"Halfords now has the mechanism to ensure that they deliver the right store-specific planograms to the right stores at the right time"
Stephen Hughes, Space Planning Manager, Halfords Background
Halfords, a division of Boots plc, already had a well-disciplined manual store planning process. However, they took the decision to streamline the way they planned and managed their space for their portfolio of over 400 automotive and cycle stores, ranging from 14,000 sq ft Superstores to 500 sq ft Motorway stores.
Legacy
Their legacy seasonal planning process was a totally manual one, which began with a two-dimensional CAD drawing generated by the property department featuring only basic fixture location within each of the store layouts.
With two major seasonal changes per annum (Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter) plus a seasonal promotional plan, the process was both time consuming and manpower intensive and thus costly. For each seasonal change 24 Area Planners were relocated from three stores to head office over a 3-week residential period for the intensive planning process. Each Area Planner was responsible for between 20 and 25 stores. The Area Planners were fully briefed on the key planning objectives for the forthcoming seasonal changes. Using the previous seasons' store plan as the template, each planner revised the layout to incorporate the new season's prime planning objectives. Each plan was then checked and approved by the Space Planning department.
There were a number of drawbacks to this process that were only highlighted when the plan was issued to the store at the area briefing meetings. If the data on the original template was wrong, then the latest seasonal layout that was produced based on this information could also be wrong. Any changes to correct the problem made at local level may not necessarily meet the company's overall planning objectives.
The store manager was then responsible for recording all planogram references in use within the store via a systems-based data capture process. There were a number of drawbacks in this process. Firstly, it could take up to 6 weeks before all stores had returned their information. Secondly the store layout could change during the implementation period resulting in additional delays to the final space utilisation data capture. Finally, the space planning team then spent time collating the information before it could be used effectively.
The merchandising software used by Halfords is Spaceman* from ACNielsen. The system is used for generating both visual planograms and a database of product information for use within category management. Any link between the planograms, equipment profiles and store layouts was a manual process. The input for advanced analysis of store space for utilisation and performance reporting was yet again a manual task. There was strong motivation to improve this process and enhance key business performance criteria.
Business Objectives
Halfords' key business objective was to automate their processes, and so deliver information to stores faster and with greater accuracy, and develop an instant - access space utilisation system that enables the business to quickly and easily understand how space was being utilised at both a macro and micro level. In addition, there were a number of spin-off objectives directly linked to targeting bespoke display equipment, merchandising units and POS (point of sale) packs to stores via the link between the planogram and the store layout information.
"We approached Halfords at exactly the right time, and they recognised immediately the potential of our product. The requirement to link micro-space (shelf and product planogram data) was primary and we proposed to accomplish this with Retail FOCUS. Our heritage is in the generation of structured databases from the simple lines, arcs, curves and symbols of CAD drawing systems and creating innovative applications. This proven skill-set differentiates Retail FOCUS from competitors." said Mark Teichman, Sales Director at Visual Technology. |
