ADDENDUM D

Team Output Examples

Are you ready to give the Co-Create model a try in your organization? Here are a few more examples you can refer to as you go through the phases of the model. I have changed the names of people involved and left out a few proprietary details, but have otherwise left the examples unchanged.

Phase 1—Whitepaper

Merchandising Structure Project

Purpose

To create a merchandising department structure that will lead customers at an increasing rate to perceive Hubert’s assortment as unique and highly valued. This assortment will contribute to improving Hubert’s strategic differentiation and result in faster sales and profit growth.

Situation Summary

The structure of the merchandising department has been re-evaluated twice in the last seven years. It was first reviewed in 2001, nearly seven years ago, when purchasing was separated from the department. This change allowed merchandising to become more product-focused and concentrate on the developmental aspect of the job. It was again reviewed in 2004, when the analysts were moved to marketing information services department (MKIS), further removing the transactional tasks from the developmental side of the business. Since that time, factors within the world, the foodservice market, and internal Hubert have changed considerably causing modifications in job responsibilities of each role. As business continues to get more complex it is necessary to regularly evaluate the model in order to meet the changing demands of the environment and remain competitive in the market.

Hubert’s product development process has evolved significantly over the past three years. In the past Hubert was strictly a distributor and was not involved in decisions typically made by manufacturers. Merchandisers relied on manufacturers for most product development work and specification. With the growth of importing and the opportunity to have products manufactured exclusively for Hubert, merchandisers are now sourcing more like manufacturers. They are forced to not only pick winning products but creating product specifications and managing quality earlier in the developmental cycle. These tasks take more time and require new expertise for merchandising and the company.

Concurrent with these developments content management system (CMS) activities have become a larger percentage of the product manager’s position. The result is this position has become more transactional. Merchandising has always had transactional activities, but many have moved in the last five years to other departments. CMS is the one transactional task that has expanded in this timeframe. If past experience is an indication it appears activity supporting CMS would be more productive if it were managed centrally. Today it is de-centralized overseen by individual merchandise managers.

This change in product manager responsibilities has caused a succession planning problem. Developmental tasks supporting product development and management have been de-emphasized. Proficiency in transactional work has been valued. The result is the product manager position is manned by individuals who are practicing skills that are not preparing them for the next position, merchandise manager. That position is primarily strategic and developmental.

At this point it does not appear the existing product managers have the skills, and aptitude for the merchandise manager position.

Four of Hubert’s five merchandisers are the original group that came to the company when the department was formed. Their contribution has been a key driver of Hubert’s success the last 20 years. Throughout their careers they have acquired valuable knowledge and expertise regarding markets, competitors, vendors, importing procedures, and product knowledge. This expertise has proven to be critical in developing the product assortment.

One, or more, of the merchandise managers are within five years of possible retirement. It is imperative Hubert has employees identified and trained to potentially take over for these individuals.

Looking into the future of Hubert, merchandising must be positioned to continue to add value to Hubert by increasing the uniqueness and value of Hubert’s assortment. The number of pages and products a merchandiser will be expected to manage is projected to increase substantially over the next three years. In 2008, there will be 48 pages added to the Source Book, GR Retail Resource, and German Book during the same catalog drop. This trend is expected to continue over the following two years, adding more pages each year. The second brand may also impact the workload of the department.

Given the changes in the market, manufacturing environment, lack of individuals ready to step into the merchandiser position, and projected workload in the next three years we need to review the structure and better prepare the department for the future.

Scope

This project will focus on the structure in the merchandising department and will consider and realign roles and responsibilities based on what we know about current and future expectations for department contributions to the business. The team will complete and implement a recruitment strategy and plan and personnel training materials for any new positions developed.

Process

AH will be the project sponsor. The project will focus on defining and planning the merchandising department reorganization, as it functions today. A team will be assembled that will include AH, PC, LVS, DL, CM, and GH. Steve Martin will facilitate the meetings. Others may be asked to participate when specific issues need to be addressed.

The team will meet once a week beginning January 2008. The plan for new roles and responsibilities will be identified by April 1. Recruiting process to take place April—September. The new structure will be in place by December 1, 2008.

Issues to Be Addressed

Outcome

The final outcome of this project will be an aligned department organizational structure that will position merchandising for the future. As a part of this project, the team will flesh out and define any new position descriptions, roles, and responsibilities, and key processes needed to support the strategy and new positions. The new department structure should be fully operational by December 1, 2008.

Phase 1—Team Development—Forming Example

Rules for engagement

Phase 2—Discovery Checklist of Tasks Completed

Phase 3—Co-Create Example

Merchandising Re-Organization Project

New Position Descriptions—Input

February 7, 2008

Merchandise Manager

Responsibilities/Tasks

Category Manager

Responsibilities/Tasks

Transactional Position (title TBD)

Responsibilities/Tasks

End of Phase 3 and beginning of Phase 4 Example—this is the content from a PowerPoint Presentation from a meeting with all the stakeholders.

Merchandising Department Restructure

Agenda

Review White Paper

CPI Process

Introduce New Structure

Department Positions

Hiring and Interview Process

Going Forward

Phase 3 Co-Create the Ideal Examples

Phase 1—Defining Example—Nonstock White Paper

Revised 2-1-08

Purpose

Develop a streamlined process to enhance the customer experience by improving response time and providing visibility for this category of business.

Situation Summary

Nonstocks originate from customer requests for products not carried in Hubert’s current assortment. Nonstocks are a value-added service that, when done well, provide a competitive advantage for the company. It is believed that providing this service enhances customer relationships and generates additional business.

Requests range from a different color of an item we currently carry, to requests for customized products and occasionally for product lines that Hubert does not carry, for example cash registers and flooring material. Requests can be for replacement parts, forwarded from the sourcing agent to a buyer to complete, a request for a one-time purchase of an item that becomes an SO.#, or an ongoing purchase for a customer program, which becomes a five-digit “S” item. Owing to the wide scope of products that are requested, getting complete information is a challenge and creates additional communication between purchasing, the vendor, sales, and the customer.

Guidelines have been established to address qualifications required when initiating the nonstock request. The guidelines and requirements have created confusion regarding reorders, discontinued products, assigned versus unassigned accounts, required GP, minimum cost, and so on. In 2006, 5 percent of the nonstocks received did not meet the required guidelines.

Nonstocks are submitted in Outlook via e-mail, generated by Account Services Reps, Account Development ManagersASRs, ADMs, and Inbound Call Center. There is no direct link between the information provided on the nonstock form and what is entered into the T500. If the item is converted to a five-digit “S,” all the information that was provided on the nonstock has to be entered into the system. The buyer has to find the original information or contact the vendor again. This creates duplicate work that equals inefficiency. The tracking process is currently a cumbersome manual process and there is no way to capture which nonstocks are converted into actual orders.

Sourcing agents experience frustration due to the amount of non-stocks received, inadequate information provided, requests to add a new vendor for one item, and requests that do not meet the guidelines and requirements. There is also concern expressed regarding the prioritization of nonstocks versus cost negotiation, rebate collection, alternate sourcing, and building vendor relationships in order to increase the profitability of the company.

Sales experiences frustration due to a lack of understanding of vendor response time, and the amount of information needed to complete a non-stock. Response time from the sourcing agent for a nonassortment item that exists in a current vendor line is three business days. Customer perception is that it takes too long to get an answer, even though 61 percent of requests were returned within 24 hours, and an additional 14 percent within two to three days. Response for a “custom” item, or an item that has to be sourced from a supplier not currently a Hubert vendor is seven business days. Custom nonstocks involve additional customer “proofing” steps, and sometimes include coordinating artwork design. Currently all nonstocks are completed by the three sourcing agents. Requests for replacement parts are forwarded onto the buyers. The volume of non-stocks initiated, the time frames established for response time, and customer expectations creates frustration for both sales and purchasing.

Direct contact between sales and customers with the vendors can occur if more detailed information is needed when working on custom quotes. It is necessary for the sourcing agent to initiate the contact, document any changes made to the original request, and maintain art and proof approval until project completion. In some instances calls are made to vendors without purchasing involvement. The result is confusion relating to price, lead times, minimum required quantity purchases, discounts, and proof approval.

Recap of Nonstocks

All nonstocks received in 2006 were reviewed in order to compile data by top three, top 20, and “All Other” customers. “All Other” may include top three and top 20 accounts if the name on the nonstock did not clearly identify that customer as fitting in to one of those groups. This detailed information was compiled manually and is not available for previous years. Some nonstocks have more than one item per from which accounts for the discrepancy between new items set up and nonstocks received.

2006 Nonstock Sourcing

2006 Nonstock recap	Total	Top xxx	Top xxx	All other
Nonstocks received	3,389	955	570	1,864
% of Nonstocks		28%	17%	55%
Total new items set up	4,753
SO.#	4,171
5 digit “S”	582
Items with sales	2,112
Items with no activity	2,641

There were 892 received out of the total classified as “No Quotes.” These are nonstocks received that did not meet the guidelines (187) or having no source available (577) and returned to sales for clarification and not received back (128). The “No Quotes” account for 26 percent of total nonstocks received. Over half, 56 percent of new “S” and SO# items set up had no sales activity.

Total Company Sales GP% vs. S/SO Sales GP%

	2006 sales	%	Margin	GP	%
Total co.	$xxx		xxx%	$xxx
S & SO	$xxx	xxx%	xxx%	$xxx	xxx%

	2005 sales	%	Margin	GP	%
Total co.	$xxx		xxx%	$xxx
S & SO	$xxx	xxx%	xxx%	$xxx	xxx%

	2004 sales	%	Margin	GP	%
Total co.	$xxx		xxx%	$xxx
S & SO	$xxx	xxx%	xxx%	$xxx	xxx%

Cost Benefit—2006 S and SO# Sales and Profitability

	2006 sales $	% of total	2006 GP $	% of total	2006 ABC costing
Set up in 2006 S & SO	$xxx	xxx%	$xxx	xxx%
Set up prior to 2006 S & SO	$xxx	xxx%	$xxx	xxx%
Total	$xxx	xxx%	$xxx	xxx%	$xxx

The total cost, $xxx, based on SO cost object, included sales and warehouse costs and accounted for 21,000 lines. The purchasing departments portion of the total ABC costing in 2006 for nonstocks was $xxx. Sales cost for the same period was $xxx. S/SO business profitability is $xxx.

Objectives

Implement one process/program where nonstock requests are submitted, SO.#’s are entered and converted, conversion rate is tracked, and sales and GP dollars are available to measure the profitability of nonstocks as a value-added service.

Process

A cross-functional team will be selected to complete this project. Team members from purchasing will include TB, MM, and JH. Representatives from sales will be CK, KS, MEG, and ST. DS will join us from information systems. As specific issues surface, other departments (i.e., merchandising) may be asked to participate.

The CPI process will be facilitated by Steve Martin. MR and DT are the project sponsors.

Outcome

Increase the response rate of nonstocks returned within 24 hours.

Decrease ABC cost per nonstock by reducing duplicate steps now required by sales and purchasing. A higher conversion rate based on quicker response time would result in increased sales.

Phase 3—Co-Create the Ideal Example

Working title—nonstock specialist responsibilities

Dimensions: (Note—We Need to Do a Priority Matrix)

Requirements

Desirables

Lead nonstock specialist—includes the above responsibilities, dimensions, requirements, and desirables plus…

Responsibilities

Dimensions

Staffing Recommendation—Outline

Phase 4—Implementation Planning Example

Formal Request for Nonstock Department Resources

Background

In early 2008, a cross-functional group formed a CPI team to develop a streamlined process to enhance the customer experience related to sourcing of nonassortment products. The need was exposed during the TAKKT customer survey in 2006 as a revenue opportunity that fell within the hidden opportunity quadrant for customer retention for top 20 and new customers. This will be achieved through improving response time and providing visibility for this category of business.

Process

Cross-functional team members were assembled to take on the task of discovering the best process to achieve these goals. Purchasing representation included TB, MM and JH. KS, CK, MEG and ST provide the representation for sales, rounded out by DS from IS and Steve Martin as the project facilitator. The nine objectives of this project were as follows:

Discovery

Through comprehensive analysis of the current nonassortment sourcing processes, it was apparent that we are not currently meeting the needs of both internal and external customers. It was also recognized that our three sourcing agents were spending 80 percent of their time working nonassortment requests. Nonassortment products accounted for over $xxx in profitability for fiscal year 2006. A total of 3,389 nonstocks were requested by customers in 2006. Of these 45 percent were for our top 20 customers and the remaining were for all other customers. At the same time, about 50 percent of the total nonassortment products that were set up were ordered, a percentage that can be improved through timely conversion of requests to orders.

Response time was recognized as another shortcoming of the current process. Hubert currently has sourcing listed as one of the links on the value chain, yet a little less than 40 percent of our customer’s requests take over 24 hours to resolve. We recognize that this process needs to be faster and a standard will be put into place based on benchmarking data that we are currently acquiring. Frustration also exists on an internal level due to incomplete information which requires rework, too many people involved in the process, and finally, a lack of transparency of the status of requests.

Recommendation

The group has come up with the following recommendation: The non-assortment sourcing function at Hubert needs to be confined to its own department and that functional responsibility needs to live within the customer services area of sales. The responsibilities of this position will include the development of customer relations, market and product knowledge, customer service, the development and maintenance of vendor relationships, maintenance, and analysis of system information, the management of nonassortment profitability and finally, adherence to cultural expectations. In addition, a lead will need to be in place to manage and mentor the front line staff, manage processes, and manage special projects. In addition, this will be a working lead, managing all other aspects of the job as the frontline position.

Some of the reasons that this position will report to sales are as follows. The nonstock position will have direct contact with the customer. This will allow many steps of the current process to be eliminated, since they will be speaking with the end user. As a customer facing position, this position will develop extensive customer knowledge in addition to the product knowledge that they offer, allowing us to manage profitability better than we are today. We will also be able to better manage how these processes impact the customer and react in a more timely and customer-centric way.

To handle this, we are requesting three frontline positions, starting in January 2009 along with a department lead. These positions will be managed as a separate department and report to GH. We would also like to have the option of adding an additional frontline position in July, based on the impact that we see in the first six months of this department. At that time, we would consider expanding the nonassortment program to customers outside of our assigned markets and reassess current guidelines to open up more revenue-generating opportunities for Hubert, as long as they meet our profitability objectives.

Outcome

Training Plan with Execution Details—New SOS Department and Special Order Agents

17-Dec-08

Training topic	Learning objectives	How	Trainer/Resource
Guidelines—sales and SOS	Gain an overall understanding of the guidelines including decision-making criteria—clear roles and responsibilities of each department. Additionally this will cover pricing, calculating GP profitability.	Guideline documents supported by training—broken down by functional areas—SOS, developers, ASR’s remaining customer Op’s, purchasing, merchandising—overview only—accounting, marketing, DC mgmt.	SOS department manager, ASR’s—Sherri, developers—KS and CK customer Op’s-ME, RR, CM., purchasing/ merchandising—JH MM, TB
Review old and new process	Review for understanding—emphasizing change of roles, benefits of new process, strategy implication—selling more stuff to existing customers.	Same as guidelines	Same as guidelines
New software	SOS—cover the mechanic’s—how it works, security, linkage to the guidelines. All other departments will need to know how to search and enter a nonstock.	SOS—hands-on training with software using training scenario’s—use PC Lab—can use the actual system and wipe out the training material. Inbound, ASR’s, developers, purchasing departments will need hands-on training—tutorial being developed.	A person will be assigned in the SOS department—will be supported by Sri for the rollout. Ronda Russell will support the training design and other departments. Robb creating tutorial.
How to price for contract customers	Understand, in detail, customer-specific deals—as well as product segment pricing goals.	Documents will need to be developed describing the deals for SOS use. This should be organized in a standard way.	Developers and ASR’s

Training topic	Time required	To do’s
Guidelines—sales and SOS	SOS—One day, other departments covered in a two-hour meeting	1. Finish guidelines—GH, 2. Sign off with MR—complete, 3. Training materials developed by department—GH
Review old and new process	Covered in guideline meeting
New software	SOS TBD, all other departments covered in the two-hour meeting outlined above.
How to price for contract customers	Covered in guideline meeting—see above	KS and CK gathering the information and create a template for use across multiple customers—complete

Training topic	Learning objectives	How	Trainer/Resource
Product knowledge	Generalist knowledge for all—expert knowledge for SOS agent specialty	Generalist knowledge will be gained, building on their current product knowledge, by attending vendor fairs, catalog cram, and regular product trainings. Expert knowledge will be gained by partnering with merchandising to do the regular product training and catalog crams, being involved on vendor meetings and visits, meetings with merchandise and category managers.	Merchandise and category managers
Time management	TBD
Sales T500	Order entry, order detail, and look up	Modified version of Customer Op Program	RR
Negotiating skills	Understand the stakeholder model and the interests of the various parties	Business tools training—ASR Program	RB
CSE	Establish customer interaction skills—train all the basic Carew models	Existing program for those who need it	RM
Autoquotes	Develop basic skills in using the software—use of catalog and setting up spreadsheets	Morning sessions—cover content—afternoon application exercises—training material available on Autoquote website	Special agent JH
Vendor visits	Develop relationships, understand capabilities, new products, current issues, and so on.	Will be involved when vendor visits Hubert—agents could go on visits to the vendor	Sourcing agents will notify, merchandise managers as well—coordinated with SOS manager

Training topic	Time required	To do’s
Product knowledge	Ongoing	GH to meet with PC to see if she supports the ideas—complete. Greg will get additional input from the merchandise managers. Will get started after Cram
Time management
Sales T500	TBD	ME—talk to RR and figure out the modified version—complete
Negotiating skills	One hour	Schedule when ready
CSE		SM—get dates for GH—na
Autoquotes	Two days	JH—download the training materials—when ready set up a meeting with Steve to design program—complete
Vendor visits	?	GH—review with KK and PC—complete

Training topic	Time required	To do’s
Vendor interaction—guidelines, pricing structures, order cycle times, lead-times	Two hours	GH—review with KK—complete
T500—item setup, assigning DCS codes, inquiries, vendor contacts, finding freight factors	Four hours	JH—review the existing training material and figure out a specific plan—complete
Vendor strategy/knowledge—who does what—preferred vendors	TBD
ACD phone training	One hour