I’ve been thinking a bit about operations science and quality assurance for a few weeks now.  I think there could be some parallels to performing loss prevention.

If no one counted the cash at the end of the day, how much would go missing?  The answer: you can’t tell if you’re not measuring it.

So one must at least collect some information.  Great, now you have an idea of how much might be missing.  If you collect that data over time, and compare it, you may also find out if you’re doing better or worse.  But one must go further to actually get to the root cause and determine accountability.  This is where video is an important complement to one’s point of sale data.

If one can consistently demonstrate the ability to detect and correct a problem, then the corrective action provided is not simply a momentary act of containment.  In operations science it’s most desirable to create an “irreversible corrective action” (ICA).  The goal of an ICA is to create a solution to a problem that eliminates the problem in such a way that it cannot reoccur.  However an “ICA” can be invalidated when change occurs.  So when dealing with change, (such as new employees, new sales promotions, new application features, new processes and so on) the corrective action may need to be modified or be re-introduced.  Quality control and loss prevention are a continuous process.

If you just install cameras and a POS monitoring system, but never look at it,  at best you won’t know if you’re reducing “shrink”.  At worst, a reduction in shrink is likely only temporary as people figure out that it’s not being used.    If you want continuous prevention, your employees need to know the system exists and see it being used.  You need a easy, quick, repeatable process you can continously apply.  One that tells you what to look for and where, so you don’t have to spend too much time searching.