SALT LAKE CITY -- Associated Food Stores here this week is moving ahead with plans to develop a data warehouse system and implement an advanced category management system.
During the past eight months, the wholesaler has been working on determining the power and storage capacity needed for the system; the reports and analysis it wants to receive, and how the data, currently stored on multiple, disparate systems, would be extracted and loaded into the data warehouse.
The category management system, combined with a purchasing and inventory system implemented earlier this year and a program to rationalize stockkeeping units, should help the wholesaler reduce inventory across its warehouses by 10% to 15% and at retail by 5% within a year, said Gary Angell, director of category management.
Currently, Associated Food Stores has commitments from five of its independent retailers to work with the wholesaler on the project and access the category plans.
Angell said one of the big advantages of the data warehouse is its ability to allow the user to inquire about sales for a promotion based on variables such as specific timeframes or for various regions in the country, and get the answer within seconds, thereby allowing for fact-based decisions that are more consumer-driven.
For instance, a category manager could query the database with a highly specific question such as, "How much of a 12-pack tissue did I sell in this store or group of stores, on this type of promotion, during this time period?" Angell said.
"I can compare the data with any other time period, the productivity of the item in dollar sales or margin or any other financial metric we want," he added.
Previously, only standard monthly sales reports were generated off a mainframe and did not provide this detailed data.
Angell added that the system also builds category plans very quickly and incorporates market-level data and consumer demographics, which helps in making decisions with category plans.
Angell said it will take about five months to set up the data warehouse and get the category management system to begin producing the reports and analyses identified in its study phase.
The category management applications are built using a combination of the DSS Agent products from Microstrategy, Vienna, Va., and Catman-Do!, a category management specific data model from Strategic Decisions, Cincinnati.
This system would also be tied into Associated's space management system from Intactix, Irving, Texas.
