IH02-FeneliaKosasih
From IEOR 170 Spring 2007
Problem Statement
One important goal people have in mind when it comes to grocery shopping is to reduce the amount of time needed for shopping while still being able to obtain what needed to be bought. Sometimes, not being able to find the items we want can be frustrating since it prolongs our shopping time. I personally prefer shopping in a grocery store that I am familiar with rather than going to a new one because I can find things much faster. Another frustrating thing that prolongs our shopping time is long lines at the checkout counter. Some grocery stores have implemented solutions to solve the problem of long lines, by having self-service electronic checkout counter. The solution to improve the ease of finding an item is, however, not yet implemented. I talked to a number of people, and most agree that other than being frustrated by the long lines, they are frustrated by how difficult it could be to locate the item that they want to buy. Often times, they end up circling through the whole store to look for what they want. In the end, instead of getting only what they need, they often have to browse through the store and ended up buying other things that they do not need.
The purpose of this project is to find a better design that can allow customers to find their items quicker and spend less time doing grocery shopping.
Target User Group
The target user group will be the customers at grocery stores, specifically the students or working adults who are usually busy and have little time to spare for grocery shopping. The solution is especially useful for new customers who are still unfamiliar with the grocery store, or for customers looking for items that they do not usually buy.
Related or Complimentary Solutions
- 1. Self-service electronic checkout counter
- 2. "Portable Shopping System", which is essentially a portable scanner which does both price scan and checkout as well as some other functions.
Proposed solution
A possible solution is to have several stations where customers can create their shopping list by selecting the items they would like to purchase. The customers can select the quantity of each items they desire to buy and the list display each price and automatically total the price so that the customer can expect the amount he/she is paying for. There should also be option to include membership number to be eligible for member discount. After the customer has finished creating his/her list, it can be printed out, and the print out will include a map of the store and the location of each of the items listen in the shopping list. The customers can also access the same website from home and have their shopping list and map prepared from home. If the customer has forgotten to bring the list with him, he can retrieve his saved list from the database by logging into his account.
After the shopping list is printed out, the shopper can quicky look for his/her items. There will be pictures on the shopping list for the shopper to match his/her items with. After obtaining all his/her desired items, the customer can proceed to checkout.
The following is a sample of the prompts that can be shown on the screen:
Problem Context and Forces
In looking for the items, it is important that the customer knows the name of the item (not necessarily the brand). This enables the user to enter keywords into the search database. The problem solution might not work if the customer usually buys the item through visual recognition, without knowing the name at all.
Also, for customers who are in a rush for time, or already knows what he is getting and where the item is, the problem solution might not apply.
The user should be literate and at least somewhat familiar or had experience with automated machines.
