The knowledge in a can of beans

KNOWLEDGE IN A CAN OF BEANS

© Ross Hilton

The can is scanned at the checkout.

The barcode informs the scanner what the product

is.

An entire chain of events takes place in a microsecond.

WHAT HAPPENS:


A record of the sale is sent to a transactional

data store.

This stores short term transaction records for the individual

store.

WHAT HAPPENS:


An amortised report is sent to an ERP system.

Stock holding levels are monitored, a new can is

reordered.

WHAT HAPPENS:


An amortised report is sent to a BPM system. Stock turnover is

analysed against checkout position, staff member, product placement. Marketing campaign, time of sale, day of sale, season of sale, date of sale. A series of statistical predictions are made.

These item reports may be made available to the supplier, store manager, HR staff, marketing

department, etc.

WHAT HAPPENS:


A record of sale is sent to finance system. The profit on

the sale is lodged, the transfer from stock to capital is made. Capital is allocated

for replacement stocks.

WHAT HAPPENS:


A record is sent to the EDW. It is

stored for 10 years. Historical data from this

EDW is used for trend analysis.

WHAT HAPPENS:


• Financial management know that beans have a 55% profit markup, an average shelf life of 12 days and are the 28th most profitable items in the store.

• They know that beans account for 0.5% of the profitability of the chain of supermarkets.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

WHAT WE KNOW:


• Product line managers know that more cans of beans are sold between 4 and 6 pm on Thursdays than any other day.

• They know that bean can sales are up 3% on last month, but down 4% compared to this day last year.

• Seasonal trends show bean sales are declining over the last 5 years.

• They know that when the "Bean Can" promotion was on store bean can sales increased by 2%.

• They know that when bean cans were in isle 5 sales fell by 12%.

PRODUCT LINE MANAGEMENT

WHAT WE KNOW:


• HR management knows that Debbie on the Checkout handles more customers at the end of her Thursday shift than on any other day.

• They know her performance compared to the rest of the staff has declined in the last 3 months.

• They know that there was a 45 second gap between scanning each can of beans.

HR MANAGEMENT

WHAT WE KNOW:


• They can plot Debbie's work performance, hour by hour, day by day.

• They can compare Debbie's performance against other workers, or against her performance for the same period last year.

• They can map Debbie's performance against internal events (store layout restructure, new manger, new colleagues etc) or external factors (wet days, prior or post holidays, day after payday etc).

SHIFT MANAGER

WHAT WE KNOW:


• Shopfront management know that number 6 checkout position sells more canned products between 4 and 6pm on Thursdays than any other.

• They know that on Thursday evenings more customers buy beans from isle 6 than from any other area of the supermarket.

• They know that when the "Bean Can" promotion was on bean can sales increased by 2%.

• They know that when bean cans were in isle 5 sales fell by 12%.

SHOPFRONT MANAGEMENT

WHAT WE KNOW:


• They know the next customer didn't have products scanned until 4 minutes after I paid for the can.

• They know number 6 checkout is the most unprofitable on Thursday evenings.

SHOPFRONT MANAGEMENT (Cont)

WHAT WE KNOW:


• Marketing know that on Thursday evenings more customers buy beans than any other canned food product.

• They know that when the "Bean Can" promotion was on bean can sales increased by 7%.

• They know that some stores performed better than others during the promotion.

• They know that isle placement of beans can alter sales by as much as 25%.

• Seasonal trends show bean sales are declining over the last 5 years in most stores.

MARKETING

WHAT WE KNOW:


The knowledge in a can of beans

Business

Transcript of The knowledge in a can of beans