The supermarket chain, No. 3 in the InformationWeek Elite 100 ranking, uses QueVision system to ensure customers never have more than one person ahead of them.
What bugs people the most about grocery shopping? It's not the in-store Muzak or the occasional squished loaf of bread. It's the dreaded wait at the checkout line, according to Kroger customer surveys, prompting the supermarket chain to test a variety of technical solutions over the years. Kroger thinks it finally has the right mix of technology: QueVision, which combines infrared sensors over store doors and cash registers, predictive analytics, and real-time data feeds from point-of-sale systems.
From the moment customers walk through the door of a Kroger store, the QueVision technology works toward one goal: ensuring that they never have more than one person ahead of them in the checkout line. The technology, now deployed at more than 2,300 Kroger stores across 31 states, has cut the average wait time from more than four minutes to less than 30 seconds, the company says.
Kroger was doing data analytics simulations on the queuing problem as far back as 2007. "We asked a question: If we could open up a lane exactly when we needed it, what would happen?" says Doug Meiser, operations research manager. "We just wanted to ask the question from an analytics standpoint. And we found we could dramatically improve customer satisfaction." From there, he says, it became a matter of "the math is sound; how do we go do this?"
Sensors, meet analytics
Brett Bonner, senior director of R&D at Kroger, says the key business metric is higher customer satisfaction levels. "We weren't interested in cutting [employee] hours," he says. "We were interested in a better shopping experience." Customer loyalty is especially key in the low-margin grocery business. (Kroger, with 2013 sales of $98.4 billion, operates throughout much of the US under various store names, including Ralph's and Harris Teeter.) "At the heart of loyalty is analytics," Bonner says. "We actually have a very long history with that."
Meiser's team did the discrete-event analysis, using a front-end simulator developed with Visual Thinking International. That simulator let the Kroger team adjust inputs such as store layout, staffing levels for cashiers and baggers, and historical transaction logs -- because factors such as time of day and time of month affect how people shop. Kroger's R&D group then partnered with Irisys, a maker of appliances and infrared sensors, to count customers entering the store and at checkout lanes.
The Kroger team combined its analytics-based forecasting tools and a tweaked version of the Irisys appliance to calculate the magic number of registers needed -- in real time and looking ahead 15 and 30 minutes.
Kroger already had custom reporting software (well-liked by managers because it was easy to use) that broke down key metrics by district and store, with the goal of "three mouse clicks to the store you're looking for," Meiser says. That software became the reporting back end for the new data on checkout wait times.
Kroger's R&D team began rolling out QueVision in select stores in 2010. Its retail operations team and store managers drove the project and enhanced it. "We had to install an enterprise system in a way that was seamless to the shopper," Bonner says. "That was a huge challenge. We spent about 18 months learning to do that. You just can't inflict an R&D system on a store."
The R&D team's original idea was to notify employees and managers of the wait-time data via handhelds. But a store manager's suggestion to put the data up on a screen -- where everyone, including customers, could see wait times -- turned out to be key to the project's success.
The next act
One unexpected bonus was that the shorter lines also improved another customer-oriented metric: the friendliness of associates.
Shoppers are happier when they have shorter lines, Bonner notes. "When the associates have happy shoppers, they are happier, too," he says. "The math did not predict happier associates." That cashier-friendliness metric, measured in customer surveys, has improved company-wide, rising 24% since 2011, Kroger says.
The reporting software has become key to continuing improvement, Meiser says. Everyone from store employees to executives can see daily metrics on how stores are doing on customer satisfaction. "That is the performance scorecard that everyone agrees is the absolute mission of the company," he says. "Everybody knows we will have a daily conversation to make it better."
Did the project change the way Kroger staffs its stores? While some retailers have used the Irisys appliances to cut labor hours, that wasn't part of Kroger's plan, Bonner says, so the company kept labor hours about the same. Store managers did gain more flexibility to schedule employee breaks and move employees to the floor to do other tasks, he says.
Kroger uses the QueVision data in more detailed simulations. It has correlated enough data to keep people moving in the front of stores, including checkout lines, even in stores with unusual layouts. The QueVision data also helps Kroger evaluate new shopping systems, such as ones that let customers scan their own products while shopping.
For its next act, the R&D team will roll out a project to improve food safety -- after a significantly shorter six-month development cycle, Bonner says. "We're going to monitor every case, every temperature in the Kroger company, real time," he says. "We believe in the Internet of things. We're not done."
Laurianne McLaughlin currently serves as InformationWeek.com's Editor-in-Chief, overseeing daily online editorial operations. Prior to joining InformationWeek in May, 2011, she was managing editor at CIO.com.
Wait times cut from a few minutes to 30 seconds? Bull****. And I can prove it with only a single item through express or self-check out. Or a small load through the regular lane.
QueVision would look GREAT on paper, perhaps it could also work well. But you know how? By actually scheduling/hiring enough people to get the crap done!
Y'know what happens when QueVision tells them they need more registers open? They have to page other departments and wait for them to show. If they're helping customers then tough luck. They wait.
It gets to a ridiculous point that by the time relief checkers show up it's when things finally start to settle.
We've got plenty of shifts when we'd have more baggers than cashiers. It's not because of scheduling mistakes, but with the few hours front end receives (and even less for other departments), they can't distribute the hours well enough to have a solid and consistent manpower fielded.
Tl;DR: QueVision can work if Kroger is willing to use more manpower to supplement it.
Brett Bonner, senior director of R&D at Kroger, says the key business metric is higher customer satisfaction levels. "We weren't interested in cutting [employee] hours," he says.
"We weren't interested in cutting [employee] hours," he says.
"We weren't interested in cutting [employee] hours," he says.
"We weren't interested in cutting [employee] hours," he says.
The first half of the article was decent. the last half.... complete bull crap. The corperate mouthpiece they were talking to has never actually worked with quevision in his life.
__________________
Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
The R&D team's original idea was to notify employees and managers of the wait-time data via handhelds. But a store manager's suggestion to put the data up on a screen -- where everyone, including customers, could see wait times -- turned out to be key to the project's success.
The bingo ball monitors tell the floor person almost nothing useful and are useless during a rush. They give a false impression that it's safe to send someone on a break when it's really not. Also you can have enough registers and still "dip" missing your green half hours and that's what the current obsession is. Hell even those aren't scored for at least an hour after the fact.
Give us handhelds so we can see the dashboard and see what lane is red. Can't run the floor from the office or the service desk where I can see the dashboard's real time data.
Oh yeah and running eschedule leaves gaps. Where do I fill these gaps from?
Que Vision would be a great tool... if the front end was provided sufficient hours to fully make use of it. There's clearly something wrong when both front end supervisors have to be on registers just to be in queue. There's clearly something wrong when the front end supervisors are having others sign on to registers, but not actually man them, so that the "Lanes Open" number matches the "Action Now" number. There's clearly something wrong when a front end gets fifteen or more dips on a Sunday and sometimes between seven and ten on a regular day. We regularly have more than two people in a line because the hours corporate says aren't going away still mysteriously "disappear" and the surge help stops coming or responds more slowly each time because they're being called multiple times an hour and can't get their work done.
Que Vision doesn't work because corporate refuses to give stores the tools they need to comply with Que Vision. It's that simple. It's insulting to have a big, huge sign on the front end proclaiming, "Faster Check-out!" meanwhile after 7:30PM, there are two cashiers, and both lines have five or more customers waiting at a time, and surge help refuses to come because they've been called so much already. Kroger can keep pretending it has the fastest check-out in town, while meanwhile, ALDI, with fewer cashiers, managers to have a check-out process that's far faster and Alberstons seems to be more and more on top of things when lines get slightly backed up there. Kroger can keep reassuring itself that everything is fine and dandy, and to an extent, it is, but it's not necessarily because of anything the company is directly doing. People will wait in line. People will come back even after having waited a long time in line. I see it all the time. This is why corporate does nothing about stores that have terrible Que Vision days/weeks. Nothing changes. No consequences. No addressing the problem. Just do a conference call, yell at the co-managers, and repeat the process ten million times rather than address the issues.
Someone was paid a lot of money to come up with algorithms to determine how many cashiers have to come in each week. This is useless whenever the cashiers get 'sick' from hangovers or blow off work to play WoW.
I'm in Tucson, az and our management does the same thing, sign on registers just to have the "numbers right"! You are right, doesn't do a bit of good. We need the hours and man power to run the store. Quit tricking the system, let them see it as is.....well that doesn't work either. One of our disrtict supervisors told us to sign on with dummy operator numbers. They spent millions on que vision just to have supervisors tell store to trick the system, wonder if people in corporate land know that or if they even care. It was a waste of time and money especially if you are not going to utilize it correct manner, plus corporate needs to listen when we say we need more help. Come on now, you are a multi-million $ company, break out with some hours for us poor schmucks killing ourselves to make YOU money! !
I'm in Tucson, az and our management does the same thing, sign on registers just to have the "numbers right"! You are right, doesn't do a bit of good. We need the hours and man power to run the store. Quit tricking the system, let them see it as is.....well that doesn't work either. One of our disrtict supervisors told us to sign on with dummy operator numbers. They spent millions on que vision just to have supervisors tell store to trick the system, wonder if people in corporate land know that or if they even care. It was a waste of time and money especially if you are not going to utilize it correct manner, plus corporate needs to listen when we say we need more help. Come on now, you are a multi-million $ company, break out with some hours for us poor schmucks killing ourselves to make YOU money! !
Exactly. We even have one supervisor who uses the cashier numbers of another checker to sign on to registers to bring up the Lanes Open number so that it matches the Action Now number and sometimes that cashier won't even be working that day. The CSM caught this and told him not to do that if the person isn't scheduled, but meanwhile, it's the CSM that is pushing the whole "oh you don't have to get on, just sign on so that it brings the numbers up". That's tricking Que Vision into thinking you have enough lanes open to meet the demand the software says is there or coming. Now if Que Vision was used properly, it could be a helpful tool used to make better schedules since you could study the data from it and say, "okay, we needed this number of lanes open for this period of time on this day and we didn't, so for next week's schedule, let's try and fix that." Yes it can fluctuate from day to day, but if it's a continuing trend that you're short during a certain time of a day on particular days, and Que Vision is telling you that, then use the software as a tool to fix the problem that Que Vision says exists. Don't just ignore it/cheat it by having people sign on and that's it. That's not, as you said, utilizing the software in the correct manner. Obviously though, corporate isn't interested in fixing problems... it's easier to just come up with new, stupid slogans for big, ugly signs and force everyone to wear atrocious t-shirts and stuff.
At this point, with as bad as the scheduling situation is and a lack of hours despite evidence of increasing business, fewer and fewer people care any more if the customers have to wait. The attitude has become, "they'll wait... if not, so a few don't come back, it's just a few." Yes, Que Vision could drastically help pinpoint spots where we're short on coverage, but if management and corporate isn't willing to take that data and address the problems, the software is pretty much 90% useless. Too bad, too, because Kroger has the right idea with a lot of the new technology the company introduces, it's just how the technology is used that results in more problems being caused than issues resolved. It's understandably important to protect the bottom line, but sometimes, it's necessary to invest some money into the stores and the people working in those stores in order to safeguard the future and create an environment that consists of happy, regular customers and happy, productive employees. Maybe Kroger would be doing even better financially with such a goal in mind, or maybe not, but I see it as being dangerous and expensive to have such a frequent revolving door of employees that don't care or don't care as much as they once did.
I'm in Tucson, az and our management does the same thing, sign on registers just to have the "numbers right"! You are right, doesn't do a bit of good. We need the hours and man power to run the store. Quit tricking the system, let them see it as is.....well that doesn't work either. One of our disrtict supervisors told us to sign on with dummy operator numbers. They spent millions on que vision just to have supervisors tell store to trick the system, wonder if people in corporate land know that or if they even care. It was a waste of time and money especially if you are not going to utilize it correct manner, plus corporate needs to listen when we say we need more help. Come on now, you are a multi-million $ company, break out with some hours for us poor schmucks killing ourselves to make YOU money! !
Exactly. We even have one supervisor who uses the cashier numbers of another checker to sign on to registers to bring up the Lanes Open number so that it matches the Action Now number and sometimes that cashier won't even be working that day. The CSM caught this and told him not to do that if the person isn't scheduled, but meanwhile, it's the CSM that is pushing the whole "oh you don't have to get on, just sign on so that it brings the numbers up". That's tricking Que Vision into thinking you have enough lanes open to meet the demand the software says is there or coming. Now if Que Vision was used properly, it could be a helpful tool used to make better schedules since you could study the data from it and say, "okay, we needed this number of lanes open for this period of time on this day and we didn't, so for next week's schedule, let's try and fix that." Yes it can fluctuate from day to day, but if it's a continuing trend that you're short during a certain time of a day on particular days, and Que Vision is telling you that, then use the software as a tool to fix the problem that Que Vision says exists. Don't just ignore it/cheat it by having people sign on and that's it. That's not, as you said, utilizing the software in the correct manner. Obviously though, corporate isn't interested in fixing problems... it's easier to just come up with new, stupid slogans for big, ugly signs and force everyone to wear atrocious t-shirts and stuff.
At this point, with as bad as the scheduling situation is and a lack of hours despite evidence of increasing business, fewer and fewer people care any more if the customers have to wait. The attitude has become, "they'll wait... if not, so a few don't come back, it's just a few." Yes, Que Vision could drastically help pinpoint spots where we're short on coverage, but if management and corporate isn't willing to take that data and address the problems, the software is pretty much 90% useless. Too bad, too, because Kroger has the right idea with a lot of the new technology the company introduces, it's just how the technology is used that results in more problems being caused than issues resolved. It's understandably important to protect the bottom line, but sometimes, it's necessary to invest some money into the stores and the people working in those stores in order to safeguard the future and create an environment that consists of happy, regular customers and happy, productive employees. Maybe Kroger would be doing even better financially with such a goal in mind, or maybe not, but I see it as being dangerous and expensive to have such a frequent revolving door of employees that don't care or don't care as much as they once did.
Exactly how I felt when QueVision came out. In the B.Q. times, I could get all my work done in my department and be able to help up front if it was absolutely needed. Now that QueVision demands that I spend 25% of my shift as a cashier, I'm lucky to get my own stuff done, much less actually help any customers. It's getting to the point where, if I have to be up front for a whole damn hour, I'm going to stay an hour over to finish my own work. Because floral doesn't have a lot of hours to begin with. Maybe it would be a novel idea for you to send over a few baggers to help blow up balloons or make flowers, instead of let them all congregate on the floor for 10 minutes to talk about how they deserve $10 an hour throw groceries in a bag.
I'm in complete agreement with you. I believe there needs to be higher standards so that everyone on the front end is on the ball and not screwing around while on the clock. Part of the reason other departments are called to check and get carts off the lot is because some of the front end checkers and baggers either can't perform as well as expected or choose not to. Also, I too agree it's not fair how the other departments get called to the front to help out but the front end doesn't have to return the favor and help the other departments get caught up because of time spent checking and dragging in carts. The solution to the problem is simple as all that needs to be done is hold employees accountable and require them to perform as expected, and if an employee can't work at the pace expected, demote or terminate, but also, write better schedules and be given more flexibility to add hours so that the front end can take care of itself. On the off chance too many checkers and/or baggers are scheduled, there's always work to be done like go backs, carts, cleaning, helping out in other departments, so it wouldn't be money and hours wasted. Problem is, corporate will never accept such logic because it would cut into their profits, despite the fact stores would look nicer and cleaner, be stocked with more of the products customers want and need, and be able to offer better customer service throughout the store due to an increase in employees. That's how you hit the target OSAT score of 80%. I doubt corporate cares much about OSAT and how their stores look and are run and what gets done as long as the money keeps coming in.
I'm in complete agreement with you. I believe there needs to be higher standards so that everyone on the front end is on the ball and not screwing around while on the clock. Part of the reason other departments are called to check and get carts off the lot is because some of the front end checkers and baggers either can't perform as well as expected or choose not to. Also, I too agree it's not fair how the other departments get called to the front to help out but the front end doesn't have to return the favor and help the other departments get caught up because of time spent checking and dragging in carts. The solution to the problem is simple as all that needs to be done is hold employees accountable and require them to perform as expected, and if an employee can't work at the pace expected, demote or terminate, but also, write better schedules and be given more flexibility to add hours so that the front end can take care of itself. On the off chance too many checkers and/or baggers are scheduled, there's always work to be done like go backs, carts, cleaning, helping out in other departments, so it wouldn't be money and hours wasted. Problem is, corporate will never accept such logic because it would cut into their profits, despite the fact stores would look nicer and cleaner, be stocked with more of the products customers want and need, and be able to offer better customer service throughout the store due to an increase in employees. That's how you hit the target OSAT score of 80%. I doubt corporate cares much about OSAT and how their stores look and are run and what gets done as long as the money keeps coming in.
Several months back i was called up to the front to help bag. I was kept up front for over 30 minutes and it wasnt until one of the managers told one of the front end managers/supervisors to let me go and get back to what i was doing. By the time i get back to dairy there is NO MILK left which means i have to take "more time" to fill it up and put other things aside. Yup it all about profits, common sense really has no place in this company.
Someone was paid a lot of money to come up with algorithms to determine how many cashiers have to come in each week. This is useless whenever the cashiers get 'sick' from hangovers or blow off work to play WoW.
I would i could ditch work to play wow.
__________________
Would you like fries with th... I mean, your milk in a bag?
