With 24,000 staff and over 300 stores, Belk Inc. sought to replace its completely manual job scheduling system with an automated software solution from Reflexis. Belk expected the upgrade would simplify scheduling, reduce time workers spent in non-customer-facing roles, and result in improved allocation of resources through the use of big data, thus increasing sales productivity. Like a number of other retailers, Belk anticipated the benefits from automated scheduling software to be important. Unlike the other retailers who chose an iron hand approach to insist compliance, Belk’s implementation allowed store managers "edit" the system to "fix" the "bugs" in the automated schedules-seeking not to replace labor but rather tell it.
Belk commenced piloting the option in May of 2013 and subsequently escalated the amount of stores running the program over the span of 2013 to 50. Regardless of hints of initial success with the shops running the scheduling option, Bass instantly started to navigate a significant problem with the enactment: over 70% of shifts generated by the system were receiving manual overrides ("edits") by the store managers. Store managers considered the edits were necessary to remain open to local needs-and were, really, productive. Senior executives were doubtful, concerned that edits demonstrated resistance to productive change, and unsure of why Belk had spent so much time and money on an automated system only to possess it is overridden by the stores.
Having deliberately allowed store managers and lead schedulers to override the system, SVP Eric Bass (a retail store veteran who worked his way up to corporate) now needed to understand how and why they were doing this, and be sure that those edits were being made in a constructive manner. Incontention between machine and person, Belk permitted humans to win by design by giving them the right to edit the 'optimized' programs.
PUBLICATION DATE: September 10, 2014 PRODUCT #: 415023-PDF-ENG
This is just an excerpt. This case is about ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Related Case Solutions & Analyses:
Erik Hanssen
Influencing Customer Behavior in Service Operations
JWorldwide: Managing Change in Multi-Governed Environment
Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group
R.R. Donnelley & Sons: The Digital Division
Booz.Allen & Hamilton: Vision 2000
Bruce Allyn: Negotiating with the KGB (B)
Paul Levy: Confronting a Corporate Campaign
Operations Management Assignment
Confronting the Information Age: Strategy, Copyright, and Digital Intellectual Goods
