Magazines Archives - 2009 May

Laura Ashley Japan installs software to improve store efficiency, customer service
Story 13 - Retail Technology

FASHION and home-goods retailer Laura Ashley Japan has implemented a new software that allows store managers to supervise their staff more efficiently and improve customer service.

Created by IBM’s company, ILOG, and Winworks, the new system combines the ILOG CPLEX and Winworks One workforce scheduling software to match available human resources to business needs, providing the store manager with staffing solutions and allowing them to make smarter decisions based on peak sales times.

The software also claims to increase sales opportunities by automatically generating optimised work schedules that meet complex conditions, including company regulations, individual employment contracts, employee skills and vacation requests.

“Winworks One was selected by Laura Ashley Japan to reduce the workload of store managers as well as increase the time available to service customers and provide training. Laura Ashley’s sales sites have a customised personnel management structure that allows both full-time and part-time employees and temporary staff with different skill levels and experience to work together.

“This personnel structure fits within a monthly ‘time budget’ for each store, which is the maximum number of scheduled work hours that the company has determined each store should meet,” the two companies disclosed.

The companies claimed that store efficiency improved 10% after the use of the software, enhancing service time for customers and store management.

Laura Ashley Japan noted: “The more time staff spend interacting with their customers, the more positive the impact on revenue.” Hence, the move to increase the staff’s time interacting with customers.

“We acknowledge the importance of designing efficient work schedules for our operations in order to provide superior working conditions to motivate our staff, as well as increase sales opportunities by minimising unproductive time not used to serve customers,” said Hideaki Takano, director of administrative headquarters for Laura Ashley Japan.

“Increasing sales opportunities means increasing time spent servicing our customers. As a result of introducing Winworks One at our Laura Ashley Home store at Aeon Mall Chiba New Town, we saw a dramatic reduction in the time spent preparing work schedules and a groundbreaking increase in customer service time.”

Following the successful deployment of the software at the Aeon Mall store, Laura Ashley is extending the usage of IBM ILOG CPLEX and Winworks One to more than 20 major retail stores in the Kanto, Kansai, Tohoku, Shikoku and Kyushu areas to improve sales.

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