Consolidated Management Of Store Fixtures And Fittings
In many multiple retail organisations, goods not for resale are delivered directly from suppliers, to outlets currently trading and to outlets undergoing development or refurbishment. These goods include all fixtures and fittings: shelving systems, merchandising displays, warehouse equipment and chilled storage equipment, to name but a few.
By controlling the delivery of such items through a consolidated warehouse facility, retailers achieve many benefits, in terms of enabling the organisation to make the best possible use of its assets and realising actual cost savings through the process.
These benefits are probably most evident through the example of a new store development or store refurbishment.
Traditional project management allows each type of fitting to be delivered. Typically this means that the store receives many deliveries from different suppliers which can cause a number of difficulties:
- ‘On-site chaos’ – with multiple teams, multiple deliveries, all arriving at the same time
- Lost fixtures and fittings – when goods intended for the installation team of Supplier X are received at store by somebody else and go missing
- Late deliveries causing inefficiencies in the store-fitting process with installation teams waiting for deliveries of equipment
Through the consolidation process, deliveries are planned and controlled in a more orderly, efficient manner offering:
- Savings in Transport avoiding suppliers ‘mark-up’ on deliveries and ensuring scheduled, consolidated loads offering a ‘just in time’ service
- Re-use of assets from closing stores. On a 35,000 square foot store, the typical value of assets retrieved and re-used exceeds £250,000
- Creation of a central bank of fixtures and fittings for use within the estate enabling stores to ‘call off’ fixtures, fittings and merchandising materials at will
