Creativity and Innovation Report: Supermarket Challenges and Solutions

This report examines the application of creativity and innovation within the Australian supermarket industry. The student explores challenges like long customer wait times and proposes a trolley scanner as a solution. The report details the Applied Creativity & Innovation model, including divergent and convergent thinking, and the IPPCO technique. It covers idea generation, evaluation, design considerations, and the development of the trolley scanner, addressing aspects like user interface, database connectivity, and payment methods. The project focuses on improving customer experience and streamlining the checkout process, offering insights into how the supermarket industry can enhance business performance through technological advancements and innovative solutions.

Running head: CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
Creativity and innovation
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Challenges within the industry...................................................................................................4
Methods used to establish the idea.............................................................................................4
Definition of the problem...........................................................................................................4
Project focus...............................................................................................................................5
Exploration and idea generation.................................................................................................5
Exploration of similar ideas.......................................................................................................6
Idea evaluation...........................................................................................................................6
Trolley scanner design...............................................................................................................6
Trolley scanner development.....................................................................................................7
Strengths of the project..............................................................................................................8
Suitability for the customers......................................................................................................9
Quick response to danger...........................................................................................................9
Limitations and solutions...........................................................................................................9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Mind map.................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The Australian supermarket industry is competitive and due to this, a large number of
customers visit the supermarket chains daily to make purchase of goods and services for
fulfilling their needs and needs. The report will present an idea about how the supermarket
industry will manage creativity and innovation to transform the business and ensure smooth
business functioning. The industry aims to reduce the waiting time at the supermarkets and
ensure less number of crowd waiting at the checkout counter while billing by introducing a
new idea of getting scanner in the trolleys (Yewatkar et al., 2016). It will allow for
automatically recording the price of product as soon it is out in the trolley and thus allow
customers to pay their respective bill at the checkout counter without needing to wait.
Challenges within the industry
There are various challenges as seen from the generation of ideas, which represent the
fact that the Waiting time for the customers at the supermarkets has increased consistently
over the past few years. It has been a problematic aspect that after making purchase of the
products, while checking in the counter to make payments, they have to stand in queue and
wait for their turn, which is time consuming and also takes a lot of effort to stand for long
time in the queue (Amabile & Pratt, 2016). On the other hand, with the increased waiting
time, customers often feel frustrated and it could even create some negative mind sets among
them, furthermore make the super market unable to draw in enough clients from next time.
During the idea generation as well, the challenge was being unable to draw in enough
information and knowledge about the decline of sales at present within the supermarket
industry (Anderson, Potočnik & Zhou, 2014).

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Methods used to establish the idea
The Applied Creativity & Innovation model has been favourable considering the
context, which ensures developing new ideas within the supermarket industry with a specific
focus on managing innovation and creativity all throughout. This kind of activity enables
innovative methods and techniques that can make the employees within the supermarket
industry to find new ways of innovation and creativity all throughout. It is though based on
the economic growth and market conditions, because when a company has been doing well in
terms of economy, this innovation managed through introduction of Trolley scanner can
improve the professional look of the supermarket, furthermore ensure that it remains
consistent all throughout, creating some positive impact on the business functioning and
performance too (Somech & Drach-Zahavy, 2013). The convergent thinking method of the
Applied creativity and innovation model further has helped in managing individual creativity
and at the same time, manage the human resources to transform the business and ensure
creativity and innovation all throughout too.
Definition of the problem
The definition of the problem represents the long waiting hours at the supermarket
after making purchases, i.e., after putting the products in the trolley and waiting in long
queues to get the turn, finally make payment at the checkout counter. This problem has not
only discouraged many clients, but also has been one of the major causes of overcrowded
supermarket. This creates negative mind sets among the customers and also questions the
company’s approach towards mitigating these risks and challenges furthermore (Černe, Jaklič
& Škerlavaj, 2013). Due to this, the sales may fall and even the brand image can deteriorate,
thus leading to lower sales and poor revenue generation too.

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Project focus
The main focus of the project is to define the challenge or issue that has been faced by
the supermarket industry and make sure to introduce the Trolley scanner, which can
automatically monitor the product and price of it, as soon as it is put in the trolley, thus make
it easy and convenient for the customers to make the payment without any delay. This can be
though done with the accumulation of data and information and use the Applied Creativity &
Innovation model to facilitate convergent and divergent thinking and facilitate innovation and
creativity within the industry (Dawson & Andriopoulos, 2014).
Figure: Trolley scanner (Dawson & Andriopoulos, 2014)
Exploration and idea generation
The objective of applying the Applied Creativity & Innovation is to understand the
concepts of divergent and convergent thinking for finding innovation solutions to the issues
or challenges faced. The application of this model within the supermarket industry could
benefit the businesses to use the creative thinking tools and support long term innovation
through greater participation in work groups and project teams. This would benefit every
stakeholders and even the project team members to work collaboratively and share

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individual’s views and opinions for allowing the manager to make decision (Sarooghi,
Libaers & Burkemper, 2015). The application of Applied Creativity & Innovation requires
the involvement of manager or leader of the organisation who can promote good
understanding and enable creativity and innovation all throughout.
As the major challenge was the high waiting time of customers within the
supermarket industry and lack of consistency in delivering the services, the group members
managed to conduct a meeting to share their individual views and opinions. This required
sound knowledge and skills of the challenge and then explore different ideas generation
methods that can be applied to the problem (Auernhammer & Hall, 2014). The different idea
generation methods include the pass fail evaluation, use of evaluation matrix and SWOT
analysis that can determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats.
Exploration of similar ideas
Based on the IPPCO, the information about the challenge or issue that has been faced
in evaluated, which further has helped in introducing the new Trolley Scanner and
understanding the benefits and values that could be derived. The potential of the solution to
the problem has been understood as well, which further is assessed to determine its strengths
and weaknesses, finally making justification of methods and techniques required to mitigate
the risks and overcome issues that might be faced in the future within the supermarket
industry too (Yoshida et al., 2014).
Idea evaluation
The highly competitive supermarket industry has enabled the business
organisations to implement advanced technologies for contributing to the betterment of
business performance through performing of tasks at a better rate and within less time. This
has been done with the ideas that have harvested ad designed the potential solutions to the

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problems of long waiting time at the queues. The ideas have been evaluated with the help of
brainstorming sessions and also by capturing the different ideas, views and opinions of the
team members involved in the project (Sung & Choi, 2014). The Creative Problem Solving
Institute proposed the IPPCO technique for evaluating the opportunities and benefits with the
use of scanner in trolleys. It has derived the benefits of the product such as the small
touchscreen allows for checking the cost as the product is put in the trolley, acts as a
traditional barcode reader, which has made the processes a lot more seamless. The presence
of image recognition and weight sensor further contributing to the benefits through better
navigation and scrolling at the products purchased, furthermore enhanced the experiences of
consumers’ shopping experience (Serrat, 2017). The new equipment systems and use of
advanced technologies have enabled to act innovatively and maintained consistency in
supermarket delivery services at Australia.
The Six Thinking Hats model is applied to represent the white hat, red hat, black
hat, yellow hat, green hat and blue hat. The white hat has allowed to gain idea based on the
information that is present or exist earlier, which should help in analysing the past trends and
acquire knowledge to overcome the gaps too. The red hat has helped in acquiring knowledge
and information and address the issues and problems while the black hat should enable
looking at the issues and negative outcomes that might be faced while making a decision
regarding the generation of new ideas about the development of Trolley Scanner. The yellow
hat of the model has enabled viewing the various points and make a decision based on the
assessment and analysis of benefits that could be derived. The green hat has enhanced the
level of innovation and creativity among the project team memebrs while the blue hat
allowed for controlling the operational aspects required to overcome the issues and prepare
contingency plan to ensure successful management of project.

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Trolley scanner design
The trolley scanner design is based on a project that progress on through various
stages for developing a proper approach to analyse the components of the product design.
The components are based the Technology Evaluation and Commercialisation Module Guide
that can validate the processes and facilitate the designing of the Trolley Scanner (Vidya et
al., 2018). The first major aspect of the project is to manage idea generation and selection
process to ensure that the various parameters of the project are satisfied. The product
description is based on the TPM worksheets that can extract important information and data,
furthermore perform the critical analysis for the project (Johnston & Bate, 2013). Lastly, the
functional strategic assessment should assist in evaluating the functionality of the innovation
and determine its benefits in terms of marketing, operations, team organisation, technological
implementation and legal aspects too. The new equipment systems and use of advanced
technologies have enabled the trolley scanner design properly and allowed the service
providers within the supermarket industry to act innovatively and deliver cutting edge
solutions within the supermarket industry of Australia (Yewatkar et al., 2016).
Figure: Analysis of system requirements (Yewatkar et al., 2016)

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SMART TROLLEY DESIGN ANALYSIS
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SMART TROLLEY DESIGN ANALYSIS
Smart Trolley Scanner design analysis
The design of the product comprises of various components, which have been allocated to the
different team memebrs of the project for research purposes and initially meet the design
criteria requirements. The major components include:
 The design and user interface of the Smart Trolley Scanner
 Connection to the storage database
 Wireless access and connectivity
 Network architecture
 Scanning product
 Power
 Payment methods and generating the receipts
Trolley scanner development
The Applied Creativity and innovation has supported the development of the Trolley
Scanner largely while the best solutions to innovation perspective have been facilitated
through team decision making techniques. The Red and Blue Hats and Dot voting along with
use of Evaluation checklist, Decision Grid and Screening matrices have supported the
decision making by team members, which also helped in the development of the Trolley
Scanner effectively (Kamble et al., 2014). This also favoured acquiring information and
generating ideas about the design and user interface along with using the components. The
major requirements to be met with the introduction of the Trolley Scanner including easily
moving around, fitting with the security tracking device so that it cannot be taken outside the

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shopping premises and can be used only for making payments online with the use of cards
(Kumar, Gopalakrishna & Ramesha, 2013).
Figure: Trolley scanner design (Dawkhar et al., 2015)
The Barcode scanner and a screening device should be set up for scanning the product
and its price while the touch screen should allow for user friendly approach and ease down
the ability of clients to scroll down the products and its prices that are being purchased. For
the purpose of achieving the functionality, various applications should be implemented such
as network connectivity, database management, wireless connectivity and payment gateway
too (Dawkhar et al., 2015).
The major components used for the development of Trolley Scanner are:
 Object sensor for making sure that the trolley does not collide with another while
moving
 Touch screen smart tablet for providing details about the products in the form of
display
 Tracking device for the synchronisation of security system
 Hand break facility

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 Product scanning tool
 Wheels used to move the trolley
 Portable device power supply required to produce electricity and make the Smart
Trolley functional
Strengths of the project
The major strength of the project is that it could make the supermarket chains to
become customer centric or customer focused with the enrichment of customers’ online
experience. The project undertaken has not only benefited the supermarket industry, but also
has allowed the team members to work collaboratively, which strengthened their skills and
knowledge through idea generation and collective decision making too. The project ensures
managing the use of Scanner Trolley properly at the supermarket chains, which has reduced
the checkout lines and payment process that often consumes a lot of time (Ledbury, 2015).
The application installed in the trolley allows for in-aisle checkout process with a great
shopping experience and the automated digital receipts that are generated prevents need of
keeping additional paper, which is good for the company, environment and also for saving a
significant amount of money for the supermarket chains.
Suitability for the customers
The Trolley Scanner should be suitable for the customers, because it could make them
put lesser effort and time at the supermarket chains while purchasing goods and services
while at the same time, there would no longer be much need of cashiers to manage the sales.
People no longer would need to wait in queues and they could manage self-assessment of the
products and prices by watching the display on the Trolley Scanner’s touch screen.
Therefore, the suitability of the Trolley for the customer is quite high in terms of their
shopping experience (Willems et al., 2017).