METRO Group Category Managers pool products to categories. In doing this they focus on the needs of the customers which are served by the respective distribution lines. They bundle products according to usage and create categories such as "hair care" or "everything for kids". Or they group Knorr and Maggi products because customers expect to find sauces, condiments and readymade soups in one shelf. The food area of METRO Group’s distribution lines consists of between 150 and 300 categories, such as "honey", "dish washer powder" or "soft drinks". The assortment structure varies between Metro Cash & Carry and Real, while one distribution line may carry honey as a single category, another may put it in with jams. A third may even have a more detailed classification and may divide chocolate spreads and syrup. Metro Cash & Carry is a further example: spirits are broken down very carefully, as many customers are from the catering business.

Category Managers in each sales division use planograms at three levels to decide just how products in special categories are to be displayed. These levels are assortment level, maintenance group level and store level. In the first step category management designs a so-called master planogram for each category at the top of the planogram hierarchy. This applies to all listed articles in the category and for stores in all regions in Germany. At this level category management generally decides which products are to be carried in stores.

The number of shelves is defined, but not the number of positioning units bmp (469 KB) At this level of planning the product sequence is defined, i.e. in which sequence items are to be stocked in the shelves. In addition, category management defines how many articles are to be stocked behind and above each other in the shelf. The number of minimum facings, which means the number of frontal views of a product, have to comply with two points. Firstly, enough product is to be positioned to safeguard availability and consider certain marketing aspects. Secondly, the order of merchandise and the allocation of exact shelf space is defined. Category management also records changes in listings at this top level. These products have been listed or de-listed by Category Managers.

At the second level in the hierarchy each category is divided into maintenance groups. Each maintenance group is defined by two features.

There are differences between categories. Categories do not all have the same number of regions and product range units. Some categories only have one single region, e.g. "National", and only two product range units. In a different case, category management matches the product range units 4,3 and 2 to the category "dish washer powder" of the region "West". The number 4 describes the largest product range in this maintenance group for the selected region. Product range unit 3 has less articles than 4, while 2 is the smallest product range unit in the region "West". In some cases a large region will be divided further, e.g. if there are two suppliers for pastry in the South.

The average number of maintenance groups in a single category is 35. This is calculated by multiplying the number of product range units with the number of regions: seven times five. The number of maintenance groups varies depending on distribution line and category. Every maintenance group has a different structure. Even the number of product range units can vary significantly and depends on the size of the category. The Knorr/Maggi shelf contains about 550 articles at Real, whereas it is only 40 for sugar. On average a category contains 150 to 250 items.

The store group, i.e. the individual store, is the final level in the hierarchy of planograms. Creating planograms for every store is not going to be viable in practice. It would be too time-consuming for category management to set up and maintain planograms for all 220 food categories. At the present Metro Cash & Carry is the only line to set up individual planograms for their store, because they are the only line with a standardized shelf-structure in all stores. The objective of METRO Group is to continue developing the Shelf Management System and reduce the time required for creating planograms at store level.