Dr Andi Smart, University of Exeter
For the customer to have a hassle free shopping experience then most, if not all, of these objectives need to be met.
The first, and arguably the most important, objective in the store is quality. It is important because it is the most visible part of what operations do and therefore customers are easily able to make judgements on quality. In real terms inside the supermarket this means ensuring that products are in good condition, that the store is clean, that the interior decorations are appropriate and of a good standard and ensuring that staff are polite and friendly. Quality is managed very carefully within the store. The floor manager is responsible for overseeing the operation as a whole and controls the managers from each section of the store. These managers in-turn oversee staff in their own section and control stock rotation, cleanliness of the isles and goods and ensure that all fixtures are maintained. This top-down approach to the operation ensures that quality is maintained successfully within the store.
The next objective is speed – ensuring a short transaction time at the checkout and making products readily available is the only way that speed can be managed within the supermarket. A checkout manager controls the checkouts, increasing and reducing the number of staff on the checkouts as necessary. Having a dedicated manager in charge of overseeing the operation ensures that the correct numbers of employees are working on the checkouts and therefore customers will be served quickly and employee’s time will not be wasted when they are not needed.
Customers need to be able to depend on the supermarket. This means keeping regular opening hours, making sure products are readily available and making sure checkout queuing times are kept at a reasonable level. The checkout manager ensures queuing time is kept down and the store manager keeps opening times regular and notifies customers of any change to the schedule.
Flexibility of the store will help to retain existing customers and also attract new customers. This can be done by keeping a wide range of products in stock and by the regular introduction of new goods and promotions. The stock manager carries out the process of finding and ordering new stock and this means that new types of goods are offered to the customers regularly. The store manager implements marketing and regularly introduces new offers to attract customers.
The final objective is to minimise cost. Faster operations, high quality, dependability and flexibility all equal a lower cost. Therefore improving the performance of other operations objectives can reduce costs. The store manager ensures that each operation is carried out effectively and therefore costs are kept low.
IMPROVEMENT OPPOURTUNITIES
If businesses stand still they will loose their competitive edge, it is therefore very important that changes are made to keep pace and stay in business. Before any improvements are made, the current performance needs to be evaluated so that a need to improve can be established. The improvement objective can then be defined and then the change implemented.
Within the store there is a dedicated team of managers who work on improving operations. There are two ways that the management team can implement improvements. The first way is known as breakthrough improvement and this has a short term but dramatic effect and is usually aimed at increasing profits. The second type of improvement is a continuous improvement, which is usually long-term and long lasting but has less of a dramatic effect. These types of improvements are usually implemented to improve processes for better results and usually focus on enablers such as leadership, communication, resources, organisation architecture, people and processes - in other words, everything in the organisation, in all functions at all levels.
The layout of the products within the store can and does affect the buying habits of customers. At present, the layout may not be the most efficient, however, any improvements changing the layout could have on operations would be out-weighed buy the negative effect it would have on customers. This is because changing the layout would go against one of the key objectives - dependability. Returning customers depend on the products being in the same places as the last time they visited. A cautious improvement could be implemented where the layout is improved gradually over time, for example moving a small section of an isle at a time. These improvements would be to improve the processes and not for increased profits.
Improvement of process technology in the store could result in cutting the time of operations and therefore leading to reduced costs. There is defiantly room for the introduction of new technology in the store to improve operations. One piece of technology that may be beneficial in-store would be some kind of stock management tool that was linked to the tills and notified the stock managers when the number of a certain product in stock was below a certain level. This would be beneficial, as it would ensure that all stock, if possible, was above a certain level. Currently, without the technology in place, it is easy for stock managers to miss some products when taking stock checks, leading to some products becoming sold out.
New ideas and innovations can help to improve the processes within the store. A recent idea by an employee has helped to cut down time on putting stock out into the shop floor. This means more stock can be put out and therefore more sales can be made. A combination of simple ideas like these can combine to make processes within the store much more efficient.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, for any business to run effectively its operations need to be carefully managed. This is especially important within a supermarket where a large number of transactions are carried out. Staff must be managed, stock needs to be constantly replenished, checkouts need to be controlled and the cleanliness of the store needs to be looked after. Each process within the store contributes to the five main performance objectives that the supermarket works towards. This is achieved successfully within the Sainsbury’s supermarket due to the efficient operations management employed within the store.
