Centra's Transformation: Enhancing Retail Operations with IoT
Applicable Industries
- Consumer Goods
- Retail
Use Cases
- Retail Store Automation
- Time Sensitive Networking
About The Customer
Centra is Ireland's leading convenience retail group, with over 480 stores located throughout the country. The stores offer convenient shopping solutions, providing all necessary items at good value for money. Centra is known for its quality, value, and friendly service. The stores are independently owned and operated by local people, combining the commitment to traditional values of good fresh foods and excellent services with the price power and state-of-the-art retail systems of a large national foodstore group. Centra is part of Musgrave Retail Partners Ireland, the retail franchise division of Musgrave Group, one of Ireland's largest grocery and food distributors.
The Challenge
Centra, Ireland's leading convenience retail group, faced significant operational challenges in managing its stores. The owner of Centra stores in Dublin, James Ryan, admitted that before implementing IoT solutions, all store operations were manually handled. Managers used Excel to create weekly rotas, which were then printed and pinned up in the store and shared in the work group chat. The absence of a formal system for time off and unavailability often led to last-minute adjustments to the schedule, finding staff to cover shifts when others were unavailable or had booked off. Furthermore, James and his managers lacked full awareness of labour costs across the stores, which negatively impacted store performance.
The Solution
The implementation of IoT solutions revolutionized Centra's operations. The new system notifies every staff member of their upcoming shifts, which they can access anytime on their mobile phones. This feature significantly reduced staff no-shows and led to a more productive and engaged work environment. The Unavailability feature, in particular, transformed how Centra managed employee time off. The enhanced visibility of time off when creating the schedule further reduced the time spent on creating rosters. The transparency of data also had a significant impact across the stores, enabling them to reduce labour costs by up to 10%. The IoT solutions were rolled out across James' Centra stores, leading to more efficient and cost-effective operations.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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