Process Selection

The type of product flow that CVS Pharmacy uses can be classified as a batch flow. They have medium volume and medium variety and there are a few stops that are made to get products to a CVS store. Products are bought and are then sent to warehouses all across the country which are then broken down and packed again by what the store has ordered which is then delivered to the store. They type of customer order that CVS processes can be classified in two ways. The front store can be classified as made to stock which means that the products are ordered ahead of time and can be restocked on the shelves as often as needed to make the consumers happy. The pharmacy can be classified as an assemble to order because every pharmacy patient has a different prescription with different needs. The category they fall into in the process characteristics matrix is batch flow and assemble to order. The things that influence their process selection is that the stores are not very big and cannot handle the big shipments straight from a manufacturer and they buy in large amounts to cut costs. Also with having stores in almost every street corner it makes it easier for them to have one big warehouse and ship orders to the stores from there. It's a lot easier for them to keep track of their inventory. I don't think that they could mass customize their process selection, unless they build bigger stores to hold the inventory.