6-Step Guide to Implementing Value Stream Mapping in Manufacturing
Learn how value stream mapping (VSM) helps manufacturers reduce costs, eliminate waste, and improve delivery with real-world examples and a step-by-step guide.
Centric Consulting’s Leigh Helsel authored an article for Retail Customer Experience outlining where retailers should invest in AI to defend profitability as grocery margins sink to near-crisis levels.
With grocery net margins falling below 1.5 percent and returns topping $845 billion in 2025, retail executives are under increasing pressure to find efficiencies ahead of the competition.
In her article for Retail Customer Experience, Leigh Helsel, Partner and Retail Lead at Centric Consulting, cuts through the noise to identify where AI investment best moves the needle on margin protection.
Helsel makes the case that while 89 percent of retailers using AI report increased revenue and 95 percent report decreased operating costs, results depend heavily on where and how companies deploy these tools.
She points to inventory and demand forecasting, workforce scheduling, dynamic pricing, and loss prevention as the use cases with the clearest, most measurable ROI, and cautions executives against leading with customer-facing tools before getting back-end operations right.
The article also addresses common pitfalls such as integration costs that blindside teams, poor data quality, and change management failures. She offers a straightforward prescription: define success metrics before implementation, track them relentlessly, and scale what works.
