Managing out-of-stocks and over-stock occurrences in supermarket stores: a case study in Singapore

摘要

Despite over 40 years of research on out-of-stock (OOS) and over-stock (OS) occurrences, OOS rates remain at an average of 8%. Further, while the store has been found to be a major contributor to OOS situations, it continues to remain a ‘black-box’ in OOS research, especially at the operational level. This thesis examines how supermarket stores execute in-store processes to manage OOS and OS events before, during and after their occurrences. It adopted the case study approach to investigate four specific in-store operations practices – planning and ordering, receiving and checkout, storage, and shelf replenishment - of 19 stores of a major supermarket chain in Singapore. Using semi-structured interviews supplemented by unobtrusive on-site observations of live in-store processes, this study found that OOS and OS occurrences were generally attributable to mismanagement of logistical processes, especially failure to deal with trivial operational issues and minor human errors on-time. Store managers’ attitudes toward enforcement of standard operations procedures (SOPs) also played a significant role in minimizing OOS and OS occurrences in-store. Contrasting the manner in which low-OOS and high-OOS stores handled OOS and OS events, this study unearthed five specific approaches the case supermarket stores used, depending on the in-store retailing dynamics at the time and store management’s knowledge of the causes of their occurrence. From a theoretical perspective, findings from this study have provided a theoretical thread, linking the relationships between store management commitment toward OOS and OS events and OOS and OS performance. They also bring many of the well-documented OOS and OS measures from a broad strategic dimension to the detailed operational level. From a practical standpoint, these findings offer four major Despite over 40 years of research on out-of-stock (OOS) and over-stock (OS) occurrences, OOS rates remain at an average of 8%. Further, while the store has been found to be a major contributor to OOS situations, it continues to remain a ‘black-box’ in OOS research, especially at the operational level. This thesis examines how supermarket stores execute in-store processes to manage OOS and OS events before, during and after their occurrences. It adopted the case study approach to investigate four specific in-store operations practices – planning and ordering, receiving and checkout, storage, and shelf replenishment - of 19 stores of a major supermarket chain in Singapore. Using semi-structured interviews supplemented by unobtrusive on-site observations of live in-store processes, this study found that OOS and OS occurrences were generally attributable to mismanagement of logistical processes, especially failure to deal with trivial operational issues and minor human errors on-time. Store managers’ attitudes toward enforcement of standard operations procedures (SOPs) also played a significant role in minimizing OOS and OS occurrences in-store. Contrasting the manner in which low-OOS and high-OOS stores handled OOS and OS events, this study unearthed five specific approaches the case supermarket stores used, depending on the in-store retailing dynamics at the time and store management’s knowledge of the causes of their occurrence. From a theoretical perspective, findings from this study have provided a theoretical thread, linking the relationships between store management commitment toward OOS and OS events and OOS and OS performance. They also bring many of the well-documented OOS and OS measures from a broad strategic dimension to the detailed operational level. From a practical standpoint, these findings offer four major sets of best-practice guidelines on OOS and OS management that relates to the role of store managers, adherence to SOPs, supplier relationship management and effects of contextual factors.