Projects

One example of a project for CVS would be installing Photo Kiosk's. This project consists of several tasks, including: Planning - decide on what machines to use, ensure the software the machines execute to be reliable and efficient, determine if these machines meet our customer expectations, how much will this cost the organization, are the additional machines worth the cost and will revenue pick up to cover the expense etc. Design - where will these machines be most useful, position the machines so customers will have easy access without causing congestion on the floor, logistics, determine how the machines will get to the store etc. Customer - will these machines meet their needs and be user friendly. Staff - will need to train the employees on how to use the machines and how to troubleshoot software issues.
CVS does not make use of either Gantt Charts or Network Diagrams. They run on RxConnect software, a new addition to the organization. However the software causes the system to lag and crash at least once a month. A recommendation would be to update the software and enlarge the data storage size or find a new software that will increase efficiency and be more user friendly for the employees with a larger storage area.

http://www.cvsphoto.com/

Four Dimensions of Quality

1. Quality of Design
CVS/pharmacy follows a standard process to ensure consumer product quality and safety. Before working on this quality of design, CVS launched their research and concluded that their product/service was indeed needed and would succeed. They utilize a third-party company to provide the technical expertise and day-to-day management for quality assurance testing program at all levels from production to use.
The manufacturing of CVS Brand products is contracted through third-party vendors who are required to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. All CVS Brand products are evaluated at least annually and reviewed for their adherence to specifications and performance. Prior to acceptance as a CVS Brand product, potential new store products must demonstrate compliance through rigorous testing with all quality standard requirements as detailed in our Test Requirements protocol. This protocol specifically states animal testing is prohibited. In addition to testing, the supplier must have on file the documentation to substantiate that their products are not tested on animals or use adulterated materials.
All imported consumer products, in the form of final production samples, are tested for quality, safety and performance prior to our purchase.
2. Quality of Conformance
Their product/service conforms and meets the specification of the quality of design. CVS stores are convenient, and a customer can order their prescription and while waiting, could always pick up everyday items they might need.
3. Availability
In the availability aspect of the 4 dimension of quality, CVS does an excellent job. CVS looks for ways to improve their customers’ experience by implementing a quality assurance measure. They measured their stores on a three core performance metrics which each store must meet or exceed. This method is the “Triple S” which factors: Stock, Shop, Service; the goal being providing the right service at the right time in a nice environment while providing exceptional serviced. There are over 7000 CVS/Pharmacy locations. CVS also offers 24-hour of extended-hour service in 72 percent of their locations and 60 percent of their store provide drive-thru pharmacy windows. CVS store design is reliable. And in addition the products they carry tend to be reliable.
4. Field of Service
CVS takes customer service complaints very seriously and conducting testing on products that don’t meet expectations. If discovered unsafe or expired products are removed from the store shelves and there’s an immediate response to product recalls.
All CVS/Pharmacy brand products and all beauty products are 100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. CVS Pharmacy has a hassle-free return policy if for any reason the customer is dissatisfied with their purchase.
They handle any complaints or suggestion on a timely manner in an effort to continue to improve servicing their customers. They have several quality systems in place such as:
* Use a third-party market research firm to continuously measure CVS performance on many factors, including the service dimensions of Triple S (Stock, Shop and Service).
* Solicit opinions and feedback, on a variety of topics, from the 90,000 customers who comprise the CVS Advisory Panel.
* Maintain a customer relations program through which customers can contact CVS via a number of channels. CVS respond to these communications in a timely manner, and monitor and track customer compliments, issues and suggestions so that CVS can continue to improve their overall service.
* Mainstream Quality Systems inlcude:
* Service Quality
* Quality planning, control and improvement
* ISO 9000 Standards
New ideas: Conducting more in depth surveys to better understand their target market and offering incentives to participating customers. Focus more on enhancing the appearance and quality of CVS Brand products to better appeal to consumer.

http://info.cvscaremark.com/our-company/corporate-responsibility/products/product-quality

Quality Control

CVS uses QC charts and six sigma practices as quality control methods. The Pareto Diagrams are used to ensure continuous improvement as they highlight the most important problems. Once identified the major issues can then be addressed and corrected helping to improve the process in place. One way CVS can improve its Six Sigma is by focusing on service. The level of customer satisfaction can be improved by monitoring customer feedback periodically through surveys and various methods of observation, such as check sheets and histograms.

http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/user/home/home.jsp

Assignment 4

Service Process Design

1.The three elements in CVS's Service Product Bundle are as follows:

1• Tangible/Explicit Service - CVS customers see fast, accurate and polite interaction with knowledgeable pharmacists and a friendly front office staff.

2• Intangible/Implicit Service - The intangible services offered at CVS rest upon the customers overall shopping experience. CVS prides itself in providing a safe, comfortable and pleasant experience to all its shoppers by keeping the store appearance clean, answering customer questions/concerns and doing all of this with a smile. CVS creates an environment where the customer feels welcome and secure.

3• Facilitating Goods/Physical Goods - CVS provides quality products to assist their customers whether it's a convenient snack, greeting card, band aids or heart medication. CVS has a superb and updated inventory designated to satisfy their target customer needs.

CVS falls into the Customer Routed cell on the Service Matrix as it offers several varieties of customer products/services from general store items to photo facilities and a world renowned Pharmacy operation. Inventory is designed to attract and satisfy customer demand.

CVS stores because of its retail setup have high customer contact. Customers come in contact with employees as they enter the store. Customer contact certainly occurs during the checkout phase and during the process of refilling or ordering prescription drugs. In addition there is also contact in the case of any inquiries a customer might have and when in needing help in locating a product. Often the pharmacy employees comes in contact with customers when they have questions on an over-the-counter medication.

CVS Photo utilizes self-service. In the CVS retail stores, there is a photo kiosk where customers can insert their camera’s memory stick and order the services they would like such as greeting cards, photo albums, mugs, and posters.

The company uses technology to increase their profits and reach a broader clientele. CVS has a strong online presence through their website. One could not only view and shop for items being sold at the store but could also utilize the ordering and reordering of prescription drugs from their website. They also make available to their customers automated prescription ordering by phone. With a computer software, they are able to keep medical records and history of their customers and their health insurance information.

CVS stores run a focused operations. The three services, general merchandise, prescription drugs, and photo counter, operate separately and run efficiently.

CVS has programs to support their employees in a few ways, in addition to the benefits they receive for working for the company, they are also inspired to work hard by the award programs given out to employees. The Paragon Awards are given out annually to a top associate who strives for excellence throughout the company making an extraordinary effort to help the company as well as their clients. At the corporate level they have something know as the Chairman's Award, this is given out to a member of the corporate office who has also made significant contributions to the company and its clients, the awards are given out each year during the fall.

All CVS/Pharmacy brand products and all beauty products are 100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. CVS Pharmacy has a hassle-free return policy if for any reason the customer is dissatisfied with their purchase. Products can be returned damaged, opened or defective along with the receipt or invoice and the full purchase price will be refunded no questions asked. CVS Pharmacy also offers rainchecks when an item is out of stock. Once the merchandise arrives it’s sold to the customer for the sales price. CVS rainchecks do not expire and they can be used at any CVS location.

The article “What Amazon Fears Most,” talks about two New Jersey men, Marc Lore and Vinit Bharara, and their up and coming internet business Diapers.com. The two men have been lifelong friends and share endless creativity and ideas. Lore and Bharara built up their business by reading about the number one online retailer, Amazon.com. They studied Amazon religiously as well as reading as much as they could on the founder, Jeff Bezos. The men discuss Bezos on the long car ride to their 1,250,000 square foot warehouse and often refer to him as “Sensei Bezos.” By studying Amazon and Bezos, they have now put their company in a position to compete with the online giant. From what started out as a garage operation has turned into one of the fastest growing, most popular companies in the market today. The company success stems from loyal customers who consistently place orders. The company is most popular for selling diapers, which are relatively low margin and offer little return on profit, however, it’s the other little products they offer that generate the revenue. People go on to buy diapers and end up adding a couple other things to their cart as well. Customer loyalty also stems from the fact that any order over $49 gets free two day shipping, which Amazon makes customers pay for. The two men are also very seasoned mathematicians using joint probability and economic order quantity formulas to make decisions on inventory making them more efficient. The biggest reason for the company’s success is a result of focus on specialization and categories. Also, the fact that the company uses robots to move product bundles within the warehouses keep costs low. In addition, they have easy to use websites which allows for customers to quickly navigate the page and pay within minutes. This is good because people don’t have to search around for what they want. It is obvious these two men have the determination and the know how to compete with Amazon, which is what has Amazon so worried. Amazon even constantly checks diapers.com to see their prices and will change the prices on their own website to match them. When asked about this, Lore and Bharara find it kind of comedic and they also had to say, “And if Amazon wanted a diaper war, an all-out price and delivery-time smackdown? "I would like that," said Bharara. "I would definitely take that challenge." In my opinion these two men have all the tools within themselves to have Amazon on edge.

http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/help/help_subtopic_details.jsp?subtopicName=Return+Policy&topicid=300002

Assignment #3

1. CVS as a retailer and pharmacy does not manufacturers its tangible products but acquires them from different venues. Some which use assembly-line flow, such as a bottle water company, and other might use the batch flow, such as a pharmaceutical company. Since a majority of the items CVS sells are not customized and sold at a high volume, the assembly line product flow fits best.
2. CVS uses MTO (make-to-stock) process to fulfill customer needs. The company focuses on inventory management to ensure specific products are ordered and replenished to meet the demand of the customer and improve its service level.
3. Due to the fact that CVS stocks and sells several general items throughout its stores, most products are manufactured using continuous and assembly line product flows and are make-to-stock. This allows CVS to provide faster service to their customers from available stock at lower costs. CVS falls into the Continuous and Assembly Line/Make-to-Stock cell on Table 4.3 the Process Characteristics Matrix (pg 71).
4. Some of the factors influencing the process selection of CVS are the market conditions and cost. More specifically, their target market and economic status of the surrounding areas, and the most cost-efficient process to carry out operations. CVS obviously wants to stock products that customers in the surrounding areas are going to want to purchase. To a certain extent all CVS’s will stock a majority of the same products, however, it is the job of each individual store manager to select and manage the product-process strategy. He bases these choices on incoming customer assumptions as well as using information technology to assess inventory and how much of the items are being sold. From this data, he must decide which process selection is best. CVS’s process selection decision must also take into account the volume and standardization of the products. Most CVS stores stock very little, if any, low volume, highly customized products because they tend to be more unique and appeal to a minority of customers. This is where they have to consider competition, because there is most likely another store people will consider for customized items before thinking of CVS. Instead CVS stocks high volume, standardized products that are easily made and readily available. From this, we can understand why CVS uses the assembly line method for their operation. The assembly line method requires more initial capital but uses relatively inexpensive, low-skilled workers. The last consideration is technology, and it’s really not likely that a new process or product market is going to come along that would make their method obsolete. All of these factors come into play when CVS is deciding on what process is most efficient. In conclusion, the assembly line process is best for CVS because they keep their costs lower and can appeal to a wider variety of customers.
5. Since CVS is a chain of pharmacies, in their stores they sell very general types of products from over-the-counter medicines to stationary items such as notebooks and pens. Since there are such a wide variety of these general items in the store, they do not employ any of the mass customization processes that many larger vendors would use. The products sold at CVS usually come from third party vendors who would produce the items in a large quantity and high volume rather than small batches or a lot size of one. Therefore, since CVS does not manufacture any products, the mass customization methods do not apply to their operation or the industry as well.
http://info.cvscaremark.com/

As the second largest store chain of its kind, it's a wonder how they keep all their inventory up to date and in stock. Are the Corporate offices truly living up to CVS's namesake, "Customer, Value and Service"?
CVS seems to have gone above and beyond simply 'counting items.' Bringing forth new technology and partnerships with successful Logistics and Construction firms WITRON and Stellar Group, CVS has several large distribution centers throughout the United States. Utilizing highly efficient and cost effective systems such as, Assisted Inventory Management (AIM) allows CVS to satisfy customers in a timely manner, while lowering cost and maximizing profit.
AIM is a perpetual inventory program that allows store managers to track suggested orders and any overriding orders from the manager to optimize their replenishment algorithms. AIM will even account for and adjust for seasonal variations of regular merchandise orders. As products sell through, AIM automatically reorders, the orders are sent to a centralized computer then forwarded to the appropriate CVS distribution center. The distribution centers keep track of inventory levels with E3 Trim technology; an inventory forecasting, planning and replenishment system.
This system allows for a smooth supply chain relationship as things are automated and easily accessible. AIM helps CVS optimize it's store-level inventory while decreasing it's out-of-stock percentages. Leftover stock has also seen a decline, specifically during promotional orders. Now instead of having to store an overstock of notebooks after 'back to school' promotions, CVS has just the right amount of items for its customers while allowing space for other inventory in demand. AIM seems to bring the right balance to inventory management as has been seen in CVS's financial reports. During the first few years AIM was rolled out in CVS stores it reduced inventory cost significantly and helped eliminate out-of-stocks in 3,800 CVS pharmacy departments.
What also adds to CVS in store inventory success are the 'loyalty cards' given to customers and swiped at every purchase to track the merchandise being sold. This allows CVS to truly understand what items are selling and at what times allowing them to better forecast the inventory they should have on hand and increase customer satisfaction.
CVS also uses a variety of performance analyses in its data warehouses. They can perform simulations of what would happen if they increased or decreased the price on a particular item, changed advertising presentations, etc.
CVS is constantly thinking 'outside the box' and truly understands how technology is paving the way for a better future in inventory management. They are not afraid to lead the pack and take pride in living up to their namesake. They know what works and are implementing these strategies to improve the organization and take care of their customers.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3374/is_16_21/ai_56754696
http://info.cvscaremark.com/node/699