y d e c i s i o n s a n d a c t i o n s
HLD Session 1
Workshops WSF01 & WSF 02
10 November 2014

Hierarchies decisions
made:
10 November 2014
1. Merchandise Hierarchy
2. Organisational
Hierarchy
3. Virtual warehouses/
virtual ring fencing

Merchandise
Hierarchy
Agreement

MERCHANDISE HIERARCHY
Group

Division

Sub-Division

1. Current hierarchy would remain, with current terminology,

but company naming would be changed to Group. This
facilitates change and gives consistency with TOM direction.
2. 6 levels of hierarchy would be sufficient for Atlas
3. New item structure; Style would come in at Item (level 1) and
colour and size at Item (level 2) definitions

4. The Category level is currently not used. This could be

reviewed. If so, what it will be used for needs to be defined
Marketing Group
(but not populated) by mid January 2015 latest.
Department
Category

5. If category is used, careful transition planning to be

completed, in line with TOM transition planning, on when
best to introduce changes as major change to existing New
Look systems landscape. Introduction would need to be
before or after Atlas introduction; not at the same time

Organisational
Hierarchy
Agreement

AGREED AND DOCUMENTED IN SESSION

NEW, ATLAS ORGANISATIONAL HIERARCHY

Group

Group

Model

e.g. 3PE, Franchise, Owned

Region

e.g. UK, Europe, Asia (China today)

Country

Regional sub-division; UK, France.

Sub-country

e.g. England, Scotland, Hong Kong

Store

Physical stores, ecomm,

Virtual Ringfencing

Virtual Warehousing will be

enabler
of Virtual
Ring
1. the
Virtual
warehouses
in RMS
gives the ability to virtual
fencing

Virtual Ringfencing
Banner

Country

Store

ring-fence stock as required

by TOM at country level
2. POs must identify virtual
warehouse (suppliers do not
see this detail)
3. Stock will be transferred
between virtual warehouses
by Group BMD
4. Allocation to specific
stores/locations will then be
conducted using
Allocation/Replenishment
5. Any concept of soft and
hard ring-fencing are
business process based in
terms of ability to decide to
re-allocate.
Physical
Warehouse

Virtual
Warehouse

Virtual
Warehouse

Other key
decisions and
understandings

OTHER DECISIONS/UNDERSTANDINGS
1. There could be alternate hierarchies to facilitate Planning
(merchandise financial planning, assortment planning)
activities. These would be determined if necessary in
February 2015. These do not impact organisational or
merchandise hierarchies
2. Need to keep Glossary updated in line with these sessions..
Functional lead will provide inputs to Keren Richardson who
is the owner of the Glossary
3. Price Zones for setting up price changes to reflect price
events and local/regional needs are separate to the
merchandise and organisational hierarchies and will be
covered under the Pricing workshops. These are set up in
Retail Price Management, and typically align to country, subcountry and store grading set-ups