Automated Store Replenishment – Volume XX (continued)

• Divide you store(s) into sections. After a period of being a ‘Clerk’, promote employees to ‘Section Managers’, assign sections to each one and make that person solely responsible for managing their sections. Their responsibilities should be: a
•   Keep their sections clean and organized. Remove bent cans, broken boxes, torn wrappers, dust and trash.
• Pick up inventory off the floor and if there is no room for it on the shelves, take it back to the storeroom. Damaged products should immediately be removed from the sales floor, returned to the storeroom or destroyed. Do not allow employees to take damaged product home with them.
•    Restock inventory from the storeroom as required.
•  Adjust all item facings so the customers can easily see them.
• Take notice of any out-of-stocks and report them to management immediately.
• Insure pricing labeling on all products are correct and not covering the UPC code.
• Audit items when instructed to do so. 

• Determine your high-risk items. Provide a printout of high-risk items by section and have your section managers audit these daily. The list should also include other non-high-risk items that should be audited during the normal audit schedule for the section. Start by insuring the entire section is audited monthly, with the goal of reducing the audit scheduling time to two weeks maximum. Note: Not all products in high-risk categories are high-risk themselves.

• In addition to items with high-turn rates, items subject to shrinkage may also be considered high-risk items. Any item that reported overages/shortages during a scheduled audit, should automatically be put on a different employees high-risk list for the next available shift. Note: If you are not using a perpetual inventory system, you will need to build in a one-day margin of error for each item audited, as in these cases, audits will not affect the inventory at the precise moment the count is determined. 

• Items that have stopped producing turns or have a balance on hand of less than or equal to zero, should also be placed on the high-risk list. Items that were missed should be moved to the same list. Items that are missed a second time should be considered an ‘emergency situation’. Force your employees to understand how important your inventory is to you.

• Ensure item prices match the current suggested retail price. If they do not, have each Section Manager take the items back to the storeroom and re-price them. Update POS price books as necessary.

• Store supervisors should perform spot audits on items as time allows from a list prepared by your system  
  
•  Reward ‘Section Managers’ weekly and/or monthly. Have supervisors and store managers grade employees according to proficiency in managing their sections. At your discretion, promote ‘Clerks’ to ‘Section Managers’ and ‘Section Managers’ to ‘Inventory Control Specialists’… and give them a raise. Pick new store managers from the ‘Inventory Control Specialists’ list. In other words, give them something to work toward.

If you take your business seriously, your employees will take their jobs seriously. You must delegate to motivate. Reward excellence with promotion. Be lavish with your praise and swift with your displeasure. Employees who do not perform well should know they have let not only you down, but the entire team has suffered.