Loading
Case Study | Retail
Recent ActivityRecent Activity

Retail Simulation for Customer Wait Times

Reduce your total line wait time and transition costs using Arena Simulation Software

分享:

LinkedInLinkedIn
XX
FacebookFacebook
PrintPrint
EmailEmail
Customer paying with card

Challenge

Retailer needed to minimize personnel expenses or achieve increased satisfaction with service levels without costly trial and error methodology. Store changes would happen during off hours without customers present and an efficient way to transition must be applied.

Solution

In this study, a simulation model was constructed and used to examine staff scheduling with particular attention to customer wait times at the cash register at a retail store. All operations performed by clerks were carefully examined to determine staff scheduling at the retail store. All required data for staffing problems were collected, including the point of sales (POS) data and time study data for all clerks, with reference to the company manuals.

Results

The simulation was very useful in investigating the feasibility of new lines. By comparing with reference data of previous similar project quoted from the Finance Division of the company, the simulation study in this project also assisted in reducing project time in the design process (10% of the total designed time) and save costs in line modification (5% of the total equipment investment cost). 

Background

In this study, a simulation model was constructed and used to examine staff scheduling with particular attention to customer wait times at the cash register at a retail store. All operations performed by clerks were carefully examined to determine staff scheduling at the retail store on campus at Nagoya University. All required data for staffing problems were collected, including the point of sales (POS) data and time study data for all clerks, with reference to the company manuals.

Challenge

Recently, operations at the convenience store have been overly complicated. There are 170 types of operations for clerks in the store, and the operations are defined by the manual for the convenience store, which is divided into 10 classes. To properly identify problem areas and solutions, various data points would need to be collected from the store.

Solution

This paper discusses a simulation IP-personnel planning, especially by making use of POS data. First, during the past two years, POS data was carefully reviewed to analyze the frequency with which customers came into the store. Thereafter, based on the correlation coefficients of the data, several customer frequency patterns were established. Then, a stepwise procedure for personnel scheduling was proposed. Simulation modeling was used together with integer programming to minimize total personnel expenses.

In this study, the work load for all operations in every time period is examined in terms of man-hour; hence, work loading is performed in relation to time elapsed during each 24-hour period during the first stage. Then, integer programming is adopted to obtain an initial feasible solution to staffing problems. Finally, simulation experiments are performed together with OptQuest, and optimal solutions are obtained.

Results

A simulation modeling procedure for a retail store was proposed to determine the optimal number of clerks taking into account operation types, operation frequency, and staff scheduling. The procedure was designed to determine the optimal number of the clerks as necessary given the frequency of the operations involved.

In the procedure, work loading was performed during each 24-hour period in the first stage. Then, integer programming was used to obtain an initial feasible solution. Then, simulation experiments were performed together with OptQuest, and optimal solutions were obtained. The initial solution was obtained by solving the integer programming problem, and wait time was evaluated by performing the simulation. The proposed procedure was used for the actual case. It has been shown that staffing problems can be solved easily and effectively in a real-life situation.

发布时间 2010年12月5日

主题: Arena Simulation Software Retail Simulation Software
Download the Whitepaper

Recommended For You

Loading
  1. Chevron LeftChevron Left Rockwell Automation 主页 Chevron RightChevron Right
  2. Chevron LeftChevron Left 产品 Chevron RightChevron Right
  3. Chevron LeftChevron Left 软件 Chevron RightChevron Right
  4. Chevron LeftChevron Left Arena Simulation Software Chevron RightChevron Right
  5. Chevron LeftChevron Left Arena Simulation Software Case Studies Chevron RightChevron Right
  6. Chevron LeftChevron Left Retail Simulation for Customer Wait Times Chevron RightChevron Right
请更新您的Cookies偏好以继续.
此功能需要Cookies来增强您的体验。请更新您的系统偏好以允许使用这些Cookies:
  • 社交媒体Cookies
  • 功能Cookies
  • 性能 Cookies
  • 市场营销Cookies
  • 所有Cookies
您可以随时更新您的系统偏好。如需了解更多信息,请参阅我们的 {0} 隐私政策
CloseClose