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1 ISEN 416-Thursday Karan Chaudhry, Peter Shawhan Fall 2012 Lab Assignment 1: Facility Layout Introduction: The purpose of this report is to describe, in detail, the CVS Pharmacy facility layout located at 2411 Texas Ave. South College Station, TX 77840, and to make suggestions on how to improve customer flow within the building. Having been to the facility on multiple occasions, for our own personal visits/errands as well as the times spent gathering data, two recommendations are salient as potential ways to solve inefficient customer flows, in line at the cash registers, the pharmacy, or in the aisles themselves. The remainder of this report will include the description of the facility, our recommendations for improvement, including the justifications for our suggestions, and an appendix containing a sketch of the facility and data points used in justifying the recommendations. Description of the Facility: CVS Pharmacy, located on the corner of Southwest Pkwy. & Texas Ave. in College Station, TX attracts dozens of visitors every day, from customers looking for a quick snack to customers intending to order/pick-up their prescriptions. Undoubtedly, it is a great location as it is easily visible to people on either street. Easily accessible from two streets, there are two ways in and out of the CVS parking lot. One access point is from Southwest Pkwy, and the other from Texas Ave. The entrance/exit from Texas Ave. leads from the driveway, approximately 30 feet in width on the side of the building facing Texas Ave. that connects to the CVS parking lot. The parking lot extends to about 100 feet in the front of the building. This CVS location also has a drive-thru pharmacy i.e. about 50 feet in width on the side of the building that faces Southwest Pkwy. that further connects to the CVS parking lot. The parking lot can easily house about 50 vehicles with about 4 spots dedicated to the handicapped located within 10 feet of the entrance to the building. The building itself is roughly about 6000 square feet. There is only one door to the building that slides open and is used as both entrance/exit into/from the building. Inside the building, there is a pathway in front of the doors that curves around the store and leads straight to the ‘drop-off’ department of pharmacy. To the right side of the ‘drop-off’ department

Final Report-CVS Pharmacy

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ISEN 416-Thursday Karan Chaudhry, Peter Shawhan Fall 2012 Lab Assignment 1: Facility Layout Introduction:

The purpose of this report is to describe, in detail, the CVS Pharmacy facility layout located at

2411 Texas Ave. South College Station, TX 77840, and to make suggestions on how to improve

customer flow within the building. Having been to the facility on multiple occasions, for our own

personal visits/errands as well as the times spent gathering data, two recommendations are salient

as potential ways to solve inefficient customer flows, in line at the cash registers, the pharmacy,

or in the aisles themselves. The remainder of this report will include the description of the

facility, our recommendations for improvement, including the justifications for our suggestions,

and an appendix containing a sketch of the facility and data points used in justifying the

recommendations.

Description of the Facility:

CVS Pharmacy, located on the corner of Southwest Pkwy. & Texas Ave. in College Station, TX

attracts dozens of visitors every day, from customers looking for a quick snack to customers

intending to order/pick-up their prescriptions. Undoubtedly, it is a great location as it is easily

visible to people on either street. Easily accessible from two streets, there are two ways in and

out of the CVS parking lot. One access point is from Southwest Pkwy, and the other from Texas

Ave. The entrance/exit from Texas Ave. leads from the driveway, approximately 30 feet in width

on the side of the building facing Texas Ave. that connects to the CVS parking lot. The parking

lot extends to about 100 feet in the front of the building. This CVS location also has a drive-thru

pharmacy i.e. about 50 feet in width on the side of the building that faces Southwest Pkwy. that

further connects to the CVS parking lot. The parking lot can easily house about 50 vehicles with

about 4 spots dedicated to the handicapped located within 10 feet of the entrance to the building.

The building itself is roughly about 6000 square feet. There is only one door to the building that

slides open and is used as both entrance/exit into/from the building.

Inside the building, there is a pathway in front of the doors that curves around the store and leads

straight to the ‘drop-off’ department of pharmacy. To the right side of the ‘drop-off’ department

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is the ‘pick-up’ department immediately next to which is the door with a big window which

serves as the ‘consultation’ department of the pharmacy. To the left of the pharmacy facing the

pathway were the restrooms-one for men and one for women. There are 5 cash registers located

to the immediate right of the door entrance. The photo department is located on the far right side

of the entrance next to cashier station#5. The building has 23 aisles. Impulse buys, such as

candies, novelty items, cigarettes, soft drinks, etc., are near the cash registers and in aisles 1

through 6. Nutritional and medical products are located close to the pharmacy in aisles 7 through

11. Photography related products are next to the photo booth, adjacent to the cash registers.

Beauty products are located on the left side of the entrance in aisles 16 through 23. Beer, alcohol,

cold drinks etc. are located inside the transparent coolers that are laid up against the wall to the

right of the photo department. Greeting cards, arts and kids-related products are located on the

far back side in aisles 12 through 15. There is also an emergency exit right across from the

pharmacy in the corner next to aisles 12 & 13. An interesting fact about the building was that the

aisle arrangement was such that it made the store appear as if the store was divided into 3 big

sections-pharmacy, grocery and beauty. This is because of the pathway that ran directly through

the middle of the store and another pathway that ran between aisle 6 and aisles 7-11. Each of

these pathways was roughly about 8 feet in width. Also, the pathway to the right of the photo

department that ran all the way to the consultation department of the pharmacy was about 10 feet

in width. The pathway on the immediate left side of aisle 23 that ran all the way to the

emergency exit door in the back was about 6 feet in width.

Recommendations:

Recommendation 1:

We recommend the setup of aisles 3-23 similar to the setup of aisles 1 and 2. In particular, aisles

1 and 2 were split up in the middle while aisles 3-23 were not. We noticed that customers

travelling between aisles 1 and 2 had more flexibility in getting from 1 to 2 or 2 to 1 because of

the different paths that they could take. In particular, customers when travelling between aisles 1

and 2 had an advantage over when they were travelling between aisles 3-23. This was that they

could travel between 1 and 2 by walking through the center of the aisles where there was a split

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while in 3-23, they were forced to walk all the way to the end of the aisle to get to the other side

of the aisle.

To understand the flow of customers better in aisles 1 and 2 versus the flow of customers in

aisles 3-23, we collected data(table 1) during peak times of the store. During our data collection,

we noted the amount of time it took for customers to wait at the junctions when travelling in

between aisles for aisles 1 and 2 and then the same for aisles 4,5,18 and 19. On average,

customers in aisles 1 and 2 waited about 1.5 seconds while customers in aisles 4, 5, 18 and 19

waited about 4 seconds(table 1). This was primarily because, during the peak time, customers

were heavily utilizing the main pathway(one that goes through the center of the store) and the

other pathways as they were travelling from one aisle to another or just going to the pharmacy.

Because of this, customers in aisles 4, 5, 18 and 19 had to wait for the pathway to clear up so

they could walk over to the other side of the aisle or to a totally different aisle on the other side

of the store. This caught our attention, which is what motivated us to collect the data in the first

place. Thus we recommend splitting of aisles 3-23 to ensure better customer flow in the store.

Note: For the purposes of data collection, our selection of certain aisles from aisles 3-23 was

based on the idea of collecting data in aisles having most customer flow during those peak times.

The customer flow would differ during different times of the year because of festivals, demands,

holidays etc. This is why we recommend re-setup of all aisles 3-23 as opposed to certain aisles.

Recommendation 2:

This second recommendation concerns the CVS Pharmacy and it’s hours of operation. Having

been to the store once already at 6:30 PM, a time when the flow was slow, we wished to visit the

location at a busier time, to see if there was a potential buildup of customers; we were looking

for a bottleneck. Upon speaking with one of the store cashiers, we were informed that a normal

busy time is around 5:00 PM, when people get off work. This makes sense, as many people

would try to complete their errands at CVS on their way home, while they’re already out.

What we noticed was the following trend of customer flows, in terms of average time waiting to

be served, at the CVS Pharmacy when we observed at 5:00 PM, a busy time, and 6:30 PM, a

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slower time (table 2): 5:00 PM - 5-10 min; 6:30 PM - 0-5 min. Judging by this collection of data,

it is easy to come to the conclusion that 5:00 PM is indeed the busier time. What we noticed is

that the entire CVS location is open for 24 hours a day for every day of the week, the pharmacy

section, however, is only open at certain hours of the day, are as follows: M-F: 8:00 AM - 10:00

PM; Sat: 9:00 AM - 06:00 PM; Sun: 10:00 AM - 06:00 PM

This is significant, especially for customers who work a normal 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM job. Those

who would be inclined to visit the CVS Pharmacy on the way to work, such as men and women

who wake up early and cannot sleep anymore, instead of on the way from work, must wait to

visit the CVS Pharmacy until after their work day is over. For this reason, our second suggestion

on how to increase the efficiency of customer flow within the facility is to change the

pharmacy’s hours of operation to include an hour at least as early as 7:00 AM, so that those who

would go in the morning, before work, won’t be at the facility after work, around 5:00 PM; this

would decrease the amount of customers in line at the pharmacy, thus decreasing the average

waiting time before service. It is our belief that this second recommendation would greatly

increase the efficiency of the facility.

To sum it up, the first recommendation is to separate the full sized aisles into two equally sized

aisles, with a space in between. This would allow customers to move more fluidly between aisles,

keeping the flow from being too clogged in the main walkways, such as the one from the

entrance to the pharmacy. Finding longer lines at the pharmacy, specifically near 5:00 PM when

most people get off work (rush hour), our second recommendation is that the hours of operation

for the pharmacy be changed to include an earlier time, such as when the average person leaves

for work, near 7:00 AM.

Conclusion:

This assignment was an attempt to improve customer flow at CVS Pharmacy. Taking action on

our recommendations would give you more business by improving efficiency within the store.

Moreover, this will also improve customer satisfaction and leave the customers with a piece of

mind, thus giving them room to actually enjoy the products that your store has to offer.

If you have any additional questions, comments or concerns about this assignment, please do not

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hesitate to contact me. We can be reached by phone at (979) 997-8565 or (402) 575-7713 or by

email at [email protected] or [email protected].

Sincerely, Karan Chaudhry & Peter Shawhan Seniors Industrial & Systems Engineering major, Texas A&M University

REFERENCES

Dr. Andrew L. Johnson Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering 979�458�2341 [email protected] Michelle Alvarado Lab Instructor for Facility Layout and Material Handling [email protected]

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Appendix

List of products in their respective aisles:

1. Candy, Cameras, Electronics

2. Novelties, Candy, Beer

3. Novelties, Seasonal Items

4. Groceries, Cookies, Crackers

5. Soft Drinks, Wine, Snacks

6. Cleaners, Pet Needs

7. Home Diagnostics, Foot Care, Eye Care

8. Laxatives, Pain Relievers

9. Cold Remedies, Allergy, Children’s Health

10. First Aid, Family Planning, External Pain

11. Nutritional Care, Vitamins, Diet Needs

12. Greeting Cards

13. Greeting Cards

14. Stationery, Children’s Books, Arts & Crafts

15. Baby Diapers, Baby Formula, Toys

16. Oral Hygiene, Mouthwash, Facial Tissue

17. Feminine Care

18. Body Wash, Hand/Body Lotion, Bath Care

19. Deodorants, Shaving Needs, Hair Appliances

20. Salon Hair Care, Shampoo, Conditioners

21. Hair Styling, Hair Coloring

22. Hosiery, Hair Accessories, Leg Wear

23. Nail Care, Sun Care, Cosmetic Accessories

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Time taken at the Aisle 4 junction (in sec)

Time taken at the Aisle 5 junction (in sec)

Time taken at the Aisle 8 junction (in sec)

Time taken at the Aisle 19 junction (in sec)

Time taken at Aisles 1&2’ junction (in sec)

Customer #

1. 2 4 3 3 0

2. 6 4 6 4 1

3. 3 2 1 3 0

4. 4 6 6 6 2

5. 6 4 4 2 1.5

Table 1: Data to support recommendation 1

Slow%Time%(6:30%PM)

Customer 1 2 3 4 5

Fast%Time%(5:00%PM)

Time%Waiting%(min)

0 5 2 5 3

Fast%Time%(5:00%PM)

Customer 1 2 3 4 5

Time%Waiting%(min)

5 8 10 6 8

Table 2: Data to support recommendation 2

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