Cashier downtime in retail vsf 07 12 11 final web

1. It will minimize the response time that each customer
experiences by reducing wait times in line
2. It will increase the number of transactions completed in a given
time period
Let's say there are 10 lanes and 10 customers that get to the checkout area
at the same time, each customer goes to a different lane, and each
checkout takes two minutes. Thus their will be absolutely no delay
between customer checkouts. But in this case, the number of cashiers has
increased to improve service level leading to higher payroll costs.
The solution to this issue is to analyze cashier downtime for a particular
duration of time for all times of the day with an assumption that any new
customer will try to get into a lane which will have the least waiting time i.e.
minimum length of the queue.
The next step would be to compare this downtime with the sales forecasts
for that particular store for the same time period. The breakup of the sales
Store X (A)
8:00 AM to 9:00 AM
9:00 AM to 10:00 AM
10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
3:00 PM to 4:00 PM
4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
5:00 PM to 6:00 PM
6:00 PM to 7:00 PM
7:00 PM to 8:00 PM
8:00 PM to 9:00 PM
9:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Sales
($) (B)
5000
7000
6000
10000
8000
2000
3000
3000
14000
9000
6000
4000
1000
1000
Average
Cashier Rate
($) / hour
(C)
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
No. of
Cashiers
(D)
8
8
16
20
20
16
16
16
20
12
12
12
8
8
Cashier
Cost ($) per
hour
(E) = (C)
* (D)
64
64
128
160
160
128
128
128
160
96
96
96
64
64
forecast would have to be done for all hours of the day for all days of
the week.
The resulting comparison will illustrate that cashier downtime is inversely
proportional to the sales of the store and directly proportional to the
number of open lanes in the store.
Once we get the comparison we can deduce the number of cashiers
required in a store at a given point of time to provide a defined level of
service (1+0, 1+1, 1+2 etc.) and the acceptable level for
cashier downtime.
Once the retail chain sets a standard for acceptable cashier downtime it
can be monitored across all stores and brought to the defined standard.
For e.g.: If cashier downtime is more for a store from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM
as compared to the sales; we need to reduce the number of cashiers in the
store at that time.
The table given below illustrates this concept:
Cashier Downtime Reduction
Cumulative
Cashier Downtime
per hour
(Hours) (F)
* At this cost the service level (1+0, 1+1, 1+2) as desired by the store is achieved.
2
1
3
4
5
5
5
5
1
2
3
4
3
3
Cashier
Downtime
Cost ($) (G) =
(C) * (F)
16
8
24
32
40
40
40
40
8
16
24
32
24
24
Acceptable
Downtime
Cost ($) * (per
1000$ of
sales) (H)
1
Current Cost
($) per 1000$
of sales
(I) = (G) *
1000 / (B)
3.20
1.14
4.00
3.20
5.00
20.00
13.33
13.33
0.57
1.78
4.00
8.00
24.00
24.00
Cashier
Downtime
Cost reduction
opportunity ($)
(J)= (I) - (H)
2.20
0.14
3.00
2.20
4.00
19.00
12.33
12.3
-0.43
0.78
3.00
7.00
23.00
23.00