A national car parts retailer operating over 3,000 stores throughout North America required the support of RGIS. Having conducted numerous inventories over a period of years, RGIS has a long and productive relationship with the retailer.

REQUIREMENTS
The national car parts retailer wanted to increase operational efficiency and introduce greater performance insight, so decided to introduce a centralised planning solution that could accommodate global, regional and store-specific space planning. The retailer required RGIS to provide the following:

• Support the creation of accurate and detailed multi-dimensional company-wide and individual store layouts
• Centralised planning would have to include fixture-level specification
• Centralising operations would also need to include data collection
• The new solution would have to integrate with the retailer's existing systems and software 

SOLUTION
Having worked alongside the national car parts retailer for many years completing inventories, RGIS was able to tailor a comprehensive solution that met the wide-ranging requirements. The solution defined included SmartSpace®, a fully-integrated, turnkey suite of macro space planning solution that included:

• Category space allocation to ensure that each category had appropriate assignment in proportion and location
• Product line space allocation provided additional detail and planning insight
• Planogram assignment and adjacency control with SmartSpace® built highly-detailed 3D store layouts which enabled visualisation and placement strategy
• Product flow and placement allowed the retailer and RGIS to plan the customer experience
• Workflows were defined to support collaboration across multiple departments and locations  

RESULTS
The national car parts retailer found by outsourcing the centralised space planning solution project to RGIS, the following results were achieved:

• Immediate increased profitability from segmented store-level insight. Based on this insight, these stores could be managed uniformly by applying success identified in one to others in the cluster
• The solution supported all stated requirements from the customer
• Compressed response time introduced by SmartSpace® meant opportunities were recognised and pursued with greater speed and precision
• Centralising operations included data collection and analysis, which enabled the retailer to analyse and report micro and macro trends to best exploit any identified opportunities
• Workflows were defined which enabled buy-in from various departments that could appreciate the coordinated and integrated approach that supported both division and corporate success
• Enhanced performance reporting by zone, store, cluster, location, adjacency, and/or fixture allowed immediate access to performance insights, so the retailer was able to directly respond to opportunities, increasing revenue and reducing costs
• Definition of key metrics and creation of detailed reporting allowed plans to be improved based on new learnings, seasonal and promotional requirements, also local and global successes