Expert Q&A

biggest consumers of wood daily,a huge

amount of timber send to the factories to be
created into products . For IKEA,they might
not face the resistance from the society,
however, the chemicals that they use in the
factory is
what they concern maybe harmfulfor the
nearby environments. For any factory using
material such as wood,they need to be located
near the water such as rivers,therefore,IKEA
should make sure that they will locate the
factory where have less the water usage and
less harmful chemical usage in the production
process and commit to what they said to
public and the government of the country that
have factory located
How Is the IKEA operations design different
from that of the most furniture retail
operation? The different in IKEA operation
design from other furniture retail operation
almost visible for everyone to recognize is the
process of purchasing products from IKEA
stores. In IKEA way, the customers become
pro-summers - half producers, and half
consumers because 90% of the products in
IKEA can be assembled by the customers.
Staff fs are available to advices the shoppers,
however, the customers themselves will be the
one to decide which item by read through the
catalogues book, pick it up from the
warehouse, bring it back home and assemble
it by their own. The purchasing process of
customers above sounds easy, IKEA has
done
incredibly good at educate the customers
purchasing behaviors at IKEA stores, thanks
to the operation strategy that the Founder
lngvar

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,
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because in such a large place with so many
goods inside, it could be a labyrinth for
them, and besides, not all of the customers
have enough time or patient to spend almost
two hours just to be the things they need if
they are
in a rush. Therefore, a problem may arise is
that for elderly customers, for them might be
a
difficulty shopping at the IKEA. Without clearly
instruction inside the stores or short of staffs,
IKEA may lose this set of customers, which
is a disadvantage to compare with other
smaller furniture retailers. Another drawback
for the customers' self-service is that some of
them, not the majority, they maybe feel
dissatisfaction with the customer services of
IKEA since they have to do too much things
on their own, not only that, the assemble
process of the goods at home also can lead
to the dissatisfaction if the assemble
instruction is not clear enough for them to
build the goods by themselves.
Therefore, the things related to customers'
satisfaction after purchase or shoppers'
experience at stores are needed to be
considered and carefully take care of by IKEA
in the operation strategy, to prevent complaint
and bad feedback could affect the brand
image. The high volume of goods was
produced in IKEA are mostly from wood,
therefore, the society will
very concern about how IKEA truly save the
planet's ecosystem' That is the controversy

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IKEA faced when they produced furniture
products and expand in so many countries
around the world. IKEA is listed as the thirdl
biggest ers of wood da ily,a huge
co nsum
. . . .
. .

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f- Expert Q&A

strategy, high quality operation process will reduce costs

and time to repeatedly produce the goods. It will increase
the speed of purchasing for customers, reduces the space
in inventory
for the warehouse, the faster the flow of goods
in the inventory, the faster the productivity of the
production process, it will lead to increasing the sales as
well. From the shoppers' perspective, they will feel very
convenient when go shopping at IKEA because of how
they design the stores, beside the diversify of the goods in
the enormous stores, but the services they provide can be
complained too, staffs are available for support, however,
they will never rush them to buy things meanwhile for
family have children,
they do not have to worry about how to take care the kids,
IKEA provides a children's play area,
easily supervised by parent, with that strategy, shoppers can
spend 2 hours or even longer time shopping at the store.
IKEA can optimize the profit per shopper whenever they come
to the store! But not only that, IKEA also save a lot of
transportation cost from IKEA to the customers' houses
because mostly customers will bring back by themselves.
Another approach in operation design to reduce the cost is at
Sweden, the center warehouse of IKEA is mostly done by
automation with less than five employees control the whole
department. IKEA only has to pay for five person wages at
Sweden central

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f- Expert Q&A

purchasing behaviors at IKEA stores, thank s to

the operation strategy that the Founder lngvar
Kamprad had set from the beginning. IKEA
also sticks to the mission is to offer the
diversity of furniture items with attractive
design and function,good quality but at the low
prices so they can target more people who can
afford to buy the items. By every detail IKEA
plan of, such as transfer the item from the
warehouse to the showroom, build a large car
park location, moving within the store, ordering
and picking up the items are very simple for
IKEA's shoppers. all of that just to make sure
there will be no
problem for the customers' self- services, IKEA
encourages them to do it themselves. The
reason why IKEA does so because they are·
focusing in the cost dimension, one of four
dimensions of operation, the lower the cost of
the goods, the lower the prices tag customers
will have to pay for the goods. To do so, IKEA
follow the operation strategy and low-cost
strategy, high quality operation process will
reduce costs and time to repeatedly produce
the goods . It will increase the speed of
purchasing for customers, reduces the space in
inventory
for the warehouse, the faster the flow of goods
in the inventory, the faster the productivity of
the production process, it will lead to
increasing the sales as well. From the
shoppers' perspective. they will feel very
convenient when go shopping at IKEA
because of how they design the stores,
beside the diversify of the goods in the
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enormous stores. but the services they provide
can be complained too, staffs are available
for
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