Tip Top Markets - Case Study Analysis, Causes and Its Problems

Introduction

            As we all know that the tip top store is one of the famous stores which served different food to the customer as per their needs. It is located in the United States. Karen martin is the manager of the stores, and what the manager found that there had been a huge and large number of customer complaints from customer records in the store. Basically, what the manager got is that there are large numbers of customer complaints on Tuesdays.

Different strategies were implemented but didn’t get solved and asked us to provide the solution of the case.

Analyzing the case

We had given to analyze the case and made the decisions of the store. Different changes were made and implemented in the store such as reduce the out of stocks complaints which meant there had been made changed on warehouse and store the sufficient material for the store, problems such as store maintenances are reduced and also resolved the checkout lines or the pricing problems are solved. 

After analyzing the data sheet provided in the case, what we have found is that there are total of 184 customer complaints in last 8 weeks of Tuesdays. When analyzing those all complaints from customer we found followings list and problems in terms of frequency times and are

• a)      Out of stocks in number-61
• b)      Charged over complaints -18
• c)      Poor store maintenance -16
• d)     Long waiting time-14
• e)      Defects product-12
• f)       Not maintaining the temperature of store-10
• g)      Stale and no fresh meat-9
• h)      Wrong pricing policy-8
• i)        Lack in finding items-8
• j)        Employees not being helpful-6
• k)      Fish are bad-5
• l)        Others problems-17

 When analyzing the data of the complaint records, we found there is most complaints list of out of stock which is 61, followed by overcharged, poor maintenance of store while on the other least complaints is of fish not being fresh which is 5. Others complaints are also in the list such as wallet lost, not liking store decoration, spoil sauce on floor and so many more.

Pareto charts

Pareto charts shows us that out of stocks category has the most number of complaints in the store and it was 61 complaints from the customers’ side. When analyzing the Pareto charts or the principle of Pareto, we can analyze that out of 100 percent, we found 80 percent is the effects from the 20 percent cause. In other words we can also say that there had been 20-80 cause and effect relationship respectively. To reduce the effects there must be reduction of the cause which is 20 percent as mention in the case. If there is reduction of number of complaints can be solved then there would be fewer problems that need to solve.

Analyzing the run chart from the given figure, we found

After getting the data, analyzing the cause and effects relationship

Cause and effects analyzing

Table showing cause and effects relation

  

Problems being product out of the stock

Some of the cause of the out of the stock of raw material and stock; they are listed in below:

• 1)      Suppliers’ delivery and their relation: from the data what we analyzed is that, the
• 2)      Suppliers of the store are not delivering the raw material on timely and as a result there had been the effect of customer complaints. Other reason is that the tip top store was not paying their dues on timely as a result the suppliers’ didn’t deliver the material in time.
• 3)      Happening of other external factors such as like landslide in the area where the material are imported, happening of environmental degradation causing crops destroyed and also heavy rainfall in the area from where the crops are collected. Due to such reasons there had been delaying in delivery of the material from the supplier to the store and results more complaints from the customer.
• 4)      High cost of raw material due to road blocked may be the another cause for delaying in supply of the material, and it results to import the raw material from outside and it cost huge money and due to huge financial burden for buying those material imported from outside cause the store to be run out of cash and cannot pay money to the supplier may be the cause and thus it result too many complaints in the store.

Major recommendation

 Some of the key recommendations for the store to resolve the problems are as given below.

1)      Try to find out the loyal supplier who can give more duration to the store to pay off their dues.

2)      Import the raw material from the local market if possible, and try to maintain the warehouse near the store area.

3)      Tip Top Markets should maintain their financial position sound and try to meet its obligation on time and pay their dues on timely.

4)      Other recommendation are company must focus on providing the better and quality product to the customer quickly, reasonable pricing strategies can be done to resolved price of the product, all ensure that their  product are more qualitative than others all the time by creating more values towards the customer, Tip Top Store also needs to provide proper training to the staff and employees on delivering the services to the customers, needs to enhance their communication skills, trained them frequently, and be sure that the store are more focusing on quality of the product rather than money.

5)      Tip top need to use recent technology that provides relatively fine forecasting of their raw material and food consumption by the customer.

6)      Implementation of radio frequency technology which reduces unwanted burden to the customer, fast and quick access in delivering the product to the customer and increase efficiency in billing procedure.

7)      Check out all the materials that come from the vendor part, and balance it as per needs of the store, also check the expired date of the meat product.

8)      Tip top needs to maintain the track record of the inventory system and ensure that all the required material satisfy the demands in the store.

9)      Follow the records and complaint of the customer and fulfill their demands as per their needs.

References

Stevenson, W. (2009): Operation management (10^th ed).New York: McGraw-Hill