Summary:
Details a visit to the Northallerton branch of Tesco. Describes various parts of the operation including batch control, stock processing and Management Information Systems. Explores what goes on behind the scenes, unnoticed by customers.
All check-out information is collected at 9 p.m. each evening and sent to the stock control system (SPR) for processing. The system updates stock information, sends out purchase orders as necessary and sends back reports and price changes back to the Northallerton branch. The reports are printed overnight. Deliveries take two days top arrive at the store after having being ordered.
Speeding up processing.
Each check out till had a 'local' memory of the top 3,000 purchases in order to speed up processing time rather than look the information up over the network.
Contingency and Dependency.
If the system 'goes down' and the checkouts go 'OFFLINE', then the store has to be closed !
The remaining customers in the store will still be served, although the checkout will only be able to recall the prices of the 3,000 best selling lines (which are stored in the local memory). The remaining lines will be negotiated over with the customers.
The checkout system has to have a high reliability rate.
Warehouse
Picking Labels
Once an order had been generated. A list of picking labels was produced centrally at their depot. A Picker would then load up cages with the stock required, attaching the picking label to each individual case (12 / 24 items) and they would then be sent to the store.
Once the goods reached the store, the replenishment team could easily trace 'cross picks' as things went off sale.
Chillers / Freezers
Electronic sensors within the chilled cabinets or freezers monitored the internal temperature, as a conventional fridge / freezer at home. These sensors would then action whether or not to turn on / off the fans. This is a good example of control technology.
Fire Panel / CCTV / Security
Fire Panel
Each fire exit was alarmed and so if triggered, for example, if a shoplifter escaped through one, the alarm would be sounded and the store manager would be able to locate which door alarm had been activated from simply looking at the panel.
CCTV
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) was not as good in the Northallerton branch as it would normally be in other stores. This was due to the low amount of unrecorded stock loss they suffered each year, making them a low priority security store. They did however, have monitors above the entrance / exit so that they could record everybody entering / leaving the store. They also had cameras in other prominent positions that could be viewed from the store managers office.
Shop Watch
This was the scheme whereby numerous stores throughout the town were in constant contact via two way radio to alert each other to the whereabouts of known shoplifters. Tesco had their own security guard who monitored things in this store.
Upstairs Offices
Security.
Password protected systems, with differing layers of access rights depending on the management level. Note that the systems engineers had a high level of access in order to determine and fix any systems problems.
Stock Control System and HOST.
Mainframe based (leased line secure connection) system in Hertford. Also had a bulletin board facility to replace paper based reports that used to come out. Note also that the mainframe screen layout is all text based. Some modern systems do now have a windows emulation interface.
PC Network.
We only saw 4 PC's, all running as 'thin clients' with minimal software on the machine for special software. 'Progress' was DOS based, price updating software had a nice windows based interface.
Reporting.
In house Management information System (MIS) reporting real time store sales information. This information included things such as the amount of money taken each hour, the number of customers served and the average spend per customer.
This is the complete article, containing 591 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
