Corochan saves space with LANSA Wireless
Corochan operates "Corochan's croquette shop", the first fast-food franchise for croquettes in Japan. Corochan has more than 400 stores and sells over 500 million croquettes per month, mainly in the Chubu area, including Nagoya. Corochan is one of fastest growing companies in the food industry, and has doubled both its revenue and number of stores during the last 12 months [September 2001].
The Company employs about 1,200 part-timers who need to access clock-on/clock-off data, inventory levels and other business information on Corochan's iSeries in its headquarters in Gifu prefecture. To avoid wasting precious space on a PC in its small outlets, Corochan has implemented a Wireless solution using LANSA based e-PACK and i-mode mobile phone and fax technology. Replenishment orders and clock-on/clock-off times are notified via handsets for processing to Corochan's e-PACK Payroll and Distribution modules on its iSeries.
Masayasu Naruse, managing director of Corochan, explains his appreciation for the system, "The system allowed us to rapidly increase the number of stores without any implementation problems."
The Challenge
Corochan sells over 500 million croquettes
per month from 400 tiny 2 x 3m food outlets
Naruse explains the traditional procedures, "Before implementing the system we used to do the ordering and payroll calculations manually. Part-timers phoned in their clock-on/clock-off times, sales and inventory data and replenishment orders. After collecting data from the stores, we placed the consolidated order with our suppliers and carried out the payroll accounting."
"The stores' business hours are from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm and from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Company stores reported to head office by phone or fax twice a day. Although it was not necessary for the franchise stores to provide us with clock-on/clock-off times, they did phone in their replenishment orders for next day."
"Basically that was the routine since we opened our first stores. Around April 2000, we had grown to about 100 company stores and 50 franchise stores, and the volume became very demanding. The phone lines in our headquarters were ringing continuously, especially around 7:30pm, half an hour after the stores close for the day. Our staff was very busy trying to handle that volume of calls."
Shunichiro Itoh, IT business manager, comments, "It was difficult to receive and consolidate the orders of 150 stores in a short timeframe and place our consolidated order to our suppliers on time. We found that we had reached the limit of business that we could handle manually."
"Also in a manual system it is difficult to avoid errors, even when you put controls in place. Order forms may be filled in incorrectly or orders may be sent to the wrong store. Correcting the mistakes took up a lot of valuable time. So we came to the conclusion that it was crucial for us to build a business system," said Naruse.
The Solution
Example i-mode
screen
"Corochan's croquette shop outlets are very small booths, occupying about 6.6 square meters. In that space they have to store and prepare the food, serve customers and manage themselves. So, it was not just a matter of cost saving, there simply was no space to put a PC in the stores," explains Naruse.
"We approached Tesuku (Tisc), an IBM Business Partner, because we were not experienced with system integration ourselves. We asked them to propose a solution that we could manage with a hand-held device in each store."
Eiji Miura, sub-manager of the second sales department for the Chubu area of Tesuku, which developed this system, comments, "We proposed Corochan the LANSA based e-PACK2000 for their sales administration and payroll processing. For data entry of replenishment orders and clock-on/clock-off times we proposed the i-mode solution, using LANSA for the Web deployment environment, which we bundle with e-PACK2000. We estimated that we would need to develop about 20 Web functions for the i-mode system and that it would take us about two months with LANSA."
Naruse comments, "We discussed our requirements with Tesuku, the project and its costs. After reviewing, we decided that e-PACK with i-mode was the best solution for us.
"We considered several platforms. In the end we decided to use iSeries for our server, because the scalability of the iSeries. Expanding our business and consequently upgrading the computer system would be more expensive with PCs."
"Development of the Wireless solution took us only two months"
The Benefits
Corochan shops are only 3 x 2 metres
– no room for a PC!
Store orders received via i-mode on Corochan's iSeries are processed and consolidated by e-PACK's Distribution module. The system automatically creates orders for Corochan's suppliers and sends them using the Electronic Ordering System (EOS) over the phone line. Clock-on/clock-off data, also received via i-mode, is automatically loaded and processed in e-PACK's payroll system.
Naruse explains the advantages of the solution, "We now have more than 400 stores and over 1,000 part-timers. It is not too much to say that the system supports our rapid growth. We increased the number of stores very smoothly without any system problems. Even though we have expanded our business enormously, and plan to continue to expand, EOS is managed by one person only, instead of the team of operators that used to handle the incoming calls of four phone lines."
"The solution allows us to work more accurately and analyze sales data instantly. At the same time we have improved the efficiency of our operations. Payroll processing is quicker as well. In the manual system payroll calculation could take more than a month, because of the rapid increase in the number of part-timers."
Itoh explains how he was initially worried that staff could not operate the i-mode handsets "Young people are accustomed to operate i-mode, but we also employ some older staff who never had used a cellular phone before. So I was worried. But, as the operation of i-mode was quite simple, it turned out that there was no need to worry."
"NTT DoCoMo, Inc., the provider of the i-mode service, also helped to support and implement the solution. Tesuku negotiated with NTT DoCoMo Inc to give priority to placing antennas in those areas where coverage for our outlets was not yet available. We are very grateful to both Tesuku and NTT DoCoMo for their support."
"We think that the i-mode system is most suitable for our business. Our stores are booths with not enough space for a PC. Also, it is hard for us to have telephone lines installed in the store. An added advantage of the Wireless solution is that it is very mobile. If sales aren't that good we can move the booth to another place and resume business easily."
"The e-PACK and Wireless solution supports our rapid growth"
Conclusion
"To use hand-held devices and i-mode for private use and information access is very popular in Japan, but it might be unprecedented to utilize i-mode for a mission-critical distribution system like ours," concludes Itoh.
Naruse concludes, "We are planning to open stores in the Kansai area this year, because we haven't reached our potential of stores for that market yet. Our operational procedures are well established and our IT solution well integrated, so we can simply concentrate on opening new stores."
Over the coming five years Corochan is set out to expand their business and increase their stores to 4,000 stores in Japan and 1,000 stores overseas.
Company and System Information
- Corochan, established in 2000 and headquartered in the Gifu prefecture, operates "Corochan's croquette shop", the first fast-food franchise for croquettes in Japan. Corochan has more than 400 stores that occupy about 6.6 square meters on average. The company has 50 full time staff and about 1,200 part-timers.
- Corochan uses an iSeries model 270 for its operations and i-mode access.
- e-PACK is a LANSA based general business package for distributors, manufacturers and other companies in the small and medium business sector. Its capabilities include accounting, payroll, personnel, customer order and distribution, manufacturing and more. IBM® Japan markets e-PACK directly and through IBM® Business Partners.
- For more information about e-PACK visit: www.neoaxis.co.jp/product/e-pack/index.htm
- Tesuku (Tisc), headquartered in Nagoya, implemented e-PACK at Corochan, and is an IBM Business Partner.
- NTT DoCoMo, Inc is the provider of i-mode service.