Search results

Space allocation is usually explained through the use of optimization models. This study examines the perceptions of experienced managers in major UK grocery retailers relating to effective space utilization. From the literature, initial telephone survey and interviews, 48 variables relating to the same issue were identified. These then formed the basis of a questionnaire, which was postally administered to managers within the space planning function in six of the UK’s largest grocery retailers. Thirty completed questionnaires were returned. Principal components analysis was used to explore interrelationships among the variables. Of the 48 variables 18 were identified as most important. The 18 variables accounted for over 80 per cent of the total variance. These variables were associated with six underlying components. These six components (and the associated variable scores) were then examined using structural equation modelling. An SEM model was developed with a combined goodness of fit index of 0.85. The developed model is very different from the relations posited in existing space planning systems.

Shelf space is often retailer's critical resource. Growing number of products has posed a challenge to the retailers for efficient allocation of available shelf space to them. The paper aims to consider a retail shelf space allocation problem with linear profit function and aims to develop efficient heuristics to solve this problem.

The paper develops three heuristics to solve a shelf space allocation problem. It compares three heuristics with existing heuristic using empirical study.

In an empirical study of 320 randomly generated instances of problems with size (products, shelves) varying from (25, 5) to (200, 50), it was found that all three new heuristics are competitive with existing heuristic. The best amongst three heuristics found solution with average objective value of 99.59 percent of upper bound in a reasonable central processing unit time.

The linearity assumption of the profit function is based on earlier findings that marginal returns to space first increase and then decrease in an S‐shaped curve. Hence, linearity assumption for profit function is justified by the fact that retails would want to operate on linear (or approximately linear) and more strongly increasing part of the curve.

The proposed heuristics are applied to a case of existing retail store which gave more profit than the current allocation scheme.

The paper proposes new initial constructor and neighbourhood move strategy to develop efficient heuristic. Heuristics proposed in this paper are competitive with existing heuristics.

Seeks to better understand whether a retailer's trust in a manufacturer is a key concept in their motivation to allocate resources to those manufacturers with whom they have a long‐term relationship compared with economical motivations.

A survey research method is used to study all customers from three large manufacturers in The Netherlands. These retailers had to answer questions about their trust in a manufacturer, the manufacturer's investments in the relationship, and their marketing efforts. Questions were also asked about the allocation of their own scarce resources for the manufacturer, specifically their adoption of in‐store marketing campaigns initiated by the manufacturer. Structural equation models and regression analyses were employed.

Trust is not that important, but the manufacturer's investments in the brand are the most important predictors. However, interaction effects were also found: trust interacts with investments in the brand to influence resource allocations. It was also found that personal contact of salespeople of the manufacturer with managers at store as well as their contact with headquarters had an effect on resource allocation. This is conceived to be an indication that people at headquarters take into consideration how people at the floor level evaluate the brands and their effects on customers when making resource allocation decisions. In other words, retailer chains have complex buying centers.

A large set of customers was analyzed from three different manufacturers, but customers could have been investigated from many manufacturers.

Retailers respond to manufacturers mainly with economic motivations (e.g. what is the value of this brand for my own firm?). However, trust at times interacts with these economic motivations. This means that manufacturers should invest both in the relationship with the retailer and in their brands, if they want to motivate the retailer to allocate scarce resources (e.g. time).

This paper identifies important factors that influence retailer behavior that have not been studied within a fast‐moving retail context.

The aim of this monograph is to identify principles of retail space allocation (RSA), and discuss their role in sales creation. A number of considerations make an understanding of, and ability to apply, these principles more important today than before. Significant amongst these are the domination of multiples in a growing number of retail sectors, the continuing trend towards self‐service, the diminishing number of retail outlets, the pressure on retail margins and shifts in shopper buying behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to develop new model formulation for reducing the workload in pre‐batching at a manufacturer of flavors and fragrances, by optimally assigning ingredients to different storage types, taking into account past usage of ingredients and several restrictions about volumes and number of storage units.

Two models were developed, using mathematical programming, accommodating either fixed or variable shelf settings in vertical carousel storage, along with other varying storage types. The models were validated, yielding a sizeable reduction in workload, and run under varying scenarios of storage additions to reduce workload even further.

For different storage addition scenarios, application of the new model formulation yielded a reduction of 22 percent in workload. In addition, aside from space savings, approximately 40 percent of refill order total waiting time was reduced due to improved allocation.

The authors' analysis was limited by considering direct cost savings only. Yet, reduced workloads in pre‐batching may also yield indirect cost savings, such as reduced quality costs, inventory costs, and investment savings by not having to extend the pre‐batching area. Such considerations may be addressed in future research, provided data on indirect savings are available.

While intuitive storage allocation overloads the pre‐batching department and increases space utilization, suggesting an incorrect perception that more personnel and space are needed, the proposed approach provides a better alternative through optimized allocations.

The present paper adds to the literature on carousel storage location by explicitly addressing the storage sizing issue, as well as workload balancing.

Properly allocating an organization's activities within a building is vital to reducing the relational complexity arising from process–environment interactions. Multiple relationships are mapped, and certain interferences are only identified after these have been processed. The method/software employed for this task is Mapping Activity Environment Allocation (MAEA). However, data input and interpretation of results depend on the usability conditions of the organization's agents. This paper presents MAEA's usability test results.

Test sessions and interviews were carried out with seven agents registered at a University Hospital. Participants were instructed to think aloud during its use, and immediately afterward, responded to semi-structured interviews. Test sessions were audio recorded and screen captured.

Participants found the software easy to use and pointed out valuable implications for professional and academic use. In addition to relationship, priority and parallelism data, customized visualizations were created, including organizational charts, flowcharts and activity flow routes on the floor plan.

MAEA's simplicity allows non-designers to conduct evidence-based assessments and decisions. It allows designers to test their proposals during the programming and outline proposal stages.

A more detailed definition of design requirements from the beginning increases the conditions to successfully achieve project goals.

The ability to map the allocation of activity-spaces in the pre-design phase of building architecture allows for early identification of interactions, aiding in the development of more robust project requirements during programming.

With the constant increasing scale of urban buildings, the contradiction between supply and demand of land use problems is more prominent. Therefore, the multi-objective space optimal allocation of urban land use based on spatial genetic algorithm was proposed in this paper. Firstly, the present situation of the urban land use resources was expounded; in view of the urban land use planning, a spatial genetic algorithm was proposed; then, the urban land was divided into different functional areas, and the land planning and design method was put forward; finally, taking a city's land space planning as an example, the optimal planning and design were carried out to the geological disasters, low hilly land and land overall utilization; by comparing the land use before and after the planning optimization, the advantages of land optimization design were confirmed.

Operations management involves utilizing given resources as efficiently as possible to deliver services to customers and meet business goals. Developing efficient business operations requires a hospitality organization to design efficient service environments, as part of its mission. This chapter articulates the key design and planning strategies for the development of a successful hospitality organization. The first section covers the process of location selection, as the most important factor leading to the success of a hospitality organization. The second section discusses strategies for estimating the number of users (service employees and customers) during peak and idle times to justify a costly financial investment. The third section concerns the readers with the topic of layout planning, with the goal of service optimization for a targeted number of customers. The fourth section deliberates workflow conditions, and finally, the last section addresses the ambience and design of the physical hospitality environment, which is crucial for customer evaluation of a hospitality organization as it creates a first impression.

This paper aims to illustrate the extensive benefits of qualitative data analysis as a rarely undertaken process in post-occupancy evaluation surveys. As a result, there is limited evidence of what occupants say about their buildings, especially for operational parameters, as opposed to how they rate them. While quantitative analyses provide useful information on how workers feel about workplace operational factors, qualitative analyses provide richer information on what aspects of the workplace workers identify as influential to their comfort, well-being and productivity.

The authors analysed 6,938 comments from office buildings worldwide on workers’ perception of workplace operational factors: design, storage, needs, space at desks and storage in their work environments. These factors were analysed based on the buildings’ design intent and use, and the associated comments were coded into positive, negative and balanced comments. The authors used a combination of coding, descriptive analysis, content analysis and word cloud to dissect the comments.

The findings showed that whereas workers rated these operational factors favourably, there were significantly more negative comments about each factor. Also, the Chi-square test showed a significant association (p < 0.01) between the satisfaction scale and the type of comments received for all the operational factors. This means that when a factor is rated high in the satisfaction score (5–7), there were fewer negative and more positive comments and vice versa. The word cloud analysis highlighted vital aspects of the office environment the workers mostly commented on, such as open plan design, natural lighting, space and windows, toilets, facilities, kitchens, meeting room booking systems, storage and furniture.

This study highlights the importance of dissecting building occupants’ comments as integral to building performance monitoring and measurement. These emphasise the richness and value of respondents’ comments and the importance of critically analysing them. A limitation is that only 6,938 comments were viable for analysis because most comments were either incomplete with no meaning or were not provided. This underlines the importance of encouraging respondents to comment and express their feelings in questionnaire surveys. Also, the building use studies questionnaire data set presents extensive opportunities for further analyses of interrelationships between demographics, building characteristics and environmental and operational factors.

The findings from this study can be applied to future projects and facility management to maintain and improve office buildings throughout their life cycle. Also, these findings are essential in predicting the requirements of future workplaces for robust workplace designs and management.

The authors identified specific comments on the performance of workplaces across the globe, showing similarities and differences between sustainable, conventional, commercial and institutional buildings. Specifically, the analysis showed that office workers’ comments do not always corroborate the ratings they give their buildings. There was a significantly higher percentage of negative comments than positive comments despite the high satisfaction scores of the operational factors.

This pilot study for a larger research project aims to quantify and categorise elements of food label information and establishes an indicative physical relationship between mandatory and other information thereby articulating the relative balance between information intended to inform healthy dietary choices and that intended to perform other functions such as aiding purchase decisions.

The methodology employs quantitative content analysis performed on a number of different canned food labels (n=9).

Findings indicate the amount of available space on labels devoted to mandatory information ranged between 17 and 31 per cent, whilst the amount allocated to commercial information ranged between 18 and 45 per cent. Unoccupied space varies between 32 and 54 per cent. This indicates there is an imbalance between mandatory and commercial information, with the weighting in favour of the latter.

The small sample size precludes generalization.

An extended version of this research could influence government and corporate policy in establishing a balance between the prominence given to different categories of label information, favouring that which is more “health positive”. Alternately, information could be presented in a larger format, thereby assisting a wider range of consumers to make healthy and informed dietary choices: both outcomes have positive health implications for the population. Another outcome is the formal classification of label information elements thereby enabling clearer comparisons to be made between consumers' food label interactions.

This is the first time content analysis has been conducted on food labels. The paper is also unique in proposing a formal taxonomy for food label information. It has value for those working on policy issues.