Labor Transformation Through More Effective Planning in a Highly Seasonal Business

Case Study

3

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Related Work

A branded multi-location retail garden center operation was in the process of a cultural and operational transformation. For the first time in its history, this multi- generation family-owned business had brought in external leadership to help map and execute a strategy that will take the organization to the next level of growth. Carpedia was engaged by the leadership team to help implement some foundational processes and systems to create more standardization and improvement in the way leaders forecast and align labor in a variable demand business.

The following opportunities were identified:

Low engagement and interfacing with guests
Garden centers are managed autonomously resulting in variability in the execution of key operational processes
>50% lost time related to poor or ineffective planning
Lack of visibility to the shoulder months, weeks, days, and intra-day demand variability to support in how labor is assigned

Return on Investment

%

Productivity Improvement

Annualized Benefits

- VP Finance

“The work that you and your team have supported us with over the past 5 ½ months has helped to lay some of the foundational pieces to create better alignment in terms of how our investments will drive a better customer experience at a lower cost. The Forecast and Planning Model you developed and the discipline you have brought to our planning process has helped to change the behavior of our Garden Centre leaders to create tighter control with respect to our sales forecasting and labor planning with the goal of delivering the optimal retail guest experience.”

Carpedia was engaged to support the organization in creating more consistency and standardization across all Garden Centre retail locations; key changes implemented include the following:

Improved forecasting using historical and actual data to analyze trends to improve sales forecasts
Improved labor planning by using historical POS data to determine day of week and intra-day demand peaks that inform schedule assignments to better align labor with Retail, B2B and Trade activity
Improved processes such as inter-store transfers, B2B order processing, e-commerce, cashier, and guest interfacing to eliminate lost time
Identified key in-store processes and developed brand standards against which stores were audited
Improved communication and removed silos
Improved the management performance system to better track and respond to variances to plan

The Results

Carpedia partnered with local leaders across all retail operations to create a standard operating model that can be replicated and supported in facilitating a cultural shift towards greater accountability and proactive problem solving as the organization begins to shift its focus to the next level of growth.

Results included: