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Lean Transformation for Belgian retailers Planet Parfum & Di (beauty sector)

2015

Our mission

  • Professionalize in store operations and ensure consistent good service
  • Reduce costs by reducing temp / interim labor force through efficiency increases
  • Enable cultural/skill shift of store managers and ensure more personalized service
  • Build internal Lean team that will be able to push lean autonomously further

End Results

  • After 12 months :Staff costs – 9% mostly without forced firing ( = +/- 3Mio€/yr savings)
  • Improved service offer as requested (professional in store resource planning; increased personnel service; strong decrease in Out of stocks, cleaner, more attractive stores …) resulting in initial increase in sales of 1-2 %.
  • In the stores a customer centric culture with focus on problem solving was installed
  • Autonomous Lean team introduced Lean in the supply chain reducing cost with 25%

The Country Sales Manager testified:

“In the very beginning I was sceptic and did not see where the added value was supposed to come from, but well in the program I realized the quality of the solutions, the involvement of the people, and the change management behind it all appealed so much to my network and myself … I became a true believer and fought for the program to deliver its very best to my people.”

Approach

  • Through a mini diagnostic, the whole MT was convinced of the potential of Lean retailing to address their main operational issues
  • Then in both chains, in selected pilot stores, a full Lean program was designed including required tools, procedures and IT adjustments and tuned till desired impact was reached.
  • Within these pilots an internal team with a mix of managers, employees and shop managers was coached and mentored by CSI to perform
  • The diagnostic that extended and refined the findings of the mini diagnostic through
    • Mystery shopping and customer reviews
    • More detailed and full network data & process analysis
    • Observations and measurements in the stores of daily routines and planning including waste analysis
  • Design
    • Design a new scheduling tool for the shops
    • Reorganize the storage room and the cash registers area
    • Improve shelving ergonomics and al other main routines (including cleaning)
    • Negotiate with the unions to implement the new procedure package
  • Implementation
    • Install all tools + procedures in multiple stores to test and tune for target impact
    • Install concrete instore managers toolkit to allow pick new role
    • Design roll out, (internally) recruit and coach the roll out teams
  • This Lean program was then rolled out throughout both networks mainly leveraging the own internal organization

Main challenges

  • Changing old habits engrained almost in DNA of more senior staff
  • Installing true coaching skills with people not used to really manage other people
  • Deal with negative impact from fierce competition of Watson Group (Kruidvat, Paris XL..)
  • Get unions on board to support the program

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