Merchandising — Summary
Across 3 mapped workflows · annualised so different rhythms add up fairly
Opportunities in Merchandising
2 opportunities — every size; the org review only shows the biggest| Impact | Opportunity | Workflow | Kind | Effort | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | Supplier form to product system, no re-keying Full recommendation ▾The supplier already typed every attribute. A build reads the completed form and pre-fills the product system record for approval — double handling becomes a quick check and a click. | New product setup step 2 | Simplify | needs setting up | 30h/yr |
| 26 | Auto-ingest supplier price files Full recommendation ▾Price files already arrive by email and SFTP. A build watches the supplier file exchange and normalises each supplier's known layout into our columns — the weekly reformatting disappears; a person checks the result instead of retyping it. The two suppliers who send PDFs still need a hand until they send spreadsheets. | Supplier price-file processing step 2 | Simplify | needs setting up | 22h/yr |
Workflow by workflow
Click a workflow for its own detailed summary. 1 of 3 not analysed yet — their capacity numbers show as 0 until they are.
| Workflow | Owner | Complete | Steps | Hands-on /run | Runs /yr | Friction | Planned /run | Planned /yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly replenishment orderingWeekly | Merchandise Planner | 100% | 5 | 2.2h | 52 | 2 | — | — |
| New product setupWeekly | Merchandise Planner | 100% | 7 | 2.3h | 52 | 1 | 0m | 0h |
| Supplier price-file processingWeekly | Merchandise Planner | 100% | 7 | 2.6h | 52 | 2 | 0m | 0h |
Top friction points
Across every workflow, worst first — how much a step hurts, multiplied by how long it takes. So a long mildly annoying step can outrank a short painful one.
| Step | Workflow | Who does it | Kind of pain | Hurts | Time | Why it hurts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2Re-key every attribute from the form into the product system | New product setup | Category Assistant | — | badly | 45m | Pure double handling — the supplier already typed all of this |
| 2Fix the layout — every supplier uses a different format, so columns get moved and sizes retyped by hand | Supplier price-file processing | Category Assistant | — | badly | 35m | Same fixes every single week; two suppliers send PDFs |
| 2Flag the lines under three weeks' cover | Weekly replenishment ordering | Merchandise Planner | — | a lot | 40m | The cover targets live in the planner's head, not in the sheet |
| 3Match supplier product codes to our item numbers | Supplier price-file processing | Merchandise Planner | — | a lot | 40m | Lookup table lives in someone's personal spreadsheet |
| 5Retype the confirmed delivery dates into the ERP | Weekly replenishment ordering | Category Assistant | — | badly | 25m | Every supplier confirms in its own format, so each date is keyed by hand |
| 3Chase and resize product images | New product setup | Content Coordinator | — | a bit | 20m | — |
Comms insights
Where the department's time goes: doing work in systems vs moving information between people.
Run “Analyse workflow” on a map to surface glue patterns.