Henry Ford is immortalised as the man who brought the benefits of mass produced motor cars to the world.

Introduced in 1908, Ford wanted the Model T to be simple to operate, affordable and durable.

The mass produced vehicle changed the course of human history forever. By the early 1920s more than half of the registered automobiles in the world were Fords. More than 15,000,000 Model Ts were built and sold.

Of course, mass production by definition, is about homogeneity. Standardisation. One size fits all. The world then was not as it is now, one of choice.

Epitomising this approach, Ford himself quipped that, “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants… So long as it is black.” All Model T Fords, the first successfully mass produced car in the USA, came in the same funerial colour until 1925, just two years before it was discontinued. No variation. No choice. And that was fine… then.

Ford talked about the financial battles he fought early on to keep his business afloat. He once said that “there were times when the seat of my pants (“trousers” Ed) was so thin, that if I sat on a nickel, I could tell you whether it was facing up heads or tails!”

Ford understood value, and the need to strike a balance between repetitive design choices that brought economies of scale that could be passed on to customers, and the need to provide value by responding to customers’ needs – after all the Model T had revolutionised the car industry with its innovative design.

At that got me thinking about our own approach to LP solutions…

As I write, physical shrink is off the charts. Once shrink would be featured at the bottom of Board Room agendas, if at all. Now it is nearly always item 1 or 2! So, the senior management are inevitably looking at the welfare of the whole business. And suppliers must evolve, so that they can meet that need…

Recently we have saved a customer a great deal of time and money by ‘right – sizing’ their approach to a high loss category, Beers, Wine and Spirits. This is a great example of coupling mass produced economies of scale with a bespoke approach to a business’ challenges in order to produce a superior result.

The business in question was physically tagging these high value items. The hard tags applied were comparatively expensive, time consuming to apply and created shelf shortages. We took an alternative approach…

By using a tagged at source RF label the retailer no longer had to physically tag the product itself instore. Whilst arguably the level of security afforded to these products was lowered, it did not result in an increase in shrink. So, the retailer was getting the same shrink results, but gaining by not having to perform 7.5 million actions every year to tag stock.

Other benefits included more staff time replenishing shelves – so an increase in sales – less logistical input as no tags to had to be procured, shipped or distributed to stores. Also processes staff were required to do were simplified removing the traditional Tag, Detach and Recirculate in store process. This also enhanced the customer experience with a frictionless journey through self checkouts. These factors in turn led to an increase in on shelf availability, which in turn helped sales – people can’t buy what they do not see in stock!

By taking a holistic view, utilising the cost effective nature of our labels compared to tags coupled with a bespoke approach to finding value in the customer’s business, the project saved money on tagging. But the bigger gains were in massive savings in labour costs across departments, increased on shelf availability and an uplift in sales. Plus tagging compliance went up, to 100%. In summary we delivered sales growth, increased on shelf availability and simplified processes that all delivered benefits to the business.

At Retail Risk – London we are running a round table about how LP is no longer the “sales prevention” department. We are talking about benefits that can be realised on an inter-departmental basis.

Yes, the focus is loss. However, by adopting a holistic approach to bringing benefits to the whole business, rather than specific focus on the LP department and its key targets, then the business wins bigger, including the LP department.

It is this approach of adding value to other parts of the organisation beyond LP, that will ensure LP can enjoy the benefits of not being seen as the necessary evil which is the key for success going forward. Please do come and join us…