Capacity Planning, Facility Location, Operational And Logistical Planning Of Countdown Supermarket NZ

Discussion

Countdown Supermarket NZ is the supermarket in New Zealand, which is dedicated to ensure that Kiwis live a bit better daily. The firm welcomes each and every individual, irrespective of who they are or the manner they perform shopping with the firm. It is the objective of the organisation to serve the consumers with optimal choice, products at reasonable costs and convenience (Countdown.co.nz. 2022). Being a duty manager in Countdown supermarket NZ, to oversee the store in the absence of the store manager, it is required to analyse certain major aspects of the concerned firm. Efficient administration regarding capacity planning, logistical, operational planning, and total quality management are termed as the vital aspects to ensure effective operational activities within the firm. The main aim of this report is to highlight capacity planning, location of the organisational facility, facility layout as well as operational and logistical planning of the organisation. The issues oriented with capacity planning of the firm are to be analysed and through the implementation of Total Quality management procedure, the issue is to be identified. The location of the firm is to be analysed based on its proximity to the suppliers, labours and customers. The case study’s plant layout as well as its supply chain and material handling facilities are to be evaluated and the way the layout of the facility can be improved, is to be suggested. 

The improvement regarding storage capacity should be done by the firm even under space-time uncertain situations (Faugère et al., 2022). The employment is provided by Countdown supermarket approximately 2500 team members to accomplish the enhanced demands which are observed in the online shopping and traditional marketing done by customers in the stores. It is the first dedicated supermarket e-store that was established in New Zealand to handle an overall number of 1500 orders per week at a full capacity. The increase in capacity handling is continuously performed by the firm. The countdown stores are owned centrally and operated (Goodman-Smith, Mirosa & Skeaff, 2020). The communication gaps are bridged by the firm so that remote working can be enabled from all the workers prior to the strike of Covid-19. The personal computers of the firm have been gradually replaced by laptops and the enable is done regarding infrastructure service capacity so that the scaling up of it can be performed according to the needs. The team of Countdown has feverishly worked on the online platforms which resulted in the expansion regarding its capacity of online shopping at a drastic rate.

Capacity management issues

The organisation has been potentially expanding its network capacity and making investment in extra infrastructure to make sure that the firm is able to continuously serve Kiwis with a dependable online marketing provision (Nzherald.co.nz. 2022). The firm has priority ramped up online and is prepared to perform this again if needed and the firm recently has enormous capacity (Nzherald.co.nz. 2022). Not only the organisational website has to handle an elevated kind of transactions, but priority was provided to the vulnerable. Applications were taken into account by the firm through their website for priority access. However, the firm is not effectively able to understand its present storage capacity and fails to efficiently implement the storage policies. Identification is needed to develop verification that the buyers are of minimum 16 years of age and this particular restriction impacts the buyers of Countdown departments which are based in the regions of New Zealand.  The enforcement of these are made because the firm is concerned regarding security and sustainability in terms of the way products and serving sizes impact children especially (Coutinho, 2019).

It can be identified from the above analysis that there are several capacity management issues that are faced by Countdown supermarket NZ. The firm should be with the capacity to get aligned with the marketing as well as supply chain administration (Gölgeci & Kuivalainen, 2020).

Two capacity management issues are:

• The firm is facing problems to determine its existing capacity of storage and trends of usage throughout the firm. It is hard for the firm to attain a perfect inventory regarding the present storage capacity as well as recent trends regarding product usage. Due to this issue, the storage capacity is sometimes been utilised effectively to address capacity problems and meet organisational objectives. Last mile distribution functions should emphasise on the problems of capacity management (Melkonyan et al., 2020).
• Also, it is seen that the firm is unable to adjust the policies when capacity of the organisation is required to be grown and with the change in terms of organisational requirements. Therefore, with the objective to stay proactive regarding the capacity issues that the firm might encounter in the future, it is essential to monitor the patterns of usage and utilisation standards. 

TQM process

The principles that are associated with Total Quality management are termed as harder aspects associated with the system of quality management (Bastas & Liyanage, 2018). One of the factors that can help the firm to improve its performance is total quality management (TQM). TQM is the administration system which has the potential to improve organisational and individual performances. Through the implementation of TQM, the concerned firm can reduce wastages by effective usage of organisational resources and gain competitive benefits (Abbas, 2020). Since, it is analysed that the concerned company is failing to identify trends in the market according to which storage capacity should be changed, therefore the particular TQM process that should be implemented is Customer Focus. It should be the main focus of the firm to analyse the requirements of the customers and address their needs by developing the capacity of its storage. Therefore, through the application of this TQM process, capacity management problems of the firm can be resolved. This TQM process is oriented to ISO 9000:2015 (Romero et al., 2019).

Expected outcomes

The ISO 9000 of TQM process is focussed on quality planning, improvement of quality, quality assurance and control (Romero et al., 2019). The issues that the firm is facing can be solved by this TQM process as:

• The firm, by making identification of  customer needs as its first priority, can effectively recognize trends in the market 
• The firm can remain proactive regarding the way to handle its future capacity issues by identifying the market trends and requirements with the help of the mentioned TQM process 

The location of the chosen firm can be analysed in terms of the following location factors:

Countdown operates 184 supermarkets on a nationwide basis with 2.8 million customers each and every week (Countdown.co.nz. 2022). Each of the departments of the firm delivers a unique set regarding over 5000 weekly specials accessible online and in-store. One card has powered Countdown with effective loyalty programs and the launch of my Countdown has taken place in 2014 with the objective to tailor the interaction regarding the specials and localised store data to respective buyers. The firm is driven by the preferences of the customers and transaction information, the web program and my Countdown email of the firm provides the supermarket with the capability to converse in one-to-one basis with the buyers. With the presence of more than 181 stores, 20,000 product lines and 18,000 team members, the firm is dedicated to serve its customers throughout New Zealand with optimal choice products, value and convenience (Woolworths Group.com.au., 2022). The retail chains making use of the name of this brand are established in Germany, United Kingdom, Mexico, Austria and South Africa. The location of the firm is very convenient for the customers to avail the products. 

Throughout the country, the firm develops partnerships with the suppliers, growers and farmers of New Zealand in order to deliver products that are desired by the customers. The firm’s main location in New Zealand as well as in different other countries, helps it to maintain effective working connectivity with the community of suppliers. The firm is always seeking new suppliers. The supermarket ensures selling of the suboptimal vegetables and fruits to make sure that the suboptimal appearance does not impact the taste (Makhal et al., 2020). The buying groups of the firm are providing support to the suppliers so that they can stay effectively connected with the mentioned supermarket. The firm has the objective to serve its customers with a high range of standard products at affordable costs and shopping experiences in an effortless manner. The firm is dependent on the suppliers to attain it (Countdown.co.nz. 2022). The firm is sustainable enough to develop sound connectivity with the suppliers, which helps the firm to improve its sustainability. Location of the supermarket is convenient enough to maintain relationships with the suppliers. The location of the firm helps it to maintain collaboration between the suppliers to increase the supply and protect the accessibility of customers to grocery (Comcom.govt.nz. 2022).

Facility Location

In 2020, the retail sector in New Zealand employed about 222,300 wage or salary earners. The overall numbers of workers who are involved with the retail trade departments are found to be increasing from 194,000 in 2011 (Statista.com. 2022). In the location where Countdown supermarket is established, there is easy accessibility of migrant employees, who works in low payment. Moreover, the payment which Countdown provides, is good enough for the labours to meet their survival costs.  The location of the concerned firm is also easily reachable by the labours.  The firm struggles to provide employment to the graduates of New Zealand in its store, which helps the firm to get huge number of labours working in the concerned supermarket (Zhukov & Cherrington, 2020).

Therefore, the location of the mentioned supermarket in New Zealand has helped the firm to get a huge amount of labour. 

Though it can be stated that the location of Countdown supermarket is proximate to customers, suppliers and labour, yet the proximity can be further improved. This improvement can be done by:

• The firms of New Zealand are present with better financial opportunities (Aigwi et al., 2020).Increasing the online presence of the firm. This can be done without shifting the location of the organisation and through its transactions through online platforms, customers from throughout the globe can avail the products of Countdown supermarket.
• The firm requires deploying technology at speed with the objective to understand and recognise the insights of the customers. Through the use of technology, the firm can become proximal to the customers by delivering new experiences in timely way and the way customers expect

The facility layout of Countdown supermarket NZ can be analysed based on the following four factors:

The retail sector attracts a huge number of customers on a regular basis (Basbas et al., 2020). The layout of the supermarket is oriented to sales information, which enhances picking effectiveness. The first delivery trucks are instructed to leave the department at 6 am on a regular basis with the finalised deliveries occurring at 7 pm in the evening (Countdown.co.nz. 2022). At the instances, when the orders are not been picked up, the replenishment regarding over 25,000 products will be performed by the e-store (Countdown.co.nz. 2022). The pickup orders which are online based, will get continuously accomplished and gathered from the stores located locally with the availability regarding more number of windows at each store because of the moving orders that the firm gets for delivery. Tackling all the online orders for delivery from 10 of the daily supermarkets will result in space utilisation by freeing out the space which is present in the store of the mentioned supermarket to make it an optimal experience for both the team and customers  (Countdown.co.nz., 2022). 

The layout of the concerned supermarket is a bit unique from the layout of the conventional supermarket.  The service cases oriented with the seafood and deli sections are kept lower than the normal, so that the team of the store can stand and can develop conversation with an ease with the customers (Community, 2022).  There is the absence of usual walls in the butchery and bakery which conceals them from the main floor of the supermarket.  The customers can view the bakers who are baking bread and the butchers making utilisation of the band saws.  The health food department of the store has an additional broad aisle, varied signage and wooden floor. There is the presence of a cellar at the store’s back that is in the form of a store inside store (Community, 2022).

Proximity to suppliers

The operation in the firm takes place for 24 hours in a day and for 7 days in a week with the aim to accomplish over 7500 online based orders per week (Countdown.co.nz. 2022). The layout of the supermarket is made in such a manner so that the customers can spend as much duration as they want in the aisles prior they hit the checkout.  It is easier for the customers of Countdown to shop the products because they are kept at the eye level to attract the eyes of the customers.  The sopped up displays are present at the end of the supermarket’s aisles that is another luring thing for the buyers to purchase something extra. The promotional flags are discount signs are used in supermarket and the location of it is such that that it attracts the eyes of customers (Consumer NZ., 2022). 

The Countdown supermarket has grid layout which helps in material flow. In the grid layout, the firm can make arrangement of its products in the form of aisles which are densely packed which can be browsed by the buyers with an ease.  This layout of the firm enhances display of products, reduces the presence of empty space and the layout of the supermarket is the layout with which the customers are generally familiar with. The concerned retailer have adapted to the enhanced demand and implemented new operational ways to deliver customers by the establishment of dark warehouses.  It is an important distribution centre with the presence of a retail store layout, which helps the firm to serve mainly to online buyers (Akintokunbo & Adim, 2020).

The grid layout of the firm has proved to be a flexible store design which made the firm to create multifunctional spaces through which it can perform material handling. This type of layout has helped the employees and customers of the firm to deal with enormous amount of products and helps the retail location to maximise its space utilisation. 

There are two ways by which the plant layout of the mentioned supermarket can be improved. 

• The retail market in New Zealand is highly competitive (Poletti, 2021).The firm can make use of technologies such as Business Intelligence dashboards so that the firm can deliver products to millions of customers within short duration. This critical tool can help the firm to serve better service to the buyers and develop administration of the facilities as well as vendor partners. The live dashboard helps the employees to see into the portfolios, can help them not only to recognise the vendors who are top performing, but also supports the firm in recognising the risks and issues for particular location
• The firm should increasingly adopt innovative technologies which can help the firm to sort products and ensure the movement of it to its team in a direct manner. The firm should use IoT and sensors with the objective to gather and data transmit regarding broad range of administration and location related issues that might be present in the mentioned supermarket  and resolve it accordingly

The key components that are generally present in the supply chain of a large supermarket are planning, sourcing, inventory, manufacture and transportation and return of goods.  

 

Figure 1: Key components of large supermarket’s supply chain

(Source: Trommnau et al., 2019)

In the large supermarkets, procurement of raw substances, storage goods and inbound logistics is performed. The operation management department of large supermarkets handle the consumers, outbound warehouse, outbound logistics and production.

The meat as well as seafood supply chain groups of the Countdown supermarket is with the primary responsibility to source the procurement and livestock of whole fish for additional processing. It can be done by centralising the production facilities which are established in New Zealand and providing directly to the departments seven days in a week (Countdown.co.nz. 2022). 

 

Figure 2: Supply chain facilities of Countdown supermarket

(Source: Countdown.co.nz. 2022)

The firm is proud to assure that the products which are procured and that the processing of it are performed at the best possible prices to accomplish the requirements of Countdown buyers in terms of quality and quantity. The firm is therefore capable of serving organisational team members with optimal opportunities for career development. This will help the people to improve their career within a particular operational ground or in the lateral basis throughout various activities. 

The supply chain of the business serves several career chances throughout a wide array of disciplines from:

• Apprenticeship
• Livestock and conventional procurement 
• Seafood and meat processing roles 
• Scheduling and planning of demand 
• Engineering 
• Quality control and assurance 
• Production and operation management 
• Innovative product development finance (co.nz., 2022)
• Logistics and supervisory logistics administration 

Therefore, whether an individual is an experienced and effectively qualified individual, or might have just passed school, the firm believes that it is with the opportunity and the capability to provide them with training so that they can attain their career goals (Countdown.co.nz. 2022).

Materials Handling

The way by which guiding principles regarding material handling is incorporated by Countdown supermarket, can be analysed by the following two factors:

Minimise manual handling and the utilisation of material handling equipments 

In the Countdown supermarket, it is examined that manual handling is a vital reason for the cause of strains and sprains at the regional centre of distribution. In the distribution centre of Countdown, there were certain employees who used to lift over ten tonnes of products per day. Huge range of initiatives leads to the decrease regarding the products that are essential to be lifted manually. There are a large number of manual working steps which are performed by the employees in the mentioned firm (Trommnau et al., 2019). The firm also performed work with the product suppliers to lessen pack weights. The firm won the category of health hazard with a comprehensive as well as multifaceted approach so that the injuries that take place from manual handling of products can be addressed. The concerned firm serves a secured and productive working platform that supports to lessen the manual handling risks. To reduce all these risks, the firm is making investment in material handling equipment. The particular equipment for material handling that are used by Countdown supermarket are hand trucks, pallet jacks, dock as well as shipping equipment. 

The unnecessary product movement by the workers only makes the generation of costs and fails to contribute to productivity. Integrative approach should be used so that the materials which are used by the firm can be recycled (Gustavo Jr et al., 2018). High amounts of duration that is spent on moving, picking, sorting and repackaging the products generally leads to the lack of productivity. To reduce these issues, evaluation is done by Countdown supermarket regarding touch labour and lessens so that the firm can save money and time. The firm makes use of proper equipment so that it can make the delivery of adequate goods to the manufacturing floor in the productive centre. The firm lessens the material handling prices by reducing the path components as well as the products to travel. Better environmental performance that is done by the firm can help it to reduce the price of material usage (Naidoo & Gasparatos, 2018). The concerned supermarket finds that the less duration which the workers spend on the movement of products utilising the equipment, the greater turns to be the level of productivity. With the objective to spend less duration and also make reduced investment, the firm keeps on making improvements in terms of product handling starting from assembly, control of quality to shipping. 

Conclusion

To conclude, it can be stated that in this report analysis regarding Countdown supermarket which is based in New Zealand, is done. It can be seen from the capacity management section that the firm effectively does capacity management. However, apart from the capacity management capabilities of the firm, there are certain issues which are encountered by the firm in terms of capacity administration. It can be stated that these issues can be solved if the firm implements effective TQM procedures and the outcomes of incorporating TQM is highlighted. It is understood that the facility location of the supermarket is optimal to ensure proximity to the customers, labour and suppliers. Two examples are provided, by which the supermarket can become even more proximal to its customers. The facility layout of the firm is analysed in terms of space utilisation, minimum handling, maximum flexibility and flow. Examples are provided so that the facility layout of the organisation can be improved further. The supply chain as well as the ways by which the firm conducts material handling, is highlighted. The two guiding principles that are applied by the supermarket in terms of material handling are minimise manual handling and usage of appropriate material for handling.

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