Poster
Client Context
The Home Depot (THD) is a home improvement retail corporation that provides customers with the products and labor resources necessary for their desired projects. The client for this project is Home Depot Exteriors (HDE), a division of The Home Depot Installation Services. Specifically, the client is focused on the Windows & Doors Installation Group. This division acts as an intermediary between customers with a desire to update their home’s doors or windows, vendors who produce these parts, and installers who will perform the installations. HDE operates out of sixty-seven warehouses, or branches, where vendors ship custom-made orders for the installers to pick up.
Within our system, the Branch Support Center (BSC), a remote call center, creates initial schedules based on a vendor generated estimated time of arrival (ETA). Branches are informed to use ETA as a scheduling trigger, but the system processes differ slightly across the country. Branches have different protocols for optimizing the initial schedules created by the BSC. Our work has included an extensive investigation into the complexities of the system to ensure our solutions will generate a holistic impact.
Project Objective
Since 2021, an average of 85% of installation appointments for HDE Windows & Door Services have been rescheduled. 51% of customers in 2023 experienced at least one rescheduling event during their project lifecycle, with 18% experiencing 3 or more events. The client has expressed concern regarding inefficient allocation of labor resources, costing THD over $3M annually, and decreased customer satisfaction related to rescheduling activities. Contrary to the original assumption that all reschedules were delays, 21% of appointments in 2023 were rescheduled to a date earlier than the original appointment. Additionally, different reschedule rates were observed across the branches.
We aim to reduce the rate of installation appointments rescheduled and eliminate inefficiencies within the scheduling process by redesigning the process.
Design Strategy
After extensive interviews with Home Depot Corporate, the call center, and over 10 branches/warehouses, we identified several inefficiencies within their existing system. Utilizing this information, we developed policy recommendations, which are key deliverables for our project. We also proposed two significant changes in their system: the scheduling trigger and scheduling ownership.
We recommend that Home Depot changes their scheduling trigger to materials-received-based scheduling and change their scheduling ownership to in-house scheduling.
Once we received data, we were able to validate our proposed changes through a simulation. By simulating the scheduling trigger change on appointments from 2023, we found that 48% of reschedules in 2023 could have been prevented, with the remaining 52% being reduced through policy changes throughout the scheduling process. Analysis regarding scheduling ownership revealed that almost half of call center labor was being overwritten by the branches.
Deliverables
The client will receive two deliverables at the end of this project: Toolkits for the Test-and-Learn and a document consisting of policy recommendations. The Toolkits are a step-by-step guide on how to implement the process redesign. One Toolkit is dedicated to scheduling triggers with the Test-and-Learn implemented at the Baltimore Branch. The other Toolkit is dedicated to scheduling ownership with the Test-and-Learn implemented at the San Fernando Valley Branch. The other deliverable, policy recommendations, identifies several types of waste using Lean Six Sigma methodologies. There are five recommendations that address both scheduling triggers and scheduling ownership. The recommendations overall advise BSC employees, installers, and branch employees on ways in which they can decrease or eliminate waste in their current systems and processes.
Value and Impact
THD will see numerous benefits from this project including labor savings, a decrease in the number of customer touchpoints, and an increase in customer satisfaction. The test-and-learn will contribute data that can aid with process redesign decisions across all branches in the future.
Project Information
Student Team
Taylor Doering
Angela Stefanowicz
Madison O’Carroll
Elise King
Deandra Kosen
Noel Varughese
Ansley Scott
Elizabeth Schupp
Faculty Advisor
Faculty Evaluator
