A Novel Model for Benchmarking the Performance of Retail Stores for Retail Operations using Lean Manufacturing Approach

Abstract

In the present study, lean manufacturing approach has been utilized to measure and benchmark the efficiency of retail services at five different store branches belonging to the same hypermarket and supermarket retail firm at three distinct cities in United Arab Emirates. The study was conducted at three different time intervals by applying the notion of takt time and cycle time in lean manufacturing and retail stores efficiencies have been estimated. The results of the study indicated that the performance of several retail cashiers in most of the stores under study was sub – optimal while the others were inefficient, suggesting the potential for improvement which requires a managerial intervention. Therefore, a new benchmark approach were deduced for possible decrease in resources which utilized in the morning time period to lead to a significant possible savings and waste reduction