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MASC - Modeling & Analysis for Satisfaction of Customers
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Problem Statement
Support Retail Sector with Quantitative Simulation Models.
Support to Store Reorganization and Management.
Support to Supply Chain Management and Inventory Control.
Support Introduction of IT in Retail Activities |
Improvement Approach
MASC operates both in Logistics area and in Shop Management considering the whole Retail Chain as a single complex system. |
Benefits
-Inventory Reduction
-Sales Improvements
-Operative Costs Reduction
-Stockout Reduction
-Improvements in the Logistics
-Improvements in Quality of Life for Personnel |
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The DIPEM Research Team focused on Modeling and Analysis of Customers Satisfaction applied to retail sector. The MASC Project has been developed in cooperation with retail major company in Italy.
The aim was to improve the customers satisfaction by procedures, resources and equipment optimization.
In effect the developed architectures are currently applied and successfully integrated with the company Logistic Management System.
In effect the Retail companies requires to improve logistics for speeding up the distribution and reducing costs, while the store organization need to be compliant and match with the flows and the customer demand.
A critical aspect it is to be able to estimate the mutual impact of the supply chain management and logistics with the store organization in order to maintain an high customer satisfaction with reduced costs for being competitive on product prices. |
MASC is a tailored solution that was used in order to support the supply chain from customer point of view and it was impelmented in a large set of initiative integrating simulation with information systems and organization.
In effect another important component of the problem is related to the high number of items to be processed and the size of flows, also in this application it is critical to integrate simulation solution with existing company IT infrastructure and with available operative requirements to support decision on-line both at tactical and strategic level. |
The basic idea of MASC is to quantitatively measure parameters, such as customer satisfaction, that usually are considered personal and qualitative.
MASC approach this measurement by an objective and quantitative approach, identifying target functions for customers (i.e. service time, queue length, stockouts). The parameters measured are the input database for a simulation model interely developed by the Research team of DIPEM and Partners. The MASC simulator allows to reproduce the behaviour of each supermarket with its own characteristics and to test any possible reorganisation solution in order to improve value of target functions, respecting cost and policies of the Company. Inside MASC simulator are reproduced the policies and logics of management for each supermarket, and with stochastic input variables deriving from the specific measurement of input parameters, evaluates the best solution by testing the effects and comparing them in order to give a decision support to the managers. |
MASC is integrated with other simulators developed by the same group and active in the retail sector; for instance it was developed a simulator for optimising algorithms for inventory management and demand forecasts. Simulation models was integrated in this framework also to evaluate new logistics platforms and to support design of new processes (new logistics infrastructures or new B2C and e-commerce solutions) and/or procedures for specific goods (i.e. meat products or milk fresh goods).
The integrated use of simulation allowed to support decision based on quantitative measure and to check the implementation of the decisions by controlling the system metrics proactively enabling corrective actions. |
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The MASC demonstrated that the Customer satisfaction was really improved in every supermarket in which MASC was applied. Stockout drastically reduced (50% till 80%), queue waiting time was significantly improved, thanks to timetable and organisation changes made with the support of MASC simulator. MASC supported Retail organizations to save money by testing the effect of changes on a model very well reproducing the supermarket behaviour. The rational reorganisation provide significative profits by money savings and by decreasing selling losses due to the fact that the stockout were drastically reduced and the customer was more satisfied. Personnel was so satisfied with the new work organisation that almost everyone asked as volounteer to be involved in the program, and shop managers asked to extend MASC Project to other sectors of the supermarket. |
Company itself continuously extends use of MASC in its retail chain. Very good results were given also by the tools integrated with MASC, allowing to optimise inventory management in the central warehouse, and supporting creation of fresh food platforms. This allows to create an efficient supply chain tailored for customers reducing drastically purchaising costs and improving the service in a more competitive environment.
Inventory management improvements was very significant, while the single good type supply chain reorganization introduced saving and improve the quality and control of the processes. |
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