Talking DSD at NGA

AT THE VIBRANT National Grocers Association meeting in Las Vegas, attendees heard from a trio of grocery retail experts about the role DSD receiving processes play in loss prevention.

In a session entitled, “DSD Receiving & Auditing,” Bob Summers, Director of Loss Prevention, Buehler Food Markets, Inc., Keith Beckett, Director of Loss Prevention, Niemann Foods, Inc. and Joe Laufenberg, Sr. Director of Loss Prevention, Skogen’s Festival Foods, shared a top-10 list of their guidelines for effective and efficient DSD processes.

All three panelists are participants in the NGA Loss Prevention Share Group. Among vital topics they covered: auditing DSD receiving; effective protocol for auditing cameras; conducting physical audits; and how to assess vendor error reports to minimize theft. Read on to view their entire list:

1. Define written policies and process so they are consistent for everyone at every store, and post them prominently.
2. Lock the back receiving doors and control the keys. A garage door opener can be an advantage as well.
3. Install a CCTV camera system.
4. Designate a specific, receiving-only area for DSD. A simple method is to paint a box on the floor. Don’t mix vendor and retailer areas. Locate your receiving area away from your back-stock area.
5. Check in one vendor at a time.
6. Rely only on “receiver counts” as proof of delivery, not invoice totals or vendor scan sheets. Also inspect every box to ensure that all merchandise is received; don’t just count cases.
7. Restrict baler and compactor access to authorized personnel, preferably those from the store, as vendors may sometimes discard product you should be credited for.
8. Control vendors, sales reps, and helpers. Don’t allow loitering.
9. Don’t allow vendors to give free samples, as receivers could be influenced to go easier on a vendor who has provided them something.
10. Audit and inspect, to ensure proper compliance with these policies.

Itasca’s DSD Receiving solution provides important new methods to improve auditing and receiving by supporting best practices for even better control. It provides electronic receiving and automated ordering for both spot sell and pre-sell Direct Store Delivery vendors.

• It institutionalizes DSD receiving policies by design, so they are consistent for everyone at every store.
• Magic makes DSD receiving faster and more accurate – reliving congestion at the receiving dock while allowing receivers more time to inspect shipments and paperwork.
• Since stores using Magic carry far less back stock, receiving areas are less crowded and more orderly.

Magic DSD improves the efficiency and accuracy of processing DSD vendor invoices and credits, while stopping unauthorized merchandise from entering the store. Multiple receiving methods allow retailers to tailor the receiving process based on the type of vendor, their EDI capabilities and their historical accuracy and performance.

Using different check-in methods supported by Itasca Magic and dependent upon the trust-level established by the vendor-retailer relationship can support a multi-task environment and fewer back-log queues with vendors.

To learn more about our DSD solutions, click here, or schedule a call with us.

© 2019 Itasca Retail Inventory Systems