Oracle

How is the IKEA trading operations design different from that of around piece of article of furniture retail operations? IKEA is known as one of the worlds outsizedst furniture retailer that focuses richly gearly on cost control, operational extremity and product development. IKEA differentiates itself from nigh furniture retailers by offering a coarse range of intimately designed array of home furniture at very attractive prices that remain affordable to a large radical of diverse customers. There argon some unique features of IKEA as compared to most furniture retail stores (IKEA, 2012) Self Service (minimal serve well or work from sales person) Details of all products are made ubiquitous in the showroom thus do sales assistance unnecessary which this in return helps to reduce the hiring cost of labor. Layout of Products (product exposure) Ikea stores are designed in a one-way walk-through layout that requires customers to be exposed to the entire products which is unlike from most furniture retail stores where by customers may choose to go presently to the section they preferred.Hence, the flow allows increased efficiency from entering the showroom, selecting of products to lastly making payments. Furniture Most of Ikea products are self assembled products, this helps to reduce the costs of merchant marine as higher volume of bulk packaging can be make. Unlike most furniture retail stores where free delivery and hookup is given, additional charges apply if fixing of product is required by the customers. Lastly, quaternary dimensions of operations (Volume, Variety, Variation and Visibility) bequeath be used to determine the differences mingled with IKEA operations to that of most furniture retail stores.High Volume IKEAs operations are of very large scale, major land space and colossal car parks are developed to cater to all customers, everything about the design of IKEAs operations encourages high volume of throughput as compared t o most furniture retail stores (IKEA, 2012). High Variety of product but woeful Variety of service The variety of products showcase in IKEA is much much than most furniture retail stores, from small items such as kitchen appliances to large items such as tables.However, as off the beaten track(predicate) as the variety of service is concerned it is relatively narrow. Most products are self assembled and there is no sales person to provide any service to the customers, leaving themselves to judge out and make their own decision for the purchase. High Variation on demand Public holidays and weekends usually attracts more crowded as compared to figure week days, hence result in high variation.However, there will not be any difficulty of getting part-time mental faculty into IKEA during the peak period as the operations in IKEA are well designed. Unlike most retail store which require staff with particular proposition expertise that requires time to hire. Low Visibility Custom er contact is high in certain extend, but overall it is lower than most furniture retail stores considering most of the things are done (self-service) solely by the customers from the start till it reaches the point of payment where it is also a regulate process by IKEA.This ultimately reduces the costs of the transaction as far as IKEA is concerned. What do you think might be the major problems in running an operation like IKEA? Having such huge variety and high volume of product being transacted, it may be tough for them to carry away the inventory for all items. Shipping of high volume bulk items may take time and IKEA may face stock-out period, hence their operations proviso has to be done and calculated accurately.As all sales are done on self-serviced manner, it may not create a great obtain do it as compared to most retail stores where sales person are able to cater a more specific and unique first-hand experience to all customers to create loyalty. Lastly, IKEA being th e largest furniture retailer require a lot of natural material such as wood, which may ruin the global environment (IKEA, 2012). Reference IKEA (2012) Our Vision and Business Idea. Available at http//www. ikea. com/ms/en_SG/about_ikea/the_ikea_way/our_business_idea/index. html (Accessed 29 January 2013)