NRHA Course Projects Benefit Businesses

Students attending the North American Retail Hardware Association’s fall 2014 Retail Management Certification Program are implementing new procedures and tackling a major business improvement project as required for the six-month, college-level course conducted in Indianapolis.

Student Retail Management Certification Program project topics range from inventory and human resources management to improving B2B sales, and each target a specific need or opportunity in their companies.

After the research, planning and, in some cases, implementation, students presented their projects to the class, their sponsors and a panel of expert judges made up of NRHA staff, industry professionals and Butler University instructors.

“All of the students developed fantastic projects that will continue to make a direct impact on their sponsoring businesses, resulting in a return on investment from the program that far exceeded the cost of tuition,” says Scott Wright, executive director of the NRHA Retail Leadership Institute.

Judges selected the following as the three top business improvement projects:

Project No. 1: Pricing Strategy  Stine, LLC., Sulphur, Louisiana

Wendy Stine, buyer at Stine, Inc., established a pricing strategy aimed to change her company’s price image. Stine developed a detailed pricing strategy broken down first by SKU movement, then by price.

Pricing rules and policies were put into place based on competitor price and wholesaler-suggested retail. She hired a price shopper to gather pricing data to send to buyers, upper management and 12 store locations weekly. Customers and associates are made aware daily of new, lower-priced items with new hangtags.

As a result of Stine’s project, the company is making progress toward changing customer perception on pricing in order to improve their consumer market position.

Project No. 2: Repair Profitability Initiative
Hartville Hardware & Lumber, Hartville, Ohio

Zach Coblentz, division manager at Hartville Hardware & Lumber, developed a profit improvement initiative for the repair department. Coblentz focused on pricing, efficiency and department employee counts.

He also raised fees for labor and implemented policies to improve work efficiency. Technicians are now responsible for clocking in and out of jobs, providing accurate pricing information and finding areas of profit and loss.

Coblentz has seen morale improve, team members grow as leaders and increased accountability and performance. He predicts an ROI of about $210,000 in three years.

Project No. 3: Inventory Management
Holmes Building Materials, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Ben Canady, assistant manager at Holmes Building Materials, focused his project on shifting inventory control procedures from personnel to a computer system. By implementing an online inventory management system, Canady believes the company will see decreased inventory, which will increase turns and decrease customer-perceived outs. Additionally, ticket sales are estimated to increase, and refill purchase order counts should decrease.

Canady’s project has improved inventory accuracy and fixed class code errors in the trial department. Once extended companywide, the automated ordering process will reduce time spent on ordering.

Canady projects a storewide savings of about $276,000 in fiscal year 2016 due to implementing the project.