NARRATIVE SUMMARY OF ON-JOB TRAINING

AT

Sreehari Krishnan
21RM959
PGDM-RM

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY (BIMTECH),

GREATER NOIDA
YEAR OF SUBMISSION: 2022
Acknowledgment
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my industry mentor Mr. Gaurav Barua, Store
“

Manager at Reliance SMART, Galaxy Diamond Plaza TB22, for giving me this opportunity to
work hands-on at the store and extending support when required. I would also like to extend
my warm gratitude to Mr. Ram and Mr. Pankaj, Assistant Store Managers, for guiding me
throughout my On-Job Training and helping me learn the nuances of store operations. Their
continuous encouragement and guidance helped me apply my theoretical concepts to the
actual store.

Sincere gratitude to Dr. Gagan Katiyar, Chairperson, Retail Management Program, and Prof.
Manoj Pant, OJT Coordinator for working things out and giving me this opportunity to work
at a renowned value supermarket chain like Reliance SMART. Their dedication to the program
and its students is truly unmatched. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude and
appreciation to all the individuals and organizations without whom this project would not
have been successful. ”

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Contents

Objective ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Company Profile...................................................................................................................................... 7
Store Information.................................................................................................................................... 8
Week-wise OJT Report ............................................................................................................................ 9
Store Layout .......................................................................................................................................... 11
Organizational Structure ....................................................................................................................... 12
Skills and Knowledge Earned ................................................................................................................ 13
Racking System ................................................................................................................................. 13
Power Bay ......................................................................................................................................... 13
Power Bin .......................................................................................................................................... 14
Endcap............................................................................................................................................... 14
Floor Stack......................................................................................................................................... 15
Clip Strips .......................................................................................................................................... 16
Maximum Base Quantity ........................................................................................................ 17
Bay Owner ......................................................................................................................................... 17
Brand Promoters ............................................................................................................................... 17
Markdown ......................................................................................................................................... 17
Management of Fruits and Vegetable (F&V) Section ....................................................................... 19
Credit Note ........................................................................................................................................ 19
SKU to SKU Transfer .......................................................................................................................... 20
Delivery Vehicles in Store ................................................................................................................. 20
Goods Received Note........................................................................................................................ 23
Back of House (BOH) ......................................................................................................................... 23
Enterprise Resource Planning at SMART .......................................................................................... 24
Points of Purchase ............................................................................................................................ 25
Planogram ......................................................................................................................................... 26
Point of Sale ...................................................................................................................................... 27
Tickets ............................................................................................................................................... 28
HR Policies and Employee Guidelines ............................................................................................... 28
JioMart Operations ........................................................................................................................... 29
Cash Management ............................................................................................................................ 30
Billing and Bagging ............................................................................................................................ 31
Loyalty Programs............................................................................................................................... 31

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 Store Opening Procedure.................................................................................................................. 32
Store Closing Procedure.................................................................................................................... 32
Issues Identified in the Store ................................................................................................................ 32
Recommendations/Solutions for the Identified Problems ................................................................... 36
Summary of Job Accomplishments ....................................................................................................... 37

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Objective
The major objectives of this On-the-Job Training were:
“

1. To learn everyday store operations.

2. To understand customer requirements and expectations.
3. To learn and understand POS (Point of Sale).
4. To learn inventory management of the store.
5. To understand the responsibilities of a store manager, assistant store manager,
department manager, and other store staff.
6. To understand the shelf cleaning process.
7. To understand cash management.
8. To understand different SKUs and HU’s for products.
9. To learn different aspects of VM (Visual Merchandising) and how to fill gaps in a shelf.
10. To learn goods receiving, indenting, and updating them in inventory.
11. To learn everyday maintenance of the store.
12. To learn about the fixtures used in the store.
13. To learn about the security procedures followed in the store”

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Introduction
On-the-Job Training (OJT) is a component of the Retail Management Program's curriculum
“

that allows students to put what they've learned in theory into practice. This provides the
students with not only much-needed practical experience but also insight into how a real
store operates. They get the opportunity to contact consumers and learn about their
difficulties. We've all been customers at some point, but OJT helps us understand the retailer's
point of view.

During OJT, all Retail Program students are assigned to a store where they work under the
direct supervision of the store manager. The store manager familiarises them with day-to-day
retail operations and discusses the numerous retail terminology. From March 7th to March
28th, 2022, I was placed at Reliance SMART, Galaxy Diamond Plaza, Noida, for my 21-day OJT.

Reliance SMART is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited and deals mostly in FMCG
products. During my training, I explored the various sections of the store, its organizational
hierarchy, everyday operations, inventory management, point of sale, and different
promotional techniques used in the store. The store management was kind enough to allow
me to actually get a hands-on experience and work along with the store staff to contribute to
the functioning of the store. ”

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Company Profile
Reliance SMART is one of India's largest and fastest-growing grocery retailers.
“

Reliance SMART is a new era supermarket that caters to the demands of today's value-
conscious clients. Fruits and vegetables, bakery, dairy goods, home, and personal care items,
general merchandise, smart apparel, and appliances are all available at Reliance SMART,
making it a one-stop shopping destination for all.

Reliance Retail Private Brands include a wide variety of products from essentials to processed
meals and drinks, personal care, cosmetics, and perfumes to health and hygiene, fabric and
home care to home décor. Some of the private brands are GoodLife, Snactac, Yeah!, Desi
Kitchen, Purik, Enzo, Get Real, My Home, Samvaad, Glimmer, Petals, and Happy Living, which
are meticulously developed and quality tested goods that provide a great value proposition.
Reliance Smart offers a minimum of 6% off on MRP on all the products.

The following are some of the Reliance Retail subsidiaries, apart from SMART.”

Fig: Reliance Retail Subsidiaries

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Store Information
During my On-the-Job Training, I was exposed to a variety of departments and was able to
“

learn how they all functioned. The shop was in Galaxy Diamond Plaza, Noida Sector IV.

The shop was separated into the following sections:

• Staples
• Food
• Health and Personal Care
• General Merchandise (GM)
• Fruits and Vegetables (F and V)
• Apparel

The Jio Mart's operations were also handled by the store's staff. A separate CRM (Consumer
Relationship Management) department was in charge of keeping track of customer
complaints and addressing them. I also learned about inventory and stock management, cash
management, and BOH (Back of House) maintenance throughout the course. SAP software
was utilized to manage stock and inventory. ”

Particulars Details
Store Code TB22
Location Galaxy Diamond Plaza, Noida Sector IV
Store Manager Mr. Gaurav Barua
Number of employees 70-80
Floor Area 17000 sq.ft.
Average footfall (Weekdays) Approx. 300-500
Average footfall (Weekends) Approx. 1000
Average Sales (Daily) ₹450000
Average Sales (Monthly) ₹13500000
Margin 10-15% (Food)
50-70% (Apparel)
Average Inventory Held ₹70000000
Rent ₹1100000

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Maintenance Charges ₹250000
Electricity Charges ₹400000-₹450000

Week-wise OJT Report

• Walked the shop floor and gained insights about the various
“

departments in the store.”

• Understood the organizational structure and hierarchy within
“

the store.”
• Learned about the responsibilities of various employees. Also
“

visited BOH (Back of House).”

• Learnt about JioMart operations and performed order picking
“

and verification for JioMart orders.”

• Learned about Power Bay, Power Bin and End Cap. “
“

• Inquired about shelf cleaning process and its frequency. “

“

WEEK 1 • Learnt about planograms and Point of Purchase.”

“

• Explored SAP software. “

“

• Understood T-codes (Transaction Codes) like zstore, zstorehht

“

etc. in the software.”

• Collected information about value portal used by Reliance
“

SMART for markdowns and planogram printing.”

• Witnessed receiving of goods at the store.”
“

• Learned SOP’s for receiving vehicle. “

“

• Witnessed GRN (Goods Receipt Note) on SAP.”

“

• Learned about cash management and POS. Practiced billing on

“

RPOS (Reliance Point of Sale).”

• Learned opening and closing of POS. Learned about cashier
“

declaration.”
• Arranged the racks in the diary and cold drinks section”
“

• Understood how markdown for food section in value portal.”

“

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 • Learned the different reasons for markdown.”
“

• Enquired about the sales of different departments.”

“

• Made a note of the consumables used in the store. (A4 size

“

WEEK 2 pages, printer cartridge etc.”

• Learned that rconnect portal is used to record attendance of
“

staff and rborading portal is used for hiring new employees.”

• Witnessed the employees performing shelf help and
“

understood the importance of this process. Also noted the

frequency (once in 15 days) of this process. Found near expiry
products during the process.”

• Witnessed opening of the store”

“

• Understood the cleaning procedure and various activities

“

performed during the opening of the store”

• Witnessed closing of the store”
“

• Understood
“ about various checks done and closing
procedures”

WEEK 3 • Enquired to SM about various overheads and operational costs

“

• Observed the consumer behaviour and buying behaviour and

“

studied what demographics of the customers shop from what

departments”
• Witnessed receiving of cold processed goods at the store.
“

• Learned SOP’s for receiving vehicle.”

“

• Witnessed GRN (Goods Receipt Note) on SAP.”

“

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Store Layout
The store was laid out in a grid pattern. This may be because people come to the store with
“

a shopping list in hand. An impulse purchase is triggered with a grid structure. All things that
are of the same type are stored together. Grid structure also guarantees that space is used
efficiently.
”

Fig: Store Layout

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Organizational Structure
The organizational structure of Reliance SMART is as given in the below flowchart:

Fig: Organisational Structure of Reliance Smart store

An entry-level staff can reach the level of store manager in 6 years if he/she sticks to the
periodic evaluation and certifications as given below.

• Entry Level – KT Fresher WorkSmart Module Certification

• 1st Level K1 – KT WorkSmart Bronze Certification (6 months)
• 2nd Level K2 – K1 WorkSmart Silver Certification (12 months)
• 3rd Level K3 – K2 WorkSmart Silver Certification (18 months)
• 4th Level ASM – K3 Diploma in Retail Operations Certification and Completing
Assessment Development Centre (12 months)
• 5th Level SM – Diploma in Retail Management (24 months)

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Skills and Knowledge Earned
Racking System
Like every value retail format, Reliance SMART has different racks and shelves which are used
“

to display the merchandise.

The following are predominantly used in the store.

• Power Bay
• Power Bin
• End Cap

The brands pay for rack space to get better visibility. The rates differ from category to
category and also the rack.

Power Bay
When two or more shelves are combined to make either a color blocking arrangement or put
the same type of products, then it is called a power bay. A power bay aims to catch the
customer’s eye.

Fig: Power Bay

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Power Bin
The power bin is a shelf parallel to the entire bay which is used to keep featured products. It
is good to highlight certain products and attract customers’ attention.

Fig: Power Bin

Endcap
An end cap is placed at the end of the bay, perpendicular to it. This can be paid by certain
companies to promote their products. ”

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 Fig: End Cap

Floor Stack
When certain items are directly stacked on the pallets kept on the floor, it is called a floor
“

stack. In the Reliance SMART store, these floor stacks can be either promoted or featured by
the store. On a floor stack, only similar items are kept. The floor stacks are always kept at a
certain angle. Ideally, they should not be more than the eye level of the customer. ”

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 Fig: Floorstack

Clip Strips
At many racks in different departments of the store, clip strips were used to display products.
These clip strips are used for cross-selling different products by catching customers’ attention
when they’re shopping.

Fig: Clipstrip

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Maximum Base Quantity
The Maximum Quantity (MBQ) of a particular SKU on stores shelves or at the warehouse at
any given point in time.

MBQ can be calculated by multiplying the number of SKUs kept in length, breadth, and height
of the rack.

Bay Owner
In the store, each bay is allotted to a bay owner. These bay owners are responsible for keeping
“

their bays clean and up to date. The shelves must be cleaned every 15 days, and the expiration
or near-expiry items must be checked. Those items which have lesser time for expiry is kept
towards the front so that customer takes them. ”

Brand Promoters
To promote different products, the brands deploy many brand promoters to help the store
sell the products. They are responsible to push the sales of the products and are given
monthly sales targets to achieve.

They are not part of the Reliance Smart payroll.

At a given time, there will be around 20-25 Brand Promoters in the store.

Markdown
If the goods are damaged or reach the near expiry date, then instead of straightaway dumping
“

them, the employees markdown these goods by straightaway slashing their rates by up to
50%. These goods are then kept in a separate trolley wherein it is indicated that the goods
have been marked down. Customers buy these goods willingly to save on costs. However,
some goods are still not sold and have to be further marked down. For a markdown of more
than 50%, approval has to be taken from the cluster manager. Finally, if the goods remain
unsold till the very end, they are dumped and the company suffers losses. Markdowns are
done through the Reliance Value Portal. ”

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Reasons for Markdown/Dump:

1. Expired
2. Damaged/Spoiled
3. Broken bottle/pouch
4. Customer return – quality complaint
5. Bad quality product
6. Grazing/Pilferage
7. Calamity/Flood/Riot
8. Rodent Damage
9. SKU to SKU transfer
10. VendorApproved/Dump/Scrap

The approval levels of markdowns are as follows:

• Below 25%: Department Managers

• 25-50%: Store Manager
• 50-70%: Cluster Manager
• 70-90%: State Business Head

Fig: Markdown Menu

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Management of Fruits and Vegetable (F&V) Section
• The executives should ensure that sorting and grading in the F&V section are done
“

on an hourly basis.
• No expired product is sold to customers under any circumstances.
“ ”

• The executives should ensure that fungus-infected items/damaged/expired/leaky

“

items are removed. ”

• The older F&V product is always displayed on the top and the fresh stock is placed in
“

the bottom of the crate. ”

• 20% F&V stock is kept aside for the evening customer.

“ ”

Credit Note
Credit Note (CN) is utilized as a return policy in Reliance SMART. A CN allows a client to return
“

an item, but the money is reimbursed to the customer's mobile phone number. This money
can't be used on anything else than Reliance SMART.

As a result, the cashiers create a credit note in RPOS by selecting the refund from the history
option and entering the POS ID and Billing Number. The returned item must then be scanned
in RPOS, and its value is transferred to the customer's cell phone for future use.”

Fig: Credit Note used in the store

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SKU to SKU Transfer
In most cases, SKU to SKU transfer is done in staple items. There are bins in the staple section
“

where loose commodities such as pulses or grains are kept for sale. When the packaged
products get damaged, they are sometimes moved to loose containers. However, it is
necessary to keep a record of this in SAP.

As a result, the EAN and quantity of the transferred article are put into SAP. The page is
performed and uploaded when all such elements have been recorded.”

After posting, the Loss Prevention Associate (LPA) prints the document from SAP and verifies
that the number of packets matches the items posted in the SAP program.

Delivery Vehicles in Store

There were three types of vehicles that arrived at the store, which are as given below.

• Distribution Centre Vehicles: The DC vehicles brought goods from distribution centers.
“

They usually include all the food products, staples, non-food items, etc.”
o Merchandise will come packed from DC in cartoons
o Each HU will have a unique number called the HU number.
o The executive must ensure unloaded stock is entered in the material inward
register
o The executive must ensure to raise the GRN by EOD for the days received the
stock.
o The executive must ensure the availability of the SLP team or the department
manager.
• Cold Processing Centre Vehicles: CPC vehicles brought goods from cold processing
“

centers which are distribution centers for wet goods like dairy, fruits, vegetables, etc.”
o Merchandise will come packed from CPC in crates or insulated boxes
o Each crate will have only one Fruit and Vegetable SKU
o The executive must ensure unloaded stock is entered in the material inward
register.
o The executive must ensure to raise the GRN by EOD for the days received
stock

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 o The executive must ensure that all the crates of Fruits and Vegetables
received for the day must be returned the next day.
o The executive must ensure to generate GRDC for transit loss stock of fruits and
vegetables from 3995 or 3996 SLOC.
• Direct Store Delivery Vehicles: The DSD vehicles brought goods directly from the
“

vendors.”
o The store will receive stock directly at the store (DSD) from the vendor, only
at the SKU level.
o SKU level receiving must be done by doing 100% micro counting of the
articles.
o Quantity received as damaged or expired will not be received
o Generate GRN immediately & mention GRN no. in the inward register.
o Return to DSD (GRV) will be done for excess or expired products as per policy
and terms of business with that particular vendor.

To receive these vehicles, the procedure is as given below.

• There should be a Manager on Duty (MOD) and a Loss Prevention Associate (LPA)
while the vehicle is opened for receiving.
• The seal number and vehicle number should be checked.
• In the case of DSD vehicles, the GST Number of the buyer, GST number of the seller,
vendor invoice, stamp of the vendor, and invoice amount is checked.
• A trip Sheet is a document that has the name of the distribution center from where
the goods are being transported and the name of the store to which the goods are
being brought.

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 Fig: Receiving of goods at the Store

Fig: Packing list for a given trip

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Goods Received Note
A goods received note (GRN) is a two-way document that recognizes the distribution center’s
“

delivery of goods and the store’s receipt of those products.

The store gives three copies of the delivery note to the department that requested the items,
keeps one for the finance department, and gives one to the distribution center. ”

Back of House (BOH)

The Back of House (BOH) is where all of the newly delivered goods are stored. When the shop
“

floor display inventory is depleting, goods are brought in from BOH.

Every Monday, the BOH is cleaned to avoid items from expiring in the BOH itself. The things
that have been buried behind are revealed and brought forward during the flushing
procedure. ”

The BOH is divided into the following sections:

• Food
• Non-food
• Staples
• Top 40 Articles

Fig: BOH of the store

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Enterprise Resource Planning at SMART
In Reliance Smart, SAP is used for Enterprise Resource Planning. It is a program that is used
by businesses to handle their back-end operations.

SAP uses a variety of transaction codes to implement various functionalities. Some of the
functionalities used in SAP by SMART are as given below

• Maintaining average sales, stock, and intake

• Implementing Goods Receipt Note
• SKU to SKU transfer
• Physical inventory
• Return to Vendor (RTV)
• Printing Documents
• Indenting
• Inter Store Transfer

Fig: ERP at Reliance SMART

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Some of the commonly used transaction codes at Reliance SMART are as given below.

Transaction Code Function

MR5B, 2MB52 For stock check
MB51 PI movement, dump movement, sale movement
ZSTORE Stock transfer
ZFBCJ Cash movement
ME21N Manual Indenting Code, PO Raise
ME23N PO edit, change, delete
VLO2N Goods save to system, delivery document
VL1OB Store to store, DC to store, PO save and proceed
YSCM Used for cash and store

Points of Purchase
When a customer surfs the store, these Point of Purchase (POP) catches the attention of the
“

customer by making them aware of the offers going on to influence their purchase decisions.

The POPs place a strong emphasis on the store's discounts and cheaper pricing. POPs were
identified in two colors in Reliance SMART, they are yellow and white.

Food, Fruits and Vegetables, Dairy, and other items were labeled in yellow, whereas staples,
general merchandise, and other items were labeled in white.

The yellow POPs will have “Save” written on them and the white POPs will have “Our Price”
written on them. ”

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 Fig: Yellow POP for food articles

Fig: White POP used for staples

Planogram
In retail, a planogram (POG) is a guideline which is used to demonstrate product arrangement
“

on a shelf. There are POGs for each bay. These POGs are designed by the company and the
products are placed on racks adhering to these guiding principles.”

The planogram maintained at the store is as given below:

• Large packets to small packets from left to right.

• Small to large packets from bottom to top.
• Same brand different size/variant or sometimes same category in one rack.

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 Fig: Planogram used for body care products

Point of Sale
POS is the area where goods are sold to customers and it is also called a check-out counter.
“

All the POS units need to be cleaned and must have stock of stationery available before each
shift.”

• POS equipment is as given below:

• Touch Screen Monitor
• Cash Drawer
• CPU
• Handheld Scanner
• Printer
• EDC machine

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Tickets
Tickets are referred to as the number of invoices generated from the footfall arriving at the
store.

HR Policies and Employee Guidelines

Some of the HR policies in Reliance SMART are as given below:

• Each of the Reliance SMART employees has its R connect portal access.
• Staff attendance can be regularized through the store manager’s R connect account.
• Any staff can print his/her salary slip via R connect portal.
• Local conveyance expenses can be claimed via R connect.
• Shift planning can be done from R connect portal.
• 90 day notice period is served in the organization.

Grooming Guidelines for Men:

• Neat and clean uniform

• Neatly combed hair
• The employee should be clean-shaven or have a properly groomed beard or mustache
• Sideburns should not extend below the mid-point of the ear lobe.
• Only one ring permitted
• Identity cards should be displayed prominently
• Neat and clean nails
• Clean socks and polished shoes
• Oral hygiene should be maintained and chewable are prohibited

Grooming Guidelines for Women:

• Neat and clean uniform
• Neatly combed and tied hair
• Minimal makeup
• Only one ring permitted
• Identity cards should be displayed prominently

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 • Neat and clean nails
• Clean socks and polished shoes
• High heels footwear not permitted

JioMart Operations
The JioMart operations are also carried out by the staff of the store. The JioMart operations
are mainly comprised of three steps, which are as given below.

• Order Picking
1. When the order is received at the store, a printout of the order is taken and is
supplied to the store staff for picking the items in the order from the racks.
2. If a particular item is out of stock in the store, it is marked as pending in the order
sheet.
3. Once the order picking is completed, each item in the order is scanned using the
Urovo handheld POS machine. This is done to confirm if the items picked and their
EAN matches with what the customer has ordered.
4. After this, the order is confirmed and the bill is printed using the POS machine.
5. Larger items are left in this stage and are picked during the verification stage.
6. The order is then moved to a pallet.

• Order Verification
1. In this, each item is taken out from the pallet and verified.
2. In the case of large items, which are left in the order picking stage, it is picked and
validated.
3. The order is packed and kept in the pallet for shipping.
4. The number of bags and pallets are marked in the bill so that no bags go missing.

• Order Shipping
1. The order shipping is handled by a third-party shipping company. Once they
receive the pallet, a confirmation message is sent to the customers.
2. They sort the orders and plan the routes accordingly and deliver the order.

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 Fig: Orders ready to be despatched

Cash Management
Cash management is an important aspect of any store's day-to-day operations. The money
“

from everyday sales is deposited into the bank daily. As a result, some cash is required to run
the business.”

Each store maintains a certain level of cash for their day-to-day operations.”

• Imprest Cash
“

This is the cash that is provided to the store for maintenance and everyday operations.
For instance, to repair fixtures, buy paper, refill cartridges, etc.”
• Float Cash”
“

o Float Cash is the money that is given to every cash till for operations.”
“

o In the store ₹3000 is the float cash for each counter for giving balance amount
“

to the customers.”
• The records for this cash are maintained in Petty Cash Book.”
“

• The petty cash book is kept by the store's C&A (Cash and Accounts) official after daily
“

operations. When it comes to billing, cashiers might make errors, such as receiving
more money or giving more money to consumers. When the customers don't have a

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 change, they occasionally accept less, and when they don't have a change to return to
the consumers, they accept more. As a result, while calculating in the petty cash book,
there is sometimes a shortfall and other times an overabundance.”
• Except on Sundays and holidays, CMS receives cash from the store every day.”
“

• The CMS employee had to be recognized using their ID and business letter, both of
“

which were on hand at the store.”

• Cash gathered from clients in any of the MOP is referred to as sales cash. Cash from
“

sales should not be utilized for anything else and should be put into a bank account
using CMS. SM should count sales and secure cash daily.”

Billing and Bagging

• The executive should ensure that all the cash tills have adequate loose change all the
time.
• They should remember to sign the void transaction log daily and verify with the
electronic journal weekly and ensure to check the electronic journal for ‘zero value’
and/or very low-value bills.
• The executive should ensure to open checkouts as per the cashier roster.
• Ensure to open more checkouts and provide baggers when queues are forming at
open checkouts.

Loyalty Programs
Reliance Retail has a mobile number-based loyalty program called Reliance One.

• The executive asks the customer for a registered mobile number to capture loyalty
program details.
• The executive should explain loyalty benefits to a customer who is not a member of
the program
• One point for every ₹200 spent where one point is equal to 70 paise.
• The loyalty points can be used for future shopping
• Reliance SMART runs special discounts for loyal customers.

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Store Opening Procedure
• The Manager on Duty (MOD) brings the store's key for the opening.
• The Loss Prevention Associate (LPA) receives the key and opens the shop before
returning it to MOD.
• The register is opened, and the MOD signs after noting the time. Before customers
begin to arrive, the store is sorted and cleaned.

Store Closing Procedure

• Cash is declared by the cashiers, the gate is closed by MOD, and a seal is placed on the
gate during closing.

Issues Identified in the Store

• The shelf area available in-store is not sufficient for the large number of SKUs the store
offer. Because of this, the following issues arise.
o Customers find it hard to find a particular SKU because the shelves are very
crowded.
o SKUs are stacked so closely that picking one item from the rack may cause all
the displayed products to fall.
o More than sufficient units of a particular SKU is kept in a single rack.

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 Fig: More than sufficient inventory kept on the racks

• The layout of the store is in such a way that the Homecare, and Laundry Products
sections do not get enough customer attention.
o These products are high volume and low involvement and therefore, they will
sell more if it catches the customer’s attention more. These products if kept in
areas that are more visible to the customer can lead to impulse purchase
decisions.
o The kitchenware and crockery section are a couple of sections that have very
less customers buying products and they are right in the center of the store.
Those who want to buy these products will anyways search for them in the
store.
• Broken packets of SKUs are kept on the racks which are neither getting sold nor getting
replaced on the rack. This indicates that the executives pay less attention to this as
they are supposed to check and clean the inventory every two weeks.

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 Fig: Broken SKUs kept on display
• The store should focus more on seasonal products like ice cream – the ice cream
refrigerator is located in a position where it doesn’t get much customer attention.

Fig: Condition of the Ice Cream refrigerator

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 • The largest packets of SKUs are kept at the eye level of the customer, which sells less
volume and the high selling SKUs are kept at the bottommost of the racks. This is
inconvenient for the customers.

Fig: Largest packet in the most accessible rack

• The impulse counter near the billing counters gets very less attention from the
customers as they don’t have many products which catch customers’ attention.
• The internet provided in the store is very unstable which leads to a slowing down of
the JioMart operations and billing process. The store executives use their mobile data
many times to avoid a backlog in JioMart operations.
• The JioMart order picking and walk-in customers occur from the shop floor itself and
this leads to the shop floor being very cramped because of the carts and pallets used
for JioMart.
• There are 8 cash counters in the store, out of which only 4 are usually opened up for
the customers. One counter is fully utilized for JioMart bill generation. Because of all
this, there is always crowding near the billing counters.
• The exit of the store is crowded with customers and the JioMart delivery partners.
• Improper handling of the inventory by the executives at the time of in warding process
leads to damage to the SKUs.

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 • The warehouse is overloaded with inventory and is not very well organized. Only staff
who takes inventory regularly from the warehouse is aware of where what inventory
is kept.
• Presence of rodents in the Back of the House.

Recommendations/Solutions for the Identified Problems

• Reduction of SKUs kept on the rack by 10%: This will ensure that sufficient inventory
is present for visibility and also reduces the clutter in the store. For this, the rack
replenishments should be done more frequently.
• Redesign the layout of the store: More emphasis should be given to high volume
sellers like laundry and home care products. This should be moved to the center part
of the store where maximum customers tend to come. Slow sellers like kitchenware
or crockery can be moved to the corner of the store.
• Separate channel for JioMart Operations: Separate counter and exit should be
maintained for JioMart operations so that they do not disturb the walk-in customer
experience.
• Ensure better internet facility in the store
• The store management should create awareness among the executives about the
proper handling of goods during inwarding process.
• Ensure seasonal products and impulse products get proper importance in the store.
• Pest control measures should be strictly enforced in the store and BOH.
• The store management should ensure that more cash counters are operational during
peak footfall time.

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Summary of Job Accomplishments
To summarize, all the objectives of this training were accomplished during these twenty-one
“

days. In the first few days, I learned about the general store operations wherein I gained
insights about POG, POP, shelf help, bays, cross-selling, floor stacks, etc. Next, I received
goods from the distribution center (DC), cold processing center (CPC), and directly from the
vendor (DSD).

There were SOPs in place for receiving the goods. I also learned about Trip sheets, Inbound
trips, Outbound Trips, GRN (Goods Receipt notes), etc. While learning about the backend
operations, I visited Back of House (BOH) and witnessed how goods were stacked according
to their department. Post the first few days, I started learning to work on SAP software and
understood various t-codes used. After understanding, I saw how GRN, SKU to SKU transfer,
and printing documents are performed on the software.

I also learned about the value portal of Reliance wherein markdowns were posted. Further, I
learned about the various registers maintained at the store. I also saw the customer feedback
register and the customer exchange docket. Then I learned about the cash management
system at the store. I learned how to maintain the petty cash book and understood the
concept of float cash and imprest cash from the Cash and Accounts officer (C&A).

Further, I witnessed the cleaning of the floor stack and its reassembling in the staple section.
I also saw how the executives worked on the POS systems and performed billing for the
customers. While working in the store, I inquired about the bay size which was 4 feet in width
with varying shelf heights.”

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 Fig: With Store Manager Mr. Gaurav Barua

Fig: With OJT Mentor Prof Manoj Pant

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