Title: Simulation modelling for retail self-checkouts: performance analysis and optimisation

Authors: Shu Zhou; Taeho Park; Jin Kyung Kwak

Addresses: San Jose State University, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0164, USA ' San Jose State University, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0164, USA ' Ewha Womans University, 52 Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03760, South Korea

Abstract: Many retail stores have installed self-checkout lanes in addition to their regular cashier counters. However, there has been no quantitative research regarding whether self-checkouts actually decrease average wait times during checkout. This study conducted a simulation to estimate customer wait times at checkouts of both types - cashiers and self-checkout. The simulation parameters were modified based on real-world data from an existing study. We present the patterns of the wait times, number of waiting customers over arrival rates, and the number of checkout counters. We also demonstrate use of the goal programming optimisation method to show how retail stores could manage self-checkout lanes along with conventional cashier lanes.

Keywords: self-checkout; simulation optimisation; retail stores; service operations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSTM.2024.145233

International Journal of Services Technology and Management, 2024 Vol.29 No.2/3/4, pp.97 - 106

Received: 22 Nov 2024
Accepted: 13 Dec 2024
Published online: 28 Mar 2025 *