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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3
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).

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Quick response to danger
There might be dangers related to the health and safety policies with the use of such
Smart trolleys at many supermarket chains and thus to respond to the danger and risks,
furthermore progress the solutions effectively, there is need to engage stakeholders and also
the Budget or Safety Committee, Customer service representatives, Technical department
workers, Master Mind groups (Raj et al., 2018). This would assist in developing the
innovative solution, furthermore ensure speeding up the implementation process and ensure
continuous improvement in the delivery of services within the concerned industry (Sancheti
et al., 2018).
Limitations and solutions
In spite of the advantages, there are few limitations too caused due to flawed
implementations. Due to this, the customers still have need to visit the checkout at the end of
this entire shopping process, which can make the retail companies to loose significant floor
space needed to store the handheld scanners. The aim of delivering a seamless shopping
experience has not been understood properly, which has also posed as a major limitation. Few
solutions to the limitations and issue are:
 The use of can and Go technology is recommended as a solution to the issue, which
can replace the handheld scanner and allow clients to use the app on their
smartphones while making payments immediately
 The mobile payment services are easy, which can be aligned with the scanner present
in the trolley and thus improve addition of scanned items to the virtual cart quite
easily
 The Scanner Trolley could incorporate Artificial Intelligence or AI technology and
augmented reality for delivering better customer experience

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 The Proximity-based in-store advertising is also recommended for allowing
notifications provided to the customers’ smart phones furthermore ensure making
them aware of the new innovations within the supermarket industry and influence
their buying behaviours too.
Conclusion
The report was prepared to discuss about the major challenges within the supermarket
industry and how this challenge enabled the project team to focus on idea generation,
evaluation and exploration to facilitate innovation and creativity all throughout the business
functioning. To deal with the problem of long waiting time and elongated payment process,
the Smart Trolley Scanner was introduced to create a seamless shopping experience for the
customers, which has been supported by IPPCO method and supported ideas. The analysis of
design and development methods further contributed to the implementation of this innovative
solution and ensured betterment of business functionality with the use of this Trolley Scanner
within the Australian Supermarket industry.
Mind map

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Figure: Mind map for Deliberate Thinking and creativity (Sancheti et al., 2018)
References
Amabile, T. M., & Pratt, M. G. (2016). The dynamic componential model of creativity and
innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning. Research in
Organizational Behavior, 36, 157-183.
Anderson, N., Potočnik, K., & Zhou, J. (2014). Innovation and creativity in organizations: A
state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding
framework. Journal of management, 40(5), 1297-1333.
Auernhammer, J., & Hall, H. (2014). Organizational culture in knowledge creation, creativity
and innovation: Towards the Freiraum model. Journal of Information Science, 40(2),
154-166.
Černe, M., Jaklič, M., & Škerlavaj, M. (2013). Authentic leadership, creativity, and
innovation: A multilevel perspective. Leadership, 9(1), 63-85.

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Dawkhar, K., Dhomase, S., & Mahabaleshwarkar, S. (2015). Electronic Shopping Cart For
Effective Shopping based on RFID. International journal of innovative research in
electrical, electronics, instrumentation and management engineering, 3(1).
Dawson, P., & Andriopoulos, C. (2014). Managing change, creativity and innovation. Sage.
Johnston, R. E., & Bate, J. D. (2013). The power of strategy innovation: a new way of linking
creativity and strategic planning to discover great business opportunities. Amacom.
Kamble, S., Meshram, S., Thokal, R., & Gakre, R. (2014). Developing a Multitasking
Shopping Trolley Based On RFID Technology. International Journal of Soft
Computing and Engineering (IJSCE), 3(6).
Kumar, R., Gopalakrishna, K., & Ramesha, K. (2013). Intelligent shopping cart. International
Journal of Engineering Science and Innovative Technology, 2(4), 499-507.
Ledbury, S. (2015). Smart supply chain solutions for ecommerce distribution. MHD Supply
Chain Solutions, 45(3), 26.
Raj, S. Y., Karthee, K., Sundaram, S. K., Nishal, M., & Prasad, K. R. (2018). Increasing
reliability and productivity in hypermarkets by queuing theory analysis and a smart
shopping cart-based system. International Journal of Business Excellence, 14(4), 545-
556.
Sancheti, K. K., Patil, V. P., & Bhor, P. G. (2018). QR based Smart Cart. International
Journal, 3(5).
Sarooghi, H., Libaers, D., & Burkemper, A. (2015). Examining the relationship between
creativity and innovation: A meta-analysis of organizational, cultural, and
environmental factors. Journal of business venturing, 30(5), 714-731.

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Serrat, O. (2017). Harnessing creativity and innovation in the workplace. In Knowledge
Solutions (pp. 903-910). Springer, Singapore.
Somech, A., & Drach-Zahavy, A. (2013). Translating team creativity to innovation
implementation: The role of team composition and climate for innovation. Journal of
management, 39(3), 684-708.
Sung, S. Y., & Choi, J. N. (2014). Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of
training and development investments on learning and innovation in
organizations. Journal of organizational behavior, 35(3), 393-412.
Vidya, K. P., Swathi, K. M., Chaitra, D., Jayalakshmi, S. H., Kumar, M. M., Sneha, H. R., ...
& Puneetha, B. H. (2018, August). Virtual Cart: Novel Approach for Revamping
Smart Shopping Experience. In 2018 IEEE Distributed Computing, VLSI, Electrical
Circuits and Robotics (DISCOVER) (pp. 135-140). IEEE.
Willems, K., Smolders, A., Brengman, M., Luyten, K., & Schöning, J. (2017). The path-to-
purchase is paved with digital opportunities: An inventory of shopper-oriented retail
technologies. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 124, 228-242.
Yewatkar, A., Inamdar, F., Singh, R., & Bandal, A. (2016). Smart cart with automatic billing,
product information, product recommendation using rfid & zigbee with anti-
theft. Procedia Computer Science, 79, 793-800.
Yoshida, D. T., Sendjaya, S., Hirst, G., & Cooper, B. (2014). Does servant leadership foster
creativity and innovation? A multi-level mediation study of identification and
prototypicality. Journal of Business Research, 67(7), 1395-1404.

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Reflection report
The individual reflection is based on the way of working and behaviours while
working in a group consisting of 4 members. As a member of the group, I found myself
being a part of the supermarket service company department. I was assigned to work with
three other group memebrs and also discuss individually by providing opinions and ideas that
could benefit the business and allow for dealing with the challenges with much ease and
efficiency. I also made sure to communicate information about the challenges faced here,
especially the issues of higher waiting time at the supermarket chains and elongated shopping
process due to waiting in queues at the checkout counter. This helped us to tackle the issues
in a collaborative manner and put efforts on managing change, furthermore generate new
ideas and assess those to make a final decision in end. Anderson, Potočnik and Zhou (2014)
opined that the success innovativeness of an organization is reliant on the effectiveness of the
evaluation methods that are being considered by the ventures for further development. In this

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relation, I personally think that the Evaluation matrix could be a viable and effective method
to assess the relevance of these ideas provided by me as well as the other members present in
the group. This helped in comparing the benefits that can be delivered by implementing those
ideas and transforming those into relevant solutions, furthermore ensure overcoming the
issues with much ease and efficiency. There were few challenging situations faced by me
while working in the group, because the ideas and opinions of each of the group members
differed, which also created conflicts and misunderstandings. I, though, managed to
communicate properly and made sure that all the aspects are discussed to develop innovative
solutions to the problems, furthermore ensure smooth business functioning and generate ideas
that could benefit the business to achieve the desired results in the end with much ease and
effectiveness.
I have been assigned as the leader of the team or group and has been provided with
the roles and responsibilities to manage the team and make them guide towards the shared
vision and goals or objectives to be achieved within the supermarket industry. As a group
leader, I kept motivating and encouraging them to focus on their individual goals and put
efforts to fulfil their own roles and responsibilities appropriately. I communicated with them
and also involved the various stakeholders in business to discuss about the issues and
challenges faced within the industry, furthermore apply the creativity and innovation model
to generate new ideas that could bring fruitful results in the form of innovation and enhanced
business performance. The transformation or democratic leadership that I followed helped me
a lot to encourage the team members and consider their individual views and opinions before
any final decision. This not only improved my leadership skills and qualities, but also create
new scopes and opportunities for me to learn and educate properly. Sung and Choi (2014)
opined that the development of the group training sessions are designed based on the
evaluation of the needs of the employees. In this relation, I managed to arrange training

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sessions for the group members by assessing their needs for development, which further
strengthened their own capabilities and made them perform to their potential at the
workplace. I have also learned about the potential of employees and how it could be
encouraged through motivation, encouragement and developing approaches to raise their
morale level too. Based on their performances, I made sure to praise them for their
performances, which also made them motivated and encouraged to perform to their potential
and work as an unit through proper communication and improve the decision making
capability in unison as well. This would ensure making the Trolley scanners slowly gain
popularity within the stores and ensure enriching the shopping experience for the visitors in
the supermarket chains too.
Few companies fail to integrate the right components in the training curriculum,
which could be a major limitation for improving the business performance. Serrat (2017)
observed that the training and developmental sessions that are provided to the employees
must be related to handle the customers properly and provide them with seamless experience
during the shopping process while the developmental sessions should allow the workers
within the supermarket industry to understand the green procedures. Again, Somech and
Drach-Zahavy (2013) opined that time is a major limitation, because without the availability
of enough time, the services would likely not be able to bring the desired results, which might
further affect the brand reputation and make customers gain negative mind sets about the
services delivered within the industry. As a part of the system design team, I made sure to
evaluate the various components of the Trolley Scanner to be implemented at the
supermarket chains for creating a better shopping experience for the customers. I even
conducted a feasibility analysis with the involvement of the organisational manager and the
other employees to discuss about the product and its benefits during the shopping process. It
started with brainstorming sessions, where all the project team memebrs provided their ideas,

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views and opinions, furthermore allowed me to address the problems and find out the most
suitable innovative solution to the problem. The groups were arranged by the team leader into
concept groups and identified as ripe, unripe and concept, based on which the different views
and opinions were assessed, thus assisted me to get prepared for the effective development of
ideas and concepts at a faster rate too. The use of IPPCO technique also helped in team
building exercises, which facilitated the development of innovative and creative thinking
ways needed to design potential solutions to the problems, issues and challenges faced during
the project and by the businesses within the supermarket industry. All these idea generation
and innovative thinking strengthened my skills, knowledge and expertise, furthermore
facilitate collaborative decision making and team management in a better way too.
To promote the reflection report, I have been a part of the technical department,
which allowed me to focus on managing customer centricity by analysing the different
components required to enhance the technical functions and ensure transformation of
business through the introduction of the Trolley Scanner. I understood that the major
challenges associated with the long waiting time in queues and elongated checkout process
after purchasing goods at the supermarket chain can lead to bad experience during shopping
by the customers, which might even question the organisation’s ability to prioritise on the
consumers’ needs along with lack of potential to facilitate creativity and innovation too. With
the assessment of major technical components including the object sensor, tracking device,
product scanner present at the trolley and wireless device in it along with the functionalities, I
have made sure to work as a team and make decisions about implementing the process
effectively and make sure to bring continuous improvement. This would enhance the
experiences of customers and even make them visit the stores, as the supermarket chains
would be less crowded with automated billing replacing the traditional billing at the checkout
counters, furthermore enrich the shopping experiences. All these knowledge and information

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acqusitions along with idea generation should also benefit me to strengthen my skills and
knowledge and allow me to progress in my professional career with my potential too.