Our Online User Groups are a great opportunity to share ideas, learn, and connect with other users and the SIMUL8 team. For our February Online User Group we were delighted to be joined by SIMUL8 expert, Jim Holtman from Kroger - a SIMUL8 user of 20 years, and Matthew Hobson-Rohrer and Glenn Holburn from the SIMUL8 team. During this presentation Jim Holtman from Kroger talks us through how various processes are simulated using SIMUL8 at The Kroger Co, including the check out areas, distribution centers and the loading/delivery areas. The presentation also includes a demonstration of one simulation that was developed to help people understand how some of Kroger's operations work.
Citation preview
1. SIMUL8 at The Kroger Company
2. The Kroger Co. Largest traditional grocery retailer in the
United States 343,000 associates 2424 stores 1169 supermarket fuel
centers 786 convenience stores 328 fine jewelry stores Kroger is
the fifth-largest pharmacy operator in the United States (when
counting the number of locations), and in 2012 Kroger pharmacists:
40 manufacturing plants 34 distribution centers Filled over 162
million prescriptions Retail value of approximately $8 billion.
Traveled 300M miles in 2010 Loyalty cards Created partnership in
May 2003 with a firm called dunnhumby Partnership called
dunnhumbyUSA 2
3. Use of SIMUL8 Kroger wants to model before building a
solution. Been using SIMUL8 since 2006 Front-end (cashier
utilization) Manufacturing (dairy plant) Loading docks (putting
pallets on trucks) Picking products in a warehouse Tool for
training
4. Front-End at a Store Model the type of cashier lane Regular
Express SCO (self checkout) Scan Tunnel
(http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2011/08/testingout-krogers-new-tunnel-scanner.html?page=all)
Vary customer load/arrival rates By 15 minute intervals Size of
basket Type of payment Number of coupons
5. Screen Shot of Front-End 5
6. QueVision Reduces customer wait time to 30 seconds
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/201305/what-does-military-camera-have-do-groceryshopping?dom=PSC&loc=recent&lnk=1&con=rea
d-full-story Use of this technology driven from observing the
output from the SIMUL8 model if we could be proactive in opening up
lanes based on predicted customer arrival rate.
7. QueVision
8. Use in Training Courses I teach several courses at Kroger.
One of them is Working the Numbers to show the importance to
developers of understanding the numbers associated with their
applications. Knowing how queuing affects the throughput/response
times is illustrated with several SIMUL8 models.
9. Queueing Simple model of a cashier lane:
10. Little More Complex Model Larger store operation: