ECR GROUP CHARTS FUTURE WORK, SHOW ACTIVITIES

MARC MILLSTEIN

CHICAGO -- The Efficient Consumer Response Operating Committee last week was to make final recommendations on next year's Joint Industry Conference agenda and future work projects.

Details of the Operating Committee's agenda and proposed areas of ECR emphasis in the coming year were shared with SN just prior to the group's meeting here, scheduled for late last week.

In addition, Gary Capshaw, vice president of logistics at Fleming Cos., Oklahoma City, has been named the new distributor co-chairman of the ECR Operating Committee, effective immediately, SN learned. Capshaw succeeds Harvey McCoy, vice president of grocery category management at H.E. Butt Grocery Co., San Antonio, who served in that position for the past year.

Jack Haedicke, vice president of ECR finance at Kraft Foods, Northfield, Ill., remains the manufacturer co-chairman of the ECR Operating Committee.

On the ECR Executive Committee front, Albert Carey, chief operating officer at Frito-Lay, Plano, Texas, is expected to take over as committee co-chairman from Durk Jager, president and chief operating officer of Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati. As of press time, however, officials had not yet confirmed that change in leadership.

Among the issues the Operating Committee was to explore at the meeting was recommending which user work groups to proceed with in the coming year. Groups charged with exploring topics such as scorecards, perishables, military, cost to serve, education and communication are all under consideration.

The groups would be similar in scope to those already under way in the areas of electronic data interchange and activity-based management, for example.

The meeting was also expected to focus on nailing down final recommendations regarding the Joint Industry ECR conference, slated for March 12 to 14 next year in Atlanta.

One core focus at the show will be an expanded emphasis on presenting concrete examples of ECR projects. For example, the findings of the EDI user group will be presented, with a discussion of why the industry has not moved forward faster in this area.

The Operating Committee also hopes to persuade a much larger number of distributors and suppliers to share details of their ECR programs during conference workshop sessions.

"We're trying to attract even more [retailers and wholesalers] than we did last year. We're going further away from theory. The first year the conference was very theoretical in scope. The second was a mix. This year it's going to be nuts and bolts," Haedicke said.

"We're hopeful we can get more companies to share their ECR stories," he added.

The recommendations of the Operating Committee will be presented to the ECR Executive Committee at its meeting Nov. 14 in Chicago.