Case #2: Tip Top Market

Submitted by: Hiep Thai Anh

Date paper is due at 12th March 2017

BSM 405

Submitted to

Mr. Mike Witiw

 Executive Summary

Tip Top market was a chain of shopping center which was encountered problems related

to the customer’s negative feedbacks in one of its store. Karen Martin – the manager of that store

had made a list of complaints from the customers in the time between June 1th and July 27th. On

July15th, changes had been implemented to reduce the out-of-stock, checkout and pricing

problems. According to the given list and data:

 Out of stock and customer service seem to have the most complaints throughout the eight

weeks.
 After action had been made, there are still many complaints surrounding the concerned issues

which are out-of-stock and customer services problems.

 Technical problem is the most improved factors after July 15th when changes were made to

lessen the complaints.

The below are the diagram and chart used to make an analysis of the complaints of

customers. First of all, a check sheet will give the reader a better understanding of the types of

complaints that the Tip Top supermarket chains have been received. Secondly, run chart and,

especially, Pareto diagrams will be used to analyze the complaint before and after July 15th.

From the result of the Pareto diagrams, we will have essential information to make the cause and

effect diagram to show the root

Check sheets
The Check sheets classified the issues into certain types of complaints which are out-of-

stock, customer services, check-out problems, expired products, surround environment, technical

problems and others problems. According to the list (1), the check-out problems and expired

products have had a significant reduced after July 15th while problems related to out of stock and

environment problems have increased in the last two weeks.

Types of complains (1)

Errors June June June June June July 6 July July 20 July 27 Total
1 8 15 22 29 13
Out of stock // //// /// ///// ////// ///////// /////// //////////// /////////// 61
/ /
Customer /////// //// ////////// //// //// ///// /////// /// / 45
Services
Check-out // // / /// / // // 13
problems
Expired /////// /////// ///// //// // / // 27
Products
Surround // /// // /// /// //// /// / //// 26
Environmen
t
Technical / // / / / 6
problems
Other / / // // 6
Problems
Total 21 20 23 17 18 22 19 22 22 184

Run chart (2)

The following Run chart (2) was used to identifying trends that might occur in the complaints.

25

20

15

10

0
37043 39600 42156 44713 47270 38899 41456 44013 46569
Total

The Pareto Diagram (3)

 The Pareto Diagram focused on identify the most disturbing complains in the stores. It

demonstrates that out of stock was the dominated issue among the complaints of the customers.

Check-out problems and overpriced product did not appear as critical problems.

Problems recorded can be listed in the following:

 Out-of-stock: 61
 Customer Service: 45
 Surround Environments: 26
 Expired products: 27
 Checkout problems: 13
 Technical Problems: 6
 Other Problems: 6

70

60

50

40

30

20 Frequency

10

Complaints before July 15th:

 Out-of-stock: 36
 Customer Service: 41
 Surround Environments: 20
 Expired products: 26
 Checkout problems: 11
 Technical Problems: 4
  Other Problems: 2
45 120.00%
40
100.00%
35
30 80.00%
25
60.00%
20
15 40.00%
10
20.00%
5
0 0.00%

Amount Per

Complain after July 15th:

 Out-of-stock: 25
 Surround Environments: 6
 Services: 4
 Other Problems: 4
 Checkout problems: 2
 Technical Problems: 2
 Expired Products: 1

30 120.00%

25 100.00%

20 80.00%

15 60.00%

10 40.00%

5 20.00%

0 0.00%

Amount Per
 Although some changes has been made to improve the quality in order to reduce the

complaints, it is clear that out-of-stock, surround environment and customer services problems

only make a slight decrease after July 15th. However, expired products issues seem to have the

most significant improvement with just only 1 complaint.

Cause and Effect Diagram (4)
In this case, the cause and effect diagram illustrate two problems which are dominate the

Pareto diagram. This diagram sorts out critical thinking endeavors by distinguishing classes of

variables that may bring about issues (Stevenson, 2010). From the (4) diagram, it can be see the

several main causes for lacks of quantity problems which are stock inaccuracies, expired

products, technical problems.

Environment

Methods

Temperature Location issues

issues Lack of enthusiasm with jobs

Debris and Dirt Customer Experience

and Out-of Stock
Problems
Poor Supervision

Lack of Cashiers Untrained employees

PIS system

Telephone does not work

People

Technical
 Environment: The shopping environment in the case study is in need of changes. The

shopping environment is among the most important factors that create a relaxing atmosphere

which attracts the customers to stay and purchases more products. This factor contains

temperature issues, debris, and dust.

Methods: Methods is the set of rules and effort settled by the manager to deliver the

service to the customers. In this case, there are some issues about the design and the outlook of

the goods which make it hard for the consumers to find the products they are looking for.

Furthermore, worker is lacking of enthusiasm with their job due to the fact that they are might

being paid low salary without bonuses or rest time. Therefore, they did not fully focus on their

job which is interacting with the customers.

Technical: This factor considers the available machinery and tools which take part in the

services. First of all, there are telephone problems which caused bad experience for the

customers who want to contact with their parents during shopping. Also, out of stock issue can

be related to Perpetual Inventory System (PIS) which is continual counting system in inventory.

Also, it charged extra money for record keeping which might be the root of overpriced products.
People: This factor focused on the lacks of products and other management issues. First

of all, there is lacking in supervision due to the fact that there are many complaint about the

employee attitudes. Secondly, untrained employees who have low skills might lack of

information about the current products which have no helpful for the customers. Thirdly,

customers have to wait for a long period of time due to the lack of the cashiers.
Problems
From the chart and diagram above, it is unmistakably that most of the protests are

originating from out-of-stock merchandise. The out of stock issues take approximately 33.1% of
total complaints that have been directly recorded in the chains store. Also, it can be seen that the

technical and check-out problems are the major reasons that caused the pricing and customer

experience issues according to the cause and effect diagram.

Solutions
All together for Tip Top Markets to enhance these worries, changes must be actualized.

With the out of stock problems, the supplier should concern more about the perpetual inventory

system (PIS). They should frequently check and maintain the system to make sure it encounters

no errors in order to identify and automatically order the low quantity goods. Next, they might

organize several short workshops to train the employees to use the system properly and how to

interact with the customers effectively in order to enhance the customer experiences in the stores.

Furthermore, bonus and improvement in the salary will give the worker more motivation which

makes them more focusing on their jobs and create a relaxing atmosphere. Not but not least, they

should include some machines or department which in charge of testing and evaluating the

quality of the goods before they reach to the hands of the customers. It is the only way that will

make positive changes to the expired product issues.

 References

Stevenson, W. J. (2010). Operations management (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Education.