Kuzminblog

Changing the world for better... at least the world of gas stations)

Tag: BMS Coffee Monitor Page 2 of 3

Efficient Solutions to Reduce Human Factor Errors at Filling Stations

By

On 18.07.2016

In Gas station chains - cafe, Gas station chains - non-fuel businesses, RusHOLTS, Сoffee business

My colleagues often blame me for inventing efficient tools that reduce the influence of human factor. They often say I don’t like people.

Well, it’s true. You can’t like all the people, anyway. However, every time I share my ideas on the human factor, it does not mean I reproach filling station operators or other employees for being negligent or low qualified. You can always find a responsible and initiative person as well as those who suffer from a lack of ambitions being unable to perform an extra move. Some employees try their best to follow their duties and fulfill their every responsibility while other do not give a damn what employers expect from them. Others make efforts to be a real pain in the neck interfering with devices operation without having enough knowledge and operational skills.

%d0%b0%d0%b7%d1%816

Read More

McCafe vs Starbucks business models – a difference that does not exist!

By

On 10.05.2016

In Gas station chains - cafe, RusHOLTS, Сoffee business

RBC TV tried to find out whose coffee business is better – McCafe’s & Starbucks’? Classic children’s question: “Who is stronger, an elephant or a whale?” And a boring grown-up answer: “Two subjects must be compared on common parameters”. It is strange that none of those present in the studio have not identified these “common parameters”, having lost sight of that in the competition between the two world HoReCa market leaders we observe frontal confrontation between players using virtually the same automated technology of coffee preparation and not the difference in the “approach to the consumer”.

19 copy

Read More

Excise stamps for all food products

By

On 15.04.2016

In Gas station chains - cafe

Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service on Surveillance for Consumer rights protection and human well-being) has developed a “Strategy for raising the quality of food products in the Russian Federation by 2030».

It’s really a big deal they are about to start – after all it is necessary to create a single unified information system, which will track the movement of food products – from components to finished products. Plus, they’ll have to introduce compulsory state registration of the basic kinds of food additives. “Excise stamp” on the whole range of food production, cool, #whythehellnot!
Dealing with grand challenges is a profitable endeavour, because while you’re fighting for peace around the world no one will ask you about the devastation in your own WC. We haven’t yet figured out the simple issues, which one won’t have time to do within this large-scale project or vice versa, and now it is a good time to identify the specifics. For example, how do you enter the legislative amendments that will help to distinguish the coffee beverage prepared from the so-called “coffee material”?

Read More

IT is an indispensable tool in the supply chain management

By

On 05.04.2016

In Gas station chains - non-fuel businesses, RusHOLTS

You get nowhere without IT. Information technologies are so closely intertwined with all the business processes of transportation and logistics companies, that even coffee machines monitoring is implemented as an remote solution. Here’s an interview with CEO of RusHOLTS Alexander Kuzmin for the magazine “Technologies and means of communication”, # 1, 2016.

– What the trends in the field of IT and telecommunications are priority for your organization?

– Logistics companies of 4PL level are engaged in supply chain management, they become part of the business processes of partners with whom they work. We organize the supply chain of gas station chains in all aspects that relate to the non-fuel business. Simply put, we supply all the necessary from the goods for sale, supplies, furniture, coffee machines to IT-solutions that automate processes of gas station’s daily operations. Gas stations chains as a retail object have a lot of features. Each store by itself is small, but the scale of the chain may be hundreds or even thousands of stations. The total number of chain’s cafe and store items is about 3000 SKU (items’ ID), the station may make an order starting from 500 rubles worth. And everybody can imagine Russian distances very well. The organization and supply chain management in these conditions are a heavy task requiring a lot of masterhood which is impossible without IT.

Read More

Coffee culture and spiritual braces

By

On 25.03.2016

In Gas station chains - cafe

Starbucks is having problems. Again. At this time, customers in California believe they have not enough milk in their latte. IMHO (personal opinion of the author), whatever has been written about Starbucks it’s more popular than all other coffee houses in America put together.

Any American shopping mall is full of coffee establishments, but half the tables there are usually free. Only at Starbucks you may see a line of people from opening morning hours till late at night before closing. It’s coffee culture and “spiritual braces”.

You can only manage what you can measure

Still, there’s actually a real problem remaining. Underfill of milk is the most common complaint of customers at gas stations. You will be surprised how easily it can be solved. Milk actually is poured badly because the coaffee machines aren’t being washed properly.

Read More

Coffee anti-franchise or long live individuality!

By

On 18.02.2016

In Gas station chains - non-fuel businesses

The article on “anti-francise” became one of the most popular materials of www.vc.ru over the past week! Thanks to everyone who showed their keen interest and participated in the discussion in the comments. Below are a slightly abridged translation.

Coffee anti-franchise or long live individuality!

I got interested in the theme of the acquisition of various franchises after my close friends, whose children have grown up to the age of an earning money to live independently, several times invited me as a business consultant, waiting for an expert to answer the question: “To take or not to take the franchise? And if we take it, which one?”.

The younger generation which does not get disconnected from the social networks, found it a tempting offer to open a franchise as their own business – a “coffee to go” sales point. This idea has been picked up on the web-site “VKontakte. For parents, it is encouraging to hear that the children want to “develop their business by buying a franchise that guarantees success”, but our generation can’t be fooled by these tricks. Our “internal filter” was originally set up to fight the tempting offers from the category of “Pay me and become rich”, being affected by business experience in the 90s. It was curious to see what “VKontakte” had to offer. Alas, the more I studied the issue, the more i got turned away from the idea of such a franchise.

Read More

Express-coaching for top officials in 30 minutes

By

On 29.12.2015

In Gas station chains - cafe, Gas station chains - non-fuel businesses, RusHOLTS

This conversation has been translated in English with some abridgements. Full version >>

Line personnel from procurement departments is recommended to refrain from reading.

Alexander Kuzmin is an expert with over 20 years in non-fuel business of gas stations and the implementation of projects of its reorganization. With this huge experience, Alexander is ready to offer the plan for the changes to the chain of stations of the federal scale in just 30 minutes.

His partner in this conversation is the head of federal chain which is bringing together more than one thousand stations located over the entire territory of the Russian Federation. In our dialogue, he will be called the Leader.

Leader: Alexander, you promised to tell me about the most important changes that I need to carry out so that customers perceive our stations on a par with the best European chains. And you promised to do so in just 30 minutes.

Alexander Kuzmin: Before you begin the conversation i would like to clarify what are the specific goals you want to achieve?

Leader: For over the last five years there has been a significant strengthening of the position of vertically integrated oil companies, whose major shareholders are various state-controlled structures. In the eyes of the vast majority of Russian citizens oil companies and their corresponding chains of gas stations are clearly perceived as being a part of  the “state”. All attemps to prove them otherwise had the opposite effect.

Alexander Kuzmin: In simple terms, Russian drivers should take your gas station as being the same as “cool” foreign ones. Is that so?

Read More

Gas stations’ non-core businesses processing – customer’s opinion

By

On 14.12.2015

In Gas station chains - non-fuel businesses, RusHOLTS

Pain-in-the-assLESS or “Three in a boat: men, poverty and dogs”*

 

 «I have known a Russian learn Chinese within six months. English! they learn it while you are talking to them. The children play at chess and study the violin for their own amusement.

The world will be glad of Russia when she has put her house in order»

Jerome K. Jerome

The soviet film “Three Men in a Boat” perfectly captures the spirit of Jerome’s novel, although there’s a little that’s been left from the original masterpiece. The road sets a special mood and genre of ironic travel writing is very close to my working mood. The irony is the best way to survive the road adventures both for a traveling person and for the host country. There’s no such thing as perfect road, car, gas station, caf? in this world.  Instead there are cozy and clean, minimalistic and heaped up, making part of a chain or solitary places. You want to go at one gas station, the other one you want to pass.

“When we got to Datchet we took out the hamper, the two bags, and the rugs and coats, and such like things, and started off to look for diggings. We passed a very pretty little hotel, with clematis and creeper over the porch; but there was no honeysuckle about it, and, for some reason or other, I had got my mind fixed on honeysuckle, and I said: “Oh, don’t let’s go in there! Let’s go on a bit further, and see if there isn’t one with honeysuckle over it”.

History repeats itself several times, and the characters of Jerome were nearly left on the street without an overnight stay. Do you think that drivers choose gas station somehow differently? I can talk about the “rational” choice of the people for hours.

Contemporaries did not accept Jerome’s prose as the “real literature”, and yet hundred years later readers are still smiling over the adventures of his characters: they have the charm of spontaneity. It would seem that the Russian people should feel closer to “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” By the way, I can describe the exact location, range and volume of fuel sales, call the management and staff by their names, remember caf?’s menu in almost all of gas stations located alongside the road which once was traveled by Mr. Radishchev. What Thames and adventure of the George, Jim and Harris trio mean to me? But it seems that the irony is closer to my heart and soul than social satire. I smile once again, re-reading the description of the process of packing the road basket, comparing it to the formation of commodity matrix of a store in gas station and “heroes” of economic reports are no longer extras in a sad play staged day after day, not understanding the overall meaning or their own role.

Read More

Remote coffee machines monitoring – Saving 2 billion. Part 4

By

On 26.11.2015

In Gas station chains - cafe, Gas station chains - non-fuel businesses

Part 4. Remote monitoring of coffee machines

Dmitry Petrov: It’s not the first time I hear from you about the remote monitoring of coffee machines – what’s that?

Artem Astafurov: Remote monitoring and control system is designed to bring together in a single control network an unlimited number of coffee machines installed on your chain of filling stations, regardless of their location. The main functions of this system will be the remote control of the settings, on-line monitoring of technical condition, collection of statistical data, as well as the exclusion of the risks of abuse and / or unskilled actions by gas stations’ personnel and service engineers.

In addition, the remote monitoring system allows timely identification and prevention of attempts to change coffee machines or data-sensors settings. If you try make any unauthorized changes, the system automatically restores the specified configuration parameters, and in case of disconnection of hardware and software module, it will immediately report violations in accordance with information algorithm (sending notification in an agreed format – in the form of SMS or e-mail to the list of responsible recipients).

Dmitry Petrov: I.e. instead of choosing the “best” of beans, you are suggesting installing yet another IT-solution?

Read More

Customer service

By

On 20.11.2015

In Gas station chains - cafe, RusHOLTS

The way to a man’s customer’s heart is through his stomach. The girls also love a cup tasty coffee, and the long journey makes everybody equal. The role of the caf? at gas station is to provide a tasty meal!

Gas is the same and let’s say it is equally good or even great everywhere, but we brew some gourmet coffee and will treat our customer with tasty buns, and now he’s here to stay with us. Real life experts are rubbing their hands as if they were saying “Wait ‘till we’ll tell you”. And indeed they do tell a never-ending story about customer service.

Recently I have found on the Internet one such story.

It happens that two experts are looking at the same situation from different angles. It does not change the components of the situation – poor customer service is still being that way. But an expert on corporate culture sees a way out in the education of adults, which is a hard task. From where I stand it seems to be as one more validation of propriety of non-fuel business automated straight-line organization. I swear, half of the dialogue between the well-known business coach Konstantin Kharsky and an unknown employee of the gas station would not have happened even if only the business process was organized properly.

This is an audio recording of this story. >> 

I do not know the cost of a liter of gasoline

Drivers often choose the gas station not because of the cost of a liter of gasoline – over the last few years the prices in most gas chains have been almost identical. Chains are competing via related services.

If the driver can fill a full tank or refuel it at 1000 rubles – this is a good and profitable customer. This man before this whole story had no particular preference, but chose this particular chain as it  guaranteed the quality of fuel and related services. Pretty ordinary course of conduct of our time.

Read More

Page 2 of 3

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén