Productivity & Efficiency Review Success Story

A Regional Food Retailer

A regional food retailer – with a reputation for adopting retail technology – implemented numerous innovative changes across a number of their stores. Such a large investment meant it was crucial this new technology helped their business to reach its full potential.

To ensure that the investment in this new technology would maximise business success, our specialists wanted to ensure that any changes would result in the biggest benefits and identify opportunities to expand their ideas even further.

Our workforce management consultants used a range of work study techniques across a mix of core and trial stores in order to gain insight into the measure of the operation, highlighting what was working well and how to expand on it even further. 

So let us delve into what we did for them, whilst you learn more about what we could do for you…

What did we find?

Our expert data and operational insights proved that:

• New technology was indeed helping:
  • Electronic shelf edge labels saved enough time in store to justify roll-out and ongoing costs
  • Implementation of self-checkout payment in stores worked well for customers and teams alike
  • Energy-saving fridges with doors were quicker to transfer stock to the shelves, offsetting the extra time taken to open and close the doors
• When compared to core stores, a new one with new technology and a reduced hours budget still experienced colleague downtime, meaning budget hours could be tightened without any impact on customer experience
• The group had a higher ratio of leadership roles to colleague hours than many other retailers; this was causing inefficiency and extra costs
• There were additional opportunities to use technology in order to carry out the compliance checks that are required of food retailers; digitised temperature check trackers and similar audits could be quicker, ultimately reducing the use and storage of paper sheets and helping to provide a full overview without the need to view paper trackers

How did it help?

The insight we provided allowed this regional food retailer to strengthen their position as leaders in efficiency, using the evidence to focus both their time and resources in order to achieve the biggest impact. 

Indeed, we have already returned to conduct a quick study in order to measure the impact of their most recent trial, helping tweak the process to achieve peak efficiency for roll-out.

How can we help you?

Spending time and budget on new technology opens a great deal of potential for your business. However, if this new technology is not implemented efficiently, incorporating good workforce management, this once upon a time dream can quickly become a nightmare.

Why invest in something if you aren’t going to use it to its full potential? Or, why invest in something at all if you can make significant workplace improvements by adopting proven processes? This is where we come in. 

Speak to our productivity experts today and discover how we can help your business thrive.