Morrisons stores are struggling to get to grips with the new sales-based ordering system.
Contributors to an online Morrisons staff forum have expressed concerns that since recently implementing the new cloud-based system, which works by generating orders based on which products are going through the tills, levels of stock in the storeroom have dramatically increased while gaps remain on shelves.
“We are a few weeks in and already have tripled our backstock,” said one poster. “We have no idea how big our delivery is going to be day by day and we have gaps everywhere.” Another added: “My store is five weeks into the new system. The backstock has easily doubled and there’s still a lot of gaps.”
The Grocer reported in March that Morrisons was piloting the system, M Ordering, in two stores. as part of a company-wide drive to improve availability. The plan was to extend this to a further 10 stores, with the retailer hoping to introduce it to most stores this year. At the time the system was being used to deal with ordering for the ambient grocery and long-life fresh categories
Morrisons refused to comment on the problems but it is understood to be happy with the trials and believes that rather than system problems, the teething issues could be caused by implementation issues at store level as only some of the trial stores are affected. Further training is being provided and teams that have installed it successfully are being sent out to help stores “get fit for M Ordering”.
A spokesman said: “All stores continue to use our existing allocation process and order pad system. An improved order pad handset has recently been introduced which is proving popular with our staff. We are developing ordering systems for all parts of our business. Trials are underway in a number of stores to develop a system relevant to all categories.”
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