Project

An example of a project for CVS would be filling a prescription. The tasks to this project would be to enter the prescription information under the correct patient, make sure that insurance is billed correctly, fill the prescription, have the pharmacist verify the prescription, and run the transaction through the register. Our pharmacy uses Gantt charts to assign the work flow and see how the work flow pattern is going. The recommendations that I have for the assignment of the workflow is to make sure that one person is not overwhelmed with activities. Especially, when mistakes can be very costly, we want to make sure that the person can focus on what they are doing and not be interrupted by answering the telephone or assisting customers. We also want to make sure that the pharmacist is spending the right amount of time verifying prescriptions, because if they are rushed then they could skip over important information.

Supply Chain Management

According to Supply Chain Digest, the new performance that CVS has, is designed to impress. CVS has improved in every aspect of the supply chain. For instance, in terms of delivery, store delieveries are 98.4% on time, plus or minus 15 minutes. As for quality, inbound products are deboxed before being placed into storage to eliminate this task from the pick lines, and CVS is working with suppliers on new packaging concepts to eliminate this step altogether. Furthermore, the logistics group has direct intregration with each store's planogram, allowing the DC to pick in aisle/stocking sequence for each store. This speeds goods to the shelf, increase store productivity, and decreases clutter in the aisle.


What supply chain management do they currently have in place?

- CVS has selected Infor, a $2Bn leading supplier of Supply Chain Management warehouse software, to manage its nationwide retail pharmacy outlets. With over 6,200 stores and 14 distributiopn centers covering 43 states and the District of Columbia, CVS is well positioned to deliver on its mission to be the easiest pharmacy to do business with for consumers and employers. CVS are currently deploying Infor SCM, developed with Genero and using the Web Client as its primary user interface. Infor SCM is a proven, advanced Warehouse Mmanagement System for manufacturing, distribution, and retail enterprises and third-party logistics providers (3PLs). Infor's value proposition is to maximize product placement strategies, prioritize tasks, implement fair productivity standards, and increase logistics efficiency.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rmV__Yrk7Q


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Quality Control

CVS uses the Quality Control (QC) model to help improve their customer service level that is provided by their employees. They use the QC model to measure the level of customer service that each store or region provides to their customers. At CVS good customer service is a standard because good customer service equals a loyal customer for CVS and if employees do not show or demonstrate good service to a customer there is a chance that this customer will not return. CVS does use the continuous improvement model to improve their levels of customer service and under this model they follow the Pareto Analysis. CVS definitely follows the Pareto Analysis because they try to fix or repair the most important areas first. For example CVS has the strategy that every transaction must have five E’s (Eye Contact, Exchange, Extra Care, Extra Selling, and Ending) this is a strategy developed for employees to engage in more conversation and interaction with a customer, which the end result improves the level of customer service. They started at the root of the problem because if employees do not have the proper training on the standards of the company they cannot provide the highest level of customer service that CVS lives by. By CVS assessing the main problem first it not only increases their level of customer service but it also increases their sales, because a happy customer will always return. The improvements that CVS can make is to make sure that they spend the time and money necessary to train their staff and make sure that their staff is fully aware of what the company is trying to achieve.

Customer Service

The three elements of the service-product bundle are the tangible service, the psychological benefits of the service, and the physical goods. In relation to our company, CVS, we could use the example of dropping off a prescription to get filled by our pharmacy staff. The tangible service would be the convenience of dropping the prescription off and knowing that it will be filled. The psychological benefits of the service are that there is someone that you can talk to and ask questions if there is a problem. The physical goods would be to walk away with your medication in your hands. The cell that CVS operates in on the service matrix is the co-routed services. They offer a number of choices with regards to customers and how they can choose to get their prescriptions filled, whether it’s a refill that they can request online, through the phone, or sending a fax or physically coming into the store. CVS encounters a high customer contact and they are continuously coming up with new ways to stay on top of the customer service game. Using some technology but trying to not get away from the advantage of having a friendly face help with an issue a customer is having is something they pride themselves on. They support employees by empowering them to do whatever it takes to make sure that the customer leaves the store happy. The guarantee that CVS offers is a 100% buy back guarantee on their CVS products and on all beauty products with or without a receipt. The refund policy is one that guarantees that as long as someone can provide a receipt for the product than we will gladly do a return on the product. The service recovery CVS has in place is doing whatever it takes to make sure that the customer leaves the store happy. In regards to getting a product from another store, calling other stores to see if they have the product, using expired coupons, their ultimate goal is to have each customer walk out of a CVS 100% satisfied.

Process Selection

The type of product flow that CVS Pharmacy uses can be classified as a batch flow. They have medium volume and medium variety and there are a few stops that are made to get products to a CVS store. Products are bought and are then sent to warehouses all across the country which are then broken down and packed again by what the store has ordered which is then delivered to the store. They type of customer order that CVS processes can be classified in two ways. The front store can be classified as made to stock which means that the products are ordered ahead of time and can be restocked on the shelves as often as needed to make the consumers happy. The pharmacy can be classified as an assemble to order because every pharmacy patient has a different prescription with different needs. The category they fall into in the process characteristics matrix is batch flow and assemble to order. The things that influence their process selection is that the stores are not very big and cannot handle the big shipments straight from a manufacturer and they buy in large amounts to cut costs. Also with having stores in almost every street corner it makes it easier for them to have one big warehouse and ship orders to the stores from there. It's a lot easier for them to keep track of their inventory. I don't think that they could mass customize their process selection, unless they build bigger stores to hold the inventory.

CVS PHARMACY