1
Introduction
Archer Beauty is a locally owned beauty supply store in Gainesville, FL that provides a wide
range of products such as hair, chemicals, shoes, cosmetics, and electronic hair appliances that
other local competitors might not offer. There are a total of six employees along with two general
managers. The main issues Archer Beauty seeks to improve deal with inventory control, and
product layout. Currently, employees are checking inventory by hand, and product placements in
the store have customers constantly asking for product location. The storage room is also
unorganized without shelving systems.
The purpose of this project is to do the following: 1) create an inventory management database,
2) redesign the storage unit, 3) create aisle signs for product location, 4) reorganize the
product layout, and 5) redesign the floor area to better utilize space. These goals will
help reduce labor hours on checking inventory, minimize the reorder time, and create
better flow to meet customers’ needs.
Current Floor Layout
The floor layout was measured to be approximately 100’ x 70’. The following figure
illustrates the current store layout.
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3
Excess Inventory
Excess inventory takes up floor
space, which creates congestion
along the aisles and blocks walking
paths. Management has to limit
orders, or find a better way to store
this excess inventory.
Storage Layout
There is no organizational system in the
storage room. Synthetic and human hairs,
along with returned and damaged goods, as
well as excess inventory, are placed in this
room. Boxes are stacked on top of each other
without any shelving systems. Potentially,
they can fall down causing injury to the
employees.
Aisle Signs
The picture above shows the current aisle signs. The chemical products in these aisles are organized
according to brand type. About 250 customers enter the store everyday. Of those customers, an
average of 50, about 20% of customers, ask for product location. This is mostly due to the current
aisle numbering system. Each aisle is organized by brand. The aisles numbered one through ten,
however, no brand information is provided with the number. Better groupings in this area and
written product information can eliminate this problem and create a smoother customer flow.
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Methodology
SWOT Analysis
In order to determine the objectives for this project, interviews were conducted to get a
better insight on Archer Beauty’s internal problems. After collecting feedback from the
employees, a SWOT analysis was used to group the inputs together in specific categories
of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The following was a list of
questions asked to the employees.
Interview Questions
1) What are the strengths of your beauty store?
2) What are you satisfied and dissatisfied with your job?
3) What can be improved on the current layout?
4) What are some solutions you suggest to fix the problems?
5) What can be done to make it more convenient for customers?
6) Other ideas and comments?
Structured Estimating
This method was used to estimate the time for job activities at Archer Beauty. Job tasks exhibit a
high variability because they neither linear nor proportional. The following was a list of questions
asked to the management for estimated values of fixed and variable activities, as well as hours
worked.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
How many times a week do they count inventory?
How long does it take during busy and non-busy hours?
How many shipments come in each week?
What is the time between reorder points?
How long does it take to stock during busy and non-busy hours?
How many customers come in average in a day?
How many times a customer asks for product location in a day?
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Relationship Charts
Next, the floor layout was evaluated for two main product groups; chemicals and hair. The
chemical layout on the shelves is currently grouped according to brand rather then product type.
This area should be changed according to product type to improve customer flow in the aisles.
The product layout can also be compressed in many areas to improve space availability. Most of
the sections in the floor layout were grouped according to type. Relationship charts were used for
both of these tasks to find the most effective grouping. Products were rated on a scale from one to
four by importance with four being the highest and one being the lowest. This data was used to
group all products in specific areas and directed the way for making aisle signs.
Research
Online research was conducted to find an effective and affordable shelving system for the storage
layout. The focus was on both a stacking concept and shelving equipment.
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Analysis of Results
SWOT Analysis
After conducting the interviews, the results were compiled into categories of strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The feedback from the employees helped formulate the
problem objectives and brainstorm possible improvements. The analysis was grouped into the
following:
Strengths
1) Carries more variety of brand products than other stores in Gainesville
2) Friendly staff along with a professional and positive attitude
3) Family environment
4) Good teamwork among employees
5) Strong focus on customers needs
Weaknesses
1) Excess inventory on floor and storage room
2) No aisle signs for the products
3) Counting inventory by hand
4) No shelving system in storage room
Opportunities
1) Improving floor layout by reorganizing products
2) Reduce labor on counting inventory
3) Dispatch returning/damaged items quicker, taking up space
4) Establishing a quicker reorder time
5) Shelving system in the back storage room
6) Expand wig section
Threats
No foreseeable threats as of now.
Structured Estimating Analysis
Management provided estimates for the job activities performed at Archer Beauty. The following
list was the results obtained.
1) How many times a week is inventory counted?
Answer: 3 times a week.
2) How long does it take to count inventory during store hours?
Answer: 4 hours/shift, 12 hrs/wk.
3) How many shipments come in each week?
Answer: Mon-Fri, UPS
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4) What is the time between reorder points?
Answer: 5 days
5) How long does it take to stock during busy and non-busy hours?
Answer: 5 hours.
6) How many customers come in average in a day?
Answer: 250.
7) How many times a customer asks for product location in a day?
Answer: 50.
Relationship Chart Analysis
The relationships charts rated the chemical and floor layout by importance relative to
each other, and helped layout the groupings for the aisle signs. For example, shampoos
and conditioners were grouped next to each other since they are related products. Aisle
signs were then created, and floor adjustments were made accordingly, to match these
relationships.
Chemical Layout
The following core relationships were found from the relationship chart analysis for the chemical
layout. (Refer to Figure 2.1 in the Appendix)

EA – MP (Electronic Appliances - Men’s Products) – Male customers who enter the store
usually look for electronic razors and clippers. Because of the low flow of male
customers, men’s products are grouped together on one aisle. Electronic appliances
should be placed in close proximity with men’s products.

HCD – HSP (Hair Conditioner - Hair Shampoo) – These products go hand in hand.
Customers who purchase one of these products, usually purchases the other.

HG-HS (Hair Gel - Hair Spray) – These items are both styling products.

HCL + (HCD+HSP) (Hair Coloring- Hair Conditioner-Hair Shampoo)-Customers who
color their hair usually need special types of shampoo that treats their hair.
Floor Layout
The relationship chart results (also Refer to Figure 2.2 in the Appendix) for the floor area were
the following:
 Checkout counters A and B need to remain in proximity near the front of the store

Two braiding hair areas were separated in the store. These areas should be grouped
together because they are like products.
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
The Ponytails and the Synthetic Hair should remain next to each other because they are
the same type of products.

The Barrettes area holds items like hair bows, ribbons, and beads. The Miscellaneous
area consists of items such as combs, brushes, rubber bands, and hair bands. These areas
relate to each other closely with purchase. For example, customers who buy hair beads
usually need rubber bands to hold them in place.

The Hair Relaxers and should be grouped with the Chemicals because the relaxers are
chemicals.

The Sales Rack and the Check-out Counters should be near each other for marketing
reasons. Customers usually look at the sales rack while they are waiting to check-out or
when they first enter the store.
Based on the relationship chart from the chemical and floor layout, a proposed layout was
constructed to effectively group products together and create smoother customer flow. The Shoes
Area was relocated to the Relaxers Area. This allows for more space allocated for the wig
expansion. Four-way displayers will be used to showcase the shoes. The excess shoe inventory
will be placed on the shelves to avoid multiple trips to the storage room. The Relaxers would
then be moved onto one of the shelves in the Chemicals Area. Currently, one half of a shelf in
the chemical area is filled with picture frames. Due to the low purchase rate of the picture
frames, it is suggested that the frames should be hung on the walls or stored in the back storage
room to allocate more space for the relaxers. Also, the Miscellaneous items should be moved to
back of the store near the Barrettes section. The Synthetic and Braiding Areas were also grouped
near other. These changes described can be seen in the proposed layout on Figure 2.4 in the
Appendix.
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Inventory Control Application
Introduction
The managers of Archer Beauty indicated a need to reduce the amount of time spent hand
counting inventory. Currently, sales and incoming shipments are not actively recorded. Products
are sold and received daily, then two to three times a week inventory levels are checked by hand.
The most effective way to reduce the inventory count time was to create a database application.
The program would be created using Visual Basic.NET and Microsoft Access. The application
could be used to keep track of inventory levels as products are sold or received.
Implementation
The database application should be running on a PC at the point of sale. This will allow every
product sale to be instantly recorded into the database. Every time a customer brings a product to
the register, the cashier should ring the sale up, take the payment from the customer, and then
enter the product number into the database. This can be done by hand but to increase the process
speed, it is recommended the cashier use a barcode scanner. We recommended Archer Beauty
purchase the ID Automation Plug 'n Play USB Scanner Kit from
http://idautomation.com/ccdreaders/SC4USB.html. This scanner was the most effective, easy to
use, and least expensive found.
Each time the managers reorder a product, they can enter the product number into the database
and record how many cases they purchased. By keeping track of the number of incoming
shipments, and outgoing sales, management will always have a good estimate of their inventory
levels. Once a month however, they will still have to count their inventory by hand and update the
database. This must be done because the database may not have an exact count of the inventory
by the end of each month. This can be caused by a number of factors including the following:
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unrecorded outgoing products, shrinkage, application user error, or unrecorded incoming
shipments.
Database Design
The basic two parts of the application are the database (created in MS Access), and the user forms
(created in VB.NET). The database will contain all of the data about each of Archer Beauty’s
products. The forms are the user’s interface to get, and input data into the database. The forms
also contain most of the logic behind the functionality of the application.
The first step to creating the database application was to create the actual database in Microsoft
Access. Management felt, for each product we should keep track of the product number, brand,
type, size, and price. We felt it would also be beneficial to keep track of the number per case,
current inventory level, and reorder point. Management currently does not use a set reorder point
for each product, but we programmed it into the database incase they plan to use it in the future.
The next step in creating the database was to create an Entity – Relationship diagram. This is a
graphical depiction of the relationships between the entities and their attributes. An entity
represents an object stored in the database. In this case each chemical product, brand, and
inventory information entry is an entity. The price, size, and so on, are the attributes of the
chemical product entity. Each entity is represented as a rectangle (see figure below); each
attribute as a circle. The diamonds represent the relationships between the entities. For example,
each chemical product entity is produced by a brand.
The underlined attributes represent the primary key of each entity. This is the attribute that
uniquely identifies each entity. For example, two chemical product entities may have some
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attributes in common such as price, size or name, but they will never have the same product
number. This is much like a VIN or a Social Security Number, each one is unique.
The || and |< symbols represent the cardinalities of the relationship. For example, the || symbol
on the right side of the produced by relationship represents a minimum and maximum cardinality
of one. This means that each chemical product entity is produced by a maximum and minimum of
one brand. In terms of the database, each chemical product can only have one brand as an
attribute. This makes sense since a specific product like LA Looks brand hair gel is made by only
LA Looks.
The |< to the left of the produced by relationship represents a minimum cardinality of one, and
maximum cardinality of many. This means that each brand can produce one or many chemical
products. In terms of the database, each brand can have more then one chemical product. For
example, in the database, LA Looks may have five different types of hair gels stored, each with a
unique product number.
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Next, using the cardinalities and relationships, the E-R diagram is converted to a relational
schema. The relational schema takes the E-R diagram and uses it to create a visual depiction of
the structure of each entry in the database (see figure below). Each bolded name represents a
different table in the database. Each white row represents an actual row in the database, complete
with its primary key. For example, each particular
product will have product #, name, type, price, size and brand as attributes. The arrows show the
relationship between the tables. For example, each chemical product has a brand, and all of the
brands are stored in a separate table.
Once the E-R diagram and relational schemas were completed, the next step was to enter the data
into the database. All 1696 products along with all of their attributes were scanned into MS
Access from Archer Beauty’s order catalog. The following figure shows an entry in the database.
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The final step was to create the user forms and link them to the database. The link between the
database and the user is achieved through the graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI (graphical
user interface) was coded in VB.NET. The GUI allows the user, through forms, restricted access
to the database. This is to ensure the data in the database file cannot be easily corrupted. The GUI
also presents the data in a user friendly manner, allowing the user to choose what data they want
to see.
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Software Documentation
Installation and Requirements
The computer the application is going running on must have Windows XP and the .NET
Framework version 1.1 or later. This comes with Windows XP Service Pack 2, or can be installed
using dotnetfix on the enclosed Archer Beauty application CD.
To install the database application, simply double click on the Archer Installer on the enclosed
CD. Install the database to the computers c:/ directory.
Application Operation
This next section provides information on how to operate the database. It provides a walk-through
for each menu in the application.
Main Menu
This is the first form opened when running the application. Click on the button for the desired
operation. Point of Sale is used for recording purchased products. Receiving is used for recording
incoming shipments. Inventory is used to view current inventory levels, and products that need to
be reordered. The Edit Products menu is used to edit product attributes. For example, you can
change the price, or name of a particular product if either changes.
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Point Of Sale
This is the Point of Sale
Menu. This is form that
should be active every time
a sale is recorded. Scan the
product barcode with the
barcode scanner into the
Enter Product field. Next,
click Enter Sale or press
Tab then Enter on the
keyboard. If the product
was found in the database,
the Enter Product field will
clear. This means the sale
was successfully recorded,
and the current inventory
level for that product was
reduced by one unit.
Before any product can be recorded in Point of Sale or Receiving, the product must be in the
database. If the product was not found an error message will pop up. Click Ok to close the error.
If a product not currently in the database needs to be added, use the Edit Products menu. The
Close button closes this form.
Receiving
The receiving form is used
to record of the incoming
product shipments. Enter
the product ID in the Enter
Product field. This can be
done by hand or barcode
scanner. To scan the ID
into the field, place the
cursor in the Enter Product
field with the mouse, then
scan the barcode. Next,
enter the number of cases
being ordered. Finally,
press the Receive button. If
the Enter Product field
clears, the current
inventory for that product
was increased by the
number of cases ordered times the number per case. Again, a product must be in the database to
be received. If an error messages comes up, the product ID was either entered incorrectly or not
in the database. If it is a new product, use the Edit Products>>Add menu to add the product.
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Inventory
The Inventory menu has two main functions. The first is to view the current inventory level of a
particular product. To view the inventory level of a product, enter the product ID in the
uppermost textbox, then press View Inventory. Again, this can be done by hand, or by placing the
cursor in the textbox and scanning the barcode. The current inventory will appear just to the right
of the textbox, along with the product brand, name and type. To view the product information of a
product with a low inventory level, click the row in the data grid (see red arrow above), then click
View Product Info.
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The second function is to
view the low inventory
levels. The data grid in the
bottom right corner shows
a list of all the products
that need to be reordered.
Products are considered
low when the on hand
inventory is less then one
case. To reorder a low
product, click the row of
the product in the data grid
then press Reorder
Product. This will open the
receive menu. The Enter
Product field is
automatically filled with
the product ID from the
row clicked on the Inventory Page. Enter the number of cases and press Receive. This will add
the correct number of units to the current inventory, and remove the product from the list of low
inventory products. Click Return to Inventory to continue ordering products. Click Close to close
this form.
Edit Products
The Edit Products
menu is used to
delete, and update
products in the
database. Click Load
to load all of the
records from the
database. To edit a
record simply change
the data in the fields
and click Update. Use
the < and > to
navigate through the
records. Use the >>
and << to skip to the
end, and beginning of
the list, respectively.
All 1696 products are
listed alphabetically
by ID.
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The Add button on the Edit Products form
opens the Add Products form. This form as
its name indicates is used to add a new
product to the list of products in the
database. To add a product, all of the fields
on the form must have data in them.
Furthermore, Price, Number On Hand, and
Number Per Case must be numerical. Any
violation of the above rules will cause an
error message to appear. Click ok to close
the error message. Enter correct data and
click Add to add the product to the
database. Click Cancel to cancel any
changes to the database and close the
form.
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Conclusions and Recommendations
Floor Layout
Shoe Displayers
We recommend using shoe displayers rather
than the shoes placed on a table. This method
shows better organization. As opposed to
searching for shoes on the table, customers can
select a type of shoe on the display and ask for
assistance if needed. It can be purchased at
http://www.lozier.com/mod1.htm
Aisle Signs
Gels
Shampoo
Conditioner
Skin Care
Hair Spray
Hair Spray
We proposed that the chemical layout should be grouped by TYPE for the majority of the aisles.
The proposal consists of 10 laminated aisle signs, 2 ½’ x 3’, positioned at the front of each shelf.
The left portion of the aisle sign will correspond to the left side of the shelf and vice versa for the
right. For these relationships refer to Figure 2.2 in the Appendix.
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Wig Expansion
Management also wanted to expand
the wig section from the current
layout. Two 10’ x 3’ x 5’ island
shelves are recommended for this
expansion. To provide space
availability, shoes were relocated to
the relaxer area and moving the
relaxers relocated to the current
picture shelf. Most of the picture
frames should be stored in storage
room and a select few hung on wall
because they have the lowest
purchase rate in the entire store.
These shelves can be found from
http://www.lozier.com/mod1.htm
Material Handling Equipment
To avoid lifting boxes from the storage room, we recommend purchasing two utility carts to wheel the
products out onto the floor. These devices will greatly reduce the risk of back injuries when lifting
heavy objects. The holding capacity of the carts will also reduce the number of trips and travel times
onto the floor area.
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Storage layout
Bins to replace boxes
These bins are 17 1/2” x 10 7/8” x 12 ½”
(L x W x H). They are durable, sturdy, and
stackable on a shelf or floor. The synthetic and
human hair boxes can be put into separate bins
according to their hair color. They will be
placed on the left side of the storage room.
These shelves can be found from
http://www.equipmentandsupply.com/stakn-store.htm
Chrome Shelving
The figure above displays a shelf with dimensions of 18”x 60”x 63”. It holds about
800 lbs / shelf. Add on unit displayed above is not included in the purchase. It is
recommended to utilize three of these shelves for the right side of the storage room.
One shelf should be assigned for returned and damaged goods. Management needs
to focus on sending back these products in time to avoid overcrowding in this area.
The other two shelves will be designated for excess inventory. Reorders should be
limited to demand to minimize space for this area. These shelves can be found from
http://www.chromewireshelfing.com/
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Back Entrance Door
Shipping comes in every day Monday
through Friday. UPS (United Parcel
Service) currently enters through the
front door and drops off the shipments.
This causes congestion near the front of
the door when customers are trying to
enter. It is recommended that UPS
enters through the back entrance door to
avoid customer interference.
Refer to Figure 1.1 in the Appendix for all the improvements made for the storage room.
Financial Cost Analysis
Store hours are open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. - 8 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
There are a total of four employees working each day. Each employee gets paid $7/hr. Under the
current system, it takes about four hours to count inventory and five hours to store inventory.
With the new system in place, employees would only need to check the inventory once every two
months to ensure that the database was up to date. This task would be completed by two
employees for approximately eight hours. Eliminating the need to count inventory the other
times, would enable one of the workers to help the other worker store inventory. This would
approximately reduce the time to store inventory by half, which is about 2.5 hours. The cost
analysis chart shown in Appendix – gives a breakdown of the labor hours saved from the
proposed ideas. The total number of hours saved through this system came out to a labor and cost
savings of 1128 hours/yr and $7,560.00/yr respectively.
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The total price of purchasing the new equipment came out to $6,328.90. The breakdown of the
cost and numbers of the new equipment is listed in Appendix--. The inventory database was free
because of our development of the database functionalities. A cost savings of $200.00 was added
to the total cost of new equipment, which reduced the total purchasing amount to $6128.90.
There was also a yearly total depreciation cost associated with the total purchasing cost.
Electronic equipment had a useful life of 10 years whereas shelving equipment had 5 years.
Equipment was depreciated over its useful life with no salvage value. The total depreciation cost
came out to be $970.89/yr. With the new system improvements, the payback period came out to
be 0.94 years.
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Works Cited
Kim, Tammy, Customer Service Representative. Archer Beauty. Personal interview.
Gainesville, FL. 32608. September 21, 2004.
Shin, Sam, General Manager. Archer Beauty. Personal interview. Gainesville, FL. 32608.
September 20, 2004.
Steve, Sam, General Manager. Archer Beauty. Personal interview. Gainesville, FL. 32608.
September 20, 2004.
Kang, Sunny, Customer Service Representative. Archer Beauty. Personal interview. Gainesville,
FL. 32608. September 21, 2004.
Shin, Sue, Customer Service Representative. Archer Beauty. Personal interview. Gainesville,
FL. 32608. September 21, 2004.
Fadiyi, Simi, Customer Service Representative. Archer Beauty. Personal interview. Gainesville,
FL. 32608. September 22, 2004.
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Appendix
Proposed Storage Room
Figure 1.1 -This figure shows an illustration of the new storage layout. The left side consists of red and
blue rectangles representing the stackable bins for the synthetic and human hair respectively. The right side
of the storage room depicts gray rectangles representing the chrome shelving system for the returned and
damaged goods along with excess inventory.
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Floor Relationship Chart
Figure 2.1- This figure shows the core relationships that exist between products on the floor area.
Importance is rated from one to four, located under the red heading. Abbreviations for the floor products
are colored in gray and the red highlighted area shows the relationship that exists between these types of
products. Highlighted yellow areas on the chart indicate core relationships.
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Chemical Layout Relationship Chart
Figure 2.2 – This figure shows the relationship chart for the chemical layout. Importance is rated
anywhere from one to four, located under the red heading. Abbreviations for the chemical products are
colored in gray and the orange highlighted area shows the relationship that exists between these types of
products. Highlighted yellow areas on the chart indicate core relationships.
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Aisle Locations
Figure 2.3 - This figure represents the groupings of aisle signs based on the relationship charts. It ranges
from aisles 1 through 10. The gray area above represents the abbreviation of the products corresponding to
the areas shaded in turquoise.
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Proposed Layout
Figure 2.4 – This figure shows the proposed layout. The non-solid areas represent the changes made to
the current layout.
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Current vs. Proposed Inventory System
Figure 3.1 - This chart shows the current vs. proposed inventory systems.
The current system shows an
approximation of 1776 hours to complete. Under the new system, it would eliminate the need to count inventory
(except for every two months for updates for the database) and allow the employee, who counted inventory, to help
with storing inventory. This would approximately reduce the hours of storing inventory by half. The total hour
savings from this system would be about 1128 hours.
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Cost of New Inventory System
Figure 3.2 – This chart shows the savings cost of labor hours under the new database system. The new
inventory system would mostly eliminate the need to count inventory by hand, except for up to date
checkups every two months. The orange and yellow shaded areas represent the outgoing and saved costs,
respectively.
Cost of New Equipment and Payback Period
Figure 3.3 – This figure shows the breakdown of both the number and cost of the new equipment. A
depreciation cost is also incurred each year for the equipment. Payback period was calculated by using the
benefits to cost ratio.
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Team Member Parts
Raymond Lee - Interviews, Report, Database Development, Facility Layout
Jason Spranza - Database Development, Report
Markevia Scott- Facility Layout, Autocad Drawings, Relationship Charts