Simply Vintage & Restoration Love

The City of Dawson Creek, BC has a population of 14,245.  Dawson Creek is also referred to as Mile ‘0’ of the Alaska Highway.  The primary industries are agriculture, natural gas & oil and lastly tourism.  It is a delight to visit Dawson Creek.  It has a very artsy feel to it.  Vintage & Restoration Love is a shop reminds me of something I would see in St. Jacobs, Ontario.  It was a pleasant surprise to find it in a city close to Fort St. John.  It is an eclectic mix of vintage and new home décor items, upcycled furniture and restored furniture.  Natasha Lacourse, the owner promotes local artisans and her store also features delicious local and BC food items. Natasha is a great resource when you are working on a paint DIY.  If you have issues with your project talk to Natasha she will be pleased to help you.  Vintage & Restoration Love is a thriving business and I wondered how Natasha uses social media for supply chain management.

Vintage & Restoration Love does not use any supply chain management software or systems.  All aspects of purchasing from vendors, sales for supplies and DIY classes take place on the Vintage & Restoration Love Facebook Page or through Messenger.  This makes the most business sense since the majority of items for the DIY classes are purchased locally.  There are no sales to customers outside of the country so shipping manifests and tracking are not required.  It is also practical since vendors and customers are from traditionalist to millennials and Natasha has learned to navigate this area well.  She meets their needs.  Vintage & Restoration Love is a local favourite and their support for the community is returned.

There are many options for supply chain management software or systems.  Basically, they all perform similar tasks but some are more customized than others.  I work for a large organization and our supply chain management system is SAP.  The Service Request Order (SRO) or Purchase Order (PO) is created and sent to the vendor.  The service is provided or the item shipped.  Once goods are received a goods receipt is completed and the item is received into inventory. The supplier issues an invoice and sends it to our Accounts Payable Department for processing.  The invoice is forwarded to the Service Receipt Confirmer via SAP’s workflow.  It is then reviewed against the quote, spot checked for proper tax applications and ensured it is coded to the right company, SRO/PO and is going to the right order.  Once this is completed it is sent to the Team Leader for approval and payment of the invoice.

Our Finance Assistants used to create the SRO or PO’s however our organization increased in size and it made the most sense to create a PSCM Department.  A request for an SRO/PO is sent to the Procurement Department where they determine if a single sole source is required, a tender or SRO/PO. Vendors must have all the applicable requirements such as WCB, liability insurance, ISNET World rating and be an approved vendor.  A service receipt confirmer is added to the SRO/PO so that all invoices are routed to that person’s workflow.  The size of the organization does allow for some master service agreements to be made to negotiate a set price across all aspects of the company resulting in savings.  Some vendors manage the inventory and will create a shipment notification and submit invoices electronically as the inventory is being replenished.

Our company uses accrual-based accounting therefore SAP reports enable us to accrue for services or products in the month received.  I run a report by route code, SRC and commitment then create the accrual. SAP has many reports that will assist with decision making, planning and etc.  In essences it is possible to see the item from purchase to final product and all the steps in between through SAP.

Lessons for Others

In conclusion, Vintage & Restoration Love is utilizing Facebook for their supply chain management system which in this instance I have to agree is the most cost-efficient method at the moment.  It meets the needs of local vendors and customers.  There is no additional expense for software training.  In the future the SCM software/system can be re-examined should the scope of work change such as an increase in volume or shipping outside of the country.  The other key factor is the cost of the software/system many of the software/systems advertised a return on investment through savings via streamlining however I agree with Natasha that it is not practical for Vintage & Restoration Love at this time.

On a side note Natasha has been extremely supportive of this case study.  I emailed her a series of questions about her use of social media and supply chain management. Prior to doing this case study I asked Natasha for permission to use Vintage & Restoration Love.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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