Robin Colbers
Application Manager Spar
LTT speaks for this interview with Robin Colbers, responsible for functional application management within the SPAR organization, including for the Stock Control System (SCS). Robin has worked at several food retailers and has been in the supermarket business for 25 years.
What specific problems has SCS solved within the store and chain?
SCS has replaced the manual ordering system within Spar. It ensured that the availability of the products desired by customers in the store has improved significantly. In addition, the use of SCS has allowed us to reduce inventory and has also significantly reduced shrinkage. There is additionally more insight into grey wastage within the organization because we are focused on stock at hand because each stock keeping unit is tracked by SCS. I notice that the users in the store are lived by the operation, but are much better able to look ahead and plan because of SCS?
What feedback do you get from the stores on using SCS?
Business owners were familiar with labour-intensive and error-prone manual ordering. After SCS was implemented, it only took a short time for our entrepreneurs to fully rely on SCS’s ordering advice. SCS creates an ordering recommendation for the entire assortment and gives the user insight into the calculation of the ordering recommendation. This works fine for the users on the store floor as well as the store manager.
What can you as a group now do better with the use of SCS?
We have much better insight into the flow of goods in the store and are better able to adjust the stock to the expected sales. In addition, the information from SCS gives us insight into the store operation, such as whether and when the mandatory counts are done. Info from SCS we pass on internally to the business advisors who visit the stores or directly to the entrepreneurs, so that they arrive at an optimal business operation.
So what can stores do better with the use of SCS?
SCS offers a very user-friendly interface that allows stores to use SCS easily and without training before implementation and without much knowledge of ordering systems. Regarding the tracking inventory per item, SCS provides functionality that supports all store processes. In summary, with ordering recommendations from SCS, stores can better manage their inventory proactively and actively reduce shrinkage.
How did you experience the cooperation with LTT after going live?
Spar has found the cooperation with LTT to be very pleasant. We clearly notice that we speak the same language and the operational knowledge of the store operation is gratefully used by Spar.
