Operations Management Assessment on Viva Supermarket, UAE 2021-2022 PDF

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Summary

Viva supermarket, which debuted in 2018, is the first in the United Arab Emirates to use the idea of inexpensive supermarkets. The franchise's major purpose is to deliver fresher, cheaper, and better shopping, which it has done by emphasizing simplicity as a key principle. They have grown steadily a...

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OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT ASSESMENT 1: VIVA SUPERMARKET OPERATIONS (INSERT NAME)

TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2 Introduction......................................................................................................................................3 1.1 Current state...........................................................................................................................3 1.2 Future state.............................................................................................................................4 Statement of the Problem.................................................................................................................4 2.1 Congested checkout queues...................................................................................................4 2.2 Inefficient Social Media Presence..........................................................................................5 Project Description..........................................................................................................................6 3.2 Analysis..................................................................................................................................6 3.3 Action Plan.............................................................................................................................7 4.

Recommendations....................................................................................................................8

5.

Conclusion................................................................................................................................8

References........................................................................................................................................9

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Executive Summary Viva supermarket, which debuted in 2018, is the first in the United Arab Emirates to use the idea of inexpensive supermarkets. The franchise's major purpose is to deliver fresher, cheaper, and better shopping, which it has done by emphasizing simplicity as a key principle. They have grown steadily and significantly during the last four years. The researcher monitored the company's activities with the goal to uncover solutions that will increase the business’ efficiency and profitability. During the researcher’s analysis, they discovered two issues that have hindered Viva supermarket’s operations. The long checkout lines and ineffective social media presence. The congested queues have the potential to impair Viva's day-to-day sales since shoppers may decide that the items available aren't worth the wait and just move to another supermarket, resulting in a loss of potential customers. The lack of social media presence of Viva supermarket might result in a loss of potential customers as well as the opportunity to provide loyal customers with a simple method to access the daily deals on their devices. Both problems could create a huge impact to the performance of the company. The researcher has recommended solutions for the following problems namely by implementing self-checkout machines and hiring a social media manager. Self-checkout machines would decrease the long queues at the same time would not increase the expenses for staff of the company while hiring a social media manager would greatly improve the business’ social media pages which would help the consumers notified immediately of the deals and have easy access to the information. The way a company works has a significant influence on its success. Poor operations management will cause them to lose money, acquire disgruntled clients, and perhaps put a firm out of business. With the recommendations of the researcher to improve Viva supermarket’s operations. Viva would operate on its utmost efficiency and effectiveness and also have an increased probability of continuing to grow and expand through out the nation.

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Introduction This study examines the operations management of a specific corporation and evaluates its efficiency, effectiveness, and flaws. This research aims to find solutions to maximize the establishment’s efficiency and profitability. The way a business operates creates a massive impact on its success. Operations management is critical in any corporation since it aids in the efficient management, control, and supervision of products, services, and people. It focuses on ensuring the most efficient control of the resources, manufacturing process, and company activities (Hayes, 2021). The operation of a business is the business; it determines what the firm offers, how it distributes it, and what its values are. An establishment with poor operations management will lead you to lose profits, gain dissatisfied customers, and could mean the end of your business (Hopkin, 2012). The operation management is the business itself. It determines what the firm offers, how it distributes it, and what sets it apart from competitors. Landmark Group has introduced the first-ever budget supermarket chain to the United Arab Emirates, Viva supermarket (Nair, 2021). Launching in the year 2018, Viva supermarket is ever going with already 48 stores nationwide. It utilizes the concepts of other discount supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi and aims to cut the grocery expenses of their consumers (Campbell, 2018). Viva supermarket’s unique operations process enables them to provide groceries and household items at lower rates (RetailME, 2019). The main goal of the franchise is to provide a fresher, cheaper, and better shopping and has accomplished this by putting simplicity as its core value (Viva, 2019). 1.1 Current State Viva Supermarket is currently focusing on supplying essential items handpicked by experienced customers. Each product is made sure to be on par or better than national brands in terms of flavor, quality, and pricing (Viva, 2019). This process has made Viva’s product selection unlike anything else on the market. It prides itself on purchasing directly from smaller manufacturers that offer top-quality products for less, with distinctive labels obtained from all around the world (DubaiShoppingGuide, 2021). This process has enabled them to provide their products to be 25-40% lower than their competitors (RetailME, 2019).

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1.2 Future State Although Viva is new to the U.A.E, they have shown steady and substantial growth in the span of four years. They would further improve their operations using the researcher’s recommendations and lead the organization to continue their success. It would give Viva supermarket the opportunity to provide their services to more people and open more franchises across the nation in the future. Viva supermarket would have shorter checkout queues because of the researcher’s recommendation of implementing a self-checkout in each store. This would provide the customers with faster service, lessen line congestion, and improve their overall customer experience. The supermarket would also have a better social media engagement by following the researcher’s recommendation of improving their social media presence. The customers would have easier access to the store’s daily deals and offers and notified of available promos so that they would not miss a single deal. It will help Viva to attract new potential customers with their lucrative deals and provide existing customers the convenience of being updated of every deal available for that day or week. Statement of the problem Viva supermarket has been in operation for four successful years. However, because they have only been in operation for a short period of time compared to its competitors, there are still aspects the company could significantly improve to optimize its operations, such as their congested checkout queues and inefficient social media presence. If these concerns are not addressed, they may have an influence on Viva supermarkets' performance, sales, and customer. 2.1 Congested Checkout Queues To boost cost efficiency, they have a multitasking and well-trained crew, but staff is maintained to a minimum, resulting in a limited number of cashiers. Because there are just a few cashiers, there are usually large lineups. The researcher has observed that in Viva in their area has 1-3 workers. Although, there are two cash registrars available in the store, only one is being utilized while the other staff occasionally spotted delivering groceries and stacking shelves. Even though the P a g e 4 | 10

corporation is saving on their salaries expense, having only one person do the cash registrar has made queues in the store quite long which hinders the other shoppers because the line is taking up huge space in the store. The weighing of fresh produce is also done in the cash registrar and customers also bag their own groceries, which adds to the overall length of the checkout process. This can affect the customer experience of those in line because they would not only have to endure a long line but also a slow process, which is especially frustrating if they were only to buy a few items. If a line looks to be excessively long most consumers will return their items and walk out the door. In fact, "too-long" lineups are the second most prevalent consumer complaint against shops (Strange, 2012). This could pose a problem to Viva’s day-to-day sales because consumers might deem the products available not worth the wait and simply go to another supermarket resulting in loss of potential customers. 2.2 Inefficient Social Media Presence Everything is digital nowadays and people rely on getting news of discounts and sales online. Viva has not been successfully utilizing social media to make their discounts and offerings easily accessible online. The researcher found that Viva has a pre-existing Facebook page but lacks the engagement and had a lot of negative feedback with comments pertaining to its infrequent posts and lack of information that the customers are looking for. It had unengaging posts and picture posted are not of quality, which has rendered the page ineffective. Consumers are constantly seeking for ways to save money and prefer to shop at businesses that provide the greatest discounts. According to the poll, two-thirds of shoppers have "made a purchase they weren't planned to make purely based on seeing a coupon or discount." Similarly, four out of five (80%) indicated they are inspired to make a first-time buy with a new company if they find an offer or discount (Roesler, 2018). Viva has not been promoting their deals online which could result in a loss of potential customers and lose the opportunity to provide loyal customers to view the daily deals easily on their devices.

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Project Description Through the thorough observation of the researcher, they were able to determine two flaws of the current operations of Viva Supermarket that could be resolved and further enhanced to ensure that the business is operating to its utmost efficiency and effectiveness. 

Congested checkout queues: this issue may result in displeased consumers, pressured workers, and congestion inside the store which could inconvenience other shoppers.



Inefficient Social Media Presence: the pre-existing social media page of the organization is underutilized and is not updated on a regular basis. This has become a missed opportunity for Viva to provide more convenience and appeal to new consumers.

3.1 Analysis The researcher utilized the 5 performance objectives as the analysis tool for this study. Performance Objectives are effective tools for staying focused, achieving goals, and achieving success which enables the businesses to plan, coordinate, and execute to attain a certain outcome (UpskillCoach, 2020).  Quality: refers to a business’ ability to fulfill consumer expectations consistently. Viva adheres to high quality standards for their handpicked items. They ensure to track the shipping of their products and are quality and temperature checked so that consumers always have fresh and quality groceries (Viva, 2019).

 Speed: refers to how fast the consumer receives a product or service. Viva has been lacking on its speed aspect. Since they also do not have an assigned bagger, the customer does it themselves. They do the weighing of produce and checkout of groceries in one place, although very efficient, increases the wait time.

 Dependability:

refers to the business’ ability to follow through on its

promises and obligations. Viva has stayed true to its mission, which is to provide, fresher, cheaper, and better groceries. Consumers have been satisfied with their fresh items, considerably, affordable items, and better by handpicking the best product P a g e 6 | 10

range, clean and spacious stores, and conveniently placed store locations (Viva, 2019)

 Flexibility: refers to the capacity to modify operations in response to changes. Viva has been able to adapt to the pandemic and has placed strict guidelines to ensure their customers health and safety, but they have not fully adapted to the digital times and have not provided their consumers with convenient easy access of their daily deals online.  Cost: refers to the price the business is offering to their customers for their services or products. As a discount supermarket, Viva has incredible prices which have provided their customers 25-40% lower groceries compared to other competitor supermarkets.

(Garvey, 2021, Upskill Coach, 2021)

3.2 Action Plan

Goals Tasks

Responsible person Estimated time duration

Implement Self-Checkout

Improve Social Media

Find a supplier that will supply the self-

presence Find a social media manager to

machines and place it in the Viva

manage Viva supermarket’s

supermarkets.

social media pages.

A Supplier is the responsible person for

A Social Media Manager is the

this task.

responsible person for this task.

Depending on how fast the supplier can

Once the social media manager

deliver the machines, it could take a

is hired, the improvement of

week to two months to supply all the 48

their social media pages should

stores with the self-checkout machines

improve in two weeks and their

Estimated budget Self-checkout machines usually cost from 1k to 3k Dhs.

engagement from 1-4 months. The average cost of a social media manger in the U.A.E is 4.5k Dhs.

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Recommendations A) Congested checkout queues The congested checkout queues would lead to longer wait times and lessen the customer satisfaction. According to the researcher’s findings, this could easily be remedied by implementing self-checkout. When confronted with a long line, the 65% of US supermarket customers will opt for the self-service lane (King, 2018). Since Viva maintains their prices by lowering cost as much as possible, increasing staff would be an ongoing increase in their expense while purchasing the self-checkout machines would be a one-time purchase. B) Inefficient Social Media Presence The inefficient social media is a missed opportunity to provide better convenience to their consumers and potential customers. The researcher recommends hiring a social media manager to manage Viva’s social media pages and improve its presence and quality. To notify customers of the deals daily and provide readable and informational posts. Conclusion Viva supermarket has been successful due to its one-of-a-kind operations. They have been a major success among most households due to their low costs and high-quality merchandise. The researcher was able to identify two factors that the supermarket may enhance to optimize its operations. These two issues are congested checkout queues and inefficient social media presence. Following the researcher's analysis, they have produced suggestions and an action plan to address these issues, and they anticipate that the Viva supermarket will continue to prosper in the future.

References Campbell, S., 2018. UAE's first discount supermarket chain Viva opens in Dubai. [online] Timeout Dubai. Available at: [Accessed 10 October 2021]. DubaiShoppingGuide, 2021. Viva, UAE's First Discounter Supermarket, Opening Soon At Times Square Center | Dubai Shopping Guide. [online] Dubai Shopping Guide. Available at: [Accessed 16 October 2021]. Garvey, J. (2019). What Are the Five Business Performance Objectives? [online] www.peoplegoal.com. Available at: https://www.peoplegoal.com/blog/what-are-the-fiveperformance-objectives> [Accessed 25 October 2021]. Hayes, A., 2021. How Operations Management (OM) Works. [online] Investopedia. Available at: [Accessed 10 October 2021]. Hopkin, M., 2012. The impact of poor leadership in an organization. [online] Lead on Purpose. Available at: [Accessed 8 October 2021]. King, J. (2018). Here’s What Long Checkout Lines Mean for Grocery Sales. [online] eMarketer. Available at: https://www.emarketer.com/content/here-s-what-long-checkoutlines-mean-for-grocery-sales [Accessed 25 Oct. 2021]. Nair, M., 2021. Landmark group enters UAE supermarket sector with Viva. [online] Gulfnews.com. Available at: [Accessed 10 October 2021]. RetailME, 2019. Landmark Group opens 16th VIVA store in UAE. [online] Future of retail business in Middle East. Available at: [Accessed 16 October 2021]. Roesler, P. (2018). New Study Shows Deals and Promotions Affect Every Part of Shopping Experience. [online] Inc.com. Available at: https://www.inc.com/peter-roesler/newstudy-shows-deals-promotions-affect-every-part-of-shopping-experience.html [Accessed 25 Oct. 2021]. Strange, R. (2012). How long will retail customers wait (and what you can do to help)? [online] www.irisys.net. Available at: https://www.irisys.net/blog/how-long-will-retailcustomers-wait-and-what-you-can-do-to-help [Accessed 25 Oct. 2021]. UpskillCoach (2020). The Top 5 Performance Objectives (And Why You Need To Know Them). [online] Upskill Coach. Available at: https://upskillcoach.com/blog/the-top-5performance-objectives/ [Accessed 25 Oct. 2021]. Viva, 2019. About Us | VIVA Store | Supermarkets in Dubai. [online] Viva. Available at: [Accessed 16 October 2021].

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