Working it Out

Case Study
Working it Out
Buehler Food Markets Improves Customer Service, Decreases Labor Costs and
Streamlines Processes with JDA Workforce Management
Buehler Food Markets, Inc.
Fast Facts
Industry
Grocery Retailer
Headquarters
Wooster, Ohio
Corporate Overview
Founded in 1929, Buehler Food Markets is
a privately owned grocer based in Wooster,
Ohio with 13 stores located throughout the
state. The company’s mission statement is to
provide an exceptional shopping experience
that exceeds each customer’s changing
expectations.
Number of Employees
Approximately 3,100
Business Challenge
Multiple, non-integrated applications and paper-based schedules made
labor management difficult for Buehler. Overtime issues and that fact that
there was no integration into the grocery’s time and attendance system
compounded the issue.
Business Solution
• JDA® Workforce Management
Business Benefits
• Improved customer service
• Accelerated checkout time
“The best practices supported by JDA
Workforce Management enable us to
manage our labor more effectively, better
serve customers and react quickly to issues
as they arise. In addition to reducing our
labor-scheduling process by 30 to 75
percent, JDA’s solution has helped our
company to decrease labor costs by 10 to
15 percent after instituting a ‘minimum
hours’ policy for historically slow weeks.”
- Terri Huntley,
project manager/programmer/analyst,
Buehler Food Markets
• Lowered labor costs
• Increased corporate and store manager visibility
• Improved workforce-related decision making
• Improved ability to effectively compete with “big box” retailers
• More accurate and efficient forecasting, scheduling and reporting processes
• Achieved ability to set highly accurate performance expectations at the
department level
• Improved employee productivity
Quantifiable Benefits
• Reduced labor-scheduling process by 30 to 75 percent
• Decreased labor costs by 10 to 15 percent after instituting a
“minimum-hours” policy for historically slow weeks
• Reduced overtime in first quarter 2009 by more than 4,000 hours
Providing an exceptional shopping
experience that exceeds each customer’s
changing expectations is the mission of
Ohio-based Buehler Food Markets, Inc.
Starting with extra-wide parking spaces
and ending with drive-through lanes
where attendants load groceries right into
shoppers’ cars, customer service has been a
competitive advantage for the retailer since
its founding in 1929. Buehler’s customers
know they can count on the grocer for
locally grown produce from Amish farmers,
the highest-quality Certified Angus Beef
from Wooster, Ohio and a KidzPark where
their children can safely play while they
shop or dine on-site.
Buehler’s customers can also count on
finding exactly the right employees on
the sales floor at the right time to service
them thanks to the retailer’s successful
implementation and ongoing use of JDA®
Workforce Management.
“The best practices supported by JDA
Workforce Management enable us to
manage our labor more effectively, better
serve customers and react quickly to issues
as they arise,” says Terri Huntley, Buehler’s
project manager/programmer/analyst. “In
addition to reducing our labor scheduling
process by 30 to 75 percent, JDA’s solution
has helped our company to decrease labor
costs by 10 to 15 percent after instituting
a ‘minimum hours’ policy for historically
slow weeks.”
Eliminating Labor-Intensive
Processes
Prior to implementing JDA Workforce
Management, Buehler used multiple,
non-integrated applications, which made
it challenging to efficiently manage its
workforce. These applications included a
PC-based dynamic scheduling package for
front-end departments and paper schedules
for all other departments. Neither system
was integrated with Buehler’s time and
attendance system. With these different
approaches, Buehler did not have an
effective way to compare scheduled hours
to actual hours. It was also tedious to enter
all of the data into spreadsheets for analysis.
And, with each store manager having his or
her own way to prepare the required totals
for corporate reporting, the results were not
always accurate.
Another challenge that Buehler faced was
related to overtime. While the grocer had
no way to track overtime, it suspected
a common problem in retail in which
employees clock-in too early and clockout too late. Considering that Buehler
employs about 3,100 employees who work
a variety of shifts, every 10 to 15 minutes of
unplanned labor could quickly add up to a
costly budget issue.
Meeting Unique Business
Requirements
To address its complex labor needs, Buehler
initiated a search in 2004 for an integrated
solution. A team researched several different
technology vendors and found that JDA’s
Workforce Management solution offered
an integrated, enterprise solution with
comprehensive time and attendance plus
scheduling functionality to meet Buehler’s
business requirements. The fact that
other leading grocers also leveraged JDA
Workforce Management convinced the
Buehler team that JDA could address the
unique needs of the highly competitive
grocery industry.
Buehler licensed JDA Workforce
Management in 2005 and embarked on
an implementation that included all of its
stores along with its corporate warehouse
and central commissary. From initial
discovery to extensive end-user training, the
implementation lasted about seven months.
JDA consultants educated Huntley and Jim
Hahn, Buehler’s systems operator, on the
software’s comprehensive capabilities. The
two professionals then spent as much as
four weeks at each store, ensuring that every
department was successfully adopting JDA
Workforce Management.
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“Utilizing a ‘train the trainer’ approach
worked well for our culture,” explains
Huntley. “We rolled out two stores at a time
and spent the first 10 days to two weeks
on intensive end-user training. While we
could have moved on after that, it was our
company’s preference to stay in the store for
another two weeks to ensure that everyone
was fully using the system.”
Ensuring Optimal Labor to Drive
Sales and Service
Today Buehler relies on JDA Workforce
Management to recognize factors that may
impact enterprise-wide labor requirements.
The solution sets highly accurate
performance expectations at the department
level, and then applies those expectations
along with POS and customer traffic data
to automatically project staffing needs at
15-minute intervals. When the retailer
opened two stores in 2007, JDA Workforce
Management provided the scalability and
flexibility to add the new stores without
any impact to system performance. The
grocer can also easily make adjustments
for holidays, events and weather to ensure
optimal labor hours.
“We have annual one-day sales in our
meat and produce departments. Having
the historical data in JDA Workforce
Management helps us considerably as it
enables us to schedule enough people in the
right departments to assist customers and
drive sales,” says Huntley. “When a major
snowstorm is on the way, JDA’s solution
also allows us to adjust the hours for the
pre-storm rush as well as the lag in sales
during and after the storm.”
With all of its labor information in one
place, Buehler uses JDA Workforce
Management’s Report Wizard capability
to create custom reports for management
to monitor the company’s sales-per-labor
hours on a daily basis and adjust employee
schedules accordingly. The projections
and forecasting capabilities in the JDA
solution ensure that the correct employees
and ample workforce are in place to meet
budgeting demands, while delivering the
exemplary customer service that Buehler’s
customers have come to expect.
Saving Time and Money with
“Remarkable” Accuracy
Buehler’s end users at all levels have come
to appreciate the improvements and cost
savings that JDA Workforce Management
has delivered. While Huntley can recall
some early resistance among employees
who were not ready to give up their former
processes, she says that employees have
quickly come to rely on JDA Workforce
Management as a solution proven to save
them time and money while delivering
“remarkable” accuracy.
“Buehler employees value JDA Workforce
Management because it is so user friendly
with drag and drop features and a graphical
presentation of schedules that saves
significant time. The software’s built-in
alerts help eliminate mistakes that can lead
to over-scheduling and gaps in coverage.
Managers also like that they can use the
JDA solution to track by department down
to the employee to see if anyone is abusing
break and lunch policies or clocking in too
early. Now managers can prevent those
extra minutes turning into extra hours,”
says Huntley.
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As active members of the JDA Workforce
Management User Group, Buehler’s end
users can thank Huntley and Hahn for
promoting their desired enhancements
during JDA’s annual meeting. One Buehler
request that is now part of JDA Workforce
Management is the ability to assign
different colors to different activities so
managers can see at a glance the different
roles on their schedule.
“JDA has improved JDA Workforce
Management tremendously over the past
few years and I would give them an A+ for
their solution and support,” says Huntley,
who explains that Buehler licensed the
solution at about the same time that JDA
acquired it from the former Timera, Inc.
“As soon as we put in a request to JDA
Support, they respond right away. The JDA
Workforce Management User Group is the
best one that I have ever participated in as
users truly have a say in determining the
product’s direction.”
Controlling Labor Costs,
Improving Service and
Competing More Effectively
With more accurate and efficient
forecasting, scheduling and reporting
processes, Buehler has cornered the market
on real results with JDA Workforce
Management. Huntley provided the
following benefits that the retailer has
realized:
• Improved customer service with less wait
time at checkout and the right number
of employees to handle the flow of
customers on the sales floor
• Reduced labor-scheduling process by 30
to 75 percent
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• Decreased labor costs by 10 to 15 percent
after instituting a “minimum hours”
policy for historically slow weeks
• Reduced over-time in first quarter 2009
by more than 4,000 hours
• Increased corporate and store manager
visibility for better workforce-related
decisions
• Improved ability to make sound business
decisions and more effectively compete
with “big box” businesses
“JDA has its pulse on the heartbeat of
retail,” says Huntley. “JDA understands that
scheduling the right staff at the right time
to assist our customers is a prerequisite for
delivering the kind of positive experience
necessary to preserve customer loyalty
and drive sales. And with JDA Workforce
Management, we’re doing just that.”
About JDA Software Group, Inc.
JDA® Software Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:
JDAS), The Supply Chain Company®, is
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JDA empowers more than 6,000 companies
of all sizes to make optimal decisions that
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in the discrete and process manufacturing,
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retail and services industries. With an
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