Creativity and Innovation Report: Trolley Scanner for Supermarkets

This report investigates the challenges faced by the Australian supermarket industry, particularly the issue of long checkout queues and customer frustration. The assignment focuses on applying the Applied Creativity & Innovation model to address these challenges, proposing the implementation of a trolley scanner system. The report details the problem identification, idea generation, evaluation of concepts, and design of the trolley scanner. It outlines the components of the smart trolley, including scanning, payment methods, and database connectivity. The development process, system design requirements, strengths, and limitations are also analyzed. The report emphasizes the benefits for customers, such as reduced waiting times and self-assessment of product prices, and suggests solutions like AI integration. The conclusion highlights the project's aim to enhance business efficiency and improve customer experience within the supermarket industry, supported by the IPPCO method and collaborative decision-making techniques, and includes a mind map and bibliography.

CREATIVITY AND
INNOVATION

Introduction
 Within the competitive Australian supermarket industry, purchases are
made in large numbers and thus payments and waiting in long queues
can be a major issue
 The topic introduces the concept of managing creativity and innovation
to transform the business functions and overcome the issues
 The industry aims to reduce the waiting time at the supermarkets and
ensure less number of crowd waiting at the checkout counter
 The new smart technology using Scanners in Trolley can be a major
innovation solution to the challenges

Challenges faced
 After purchasing from the supermarket chain, the customers have to
wait in queue to make payments, which consumers lot of time and effort
 The customers become frustrated and it could even create some
negative mind sets among them, which questions the company’s
towards the problem
 While generating ideas, the challenge was about being unable to draw in
enough information and knowledge about the decline of sales within the
supermarket industry

Methods for idea establishment
 The Applied Creativity & Innovation model can be
used to manage innovation and creativity
 This kind of activity enables innovative methods
and techniques that can be adopted by the
employees within the supermarket industry
 The innovation managed through introduction of
Trolley scanner can improve the professional
outlook of the supermarket and improve business
performance
 The convergent thinking technique of this Applied
creativity and innovation model ensures individual
creativity and innovation from the ideas presented
by the employees

Identification of issue or problem
 The long waiting time at the supermarket chains and increase in time
consumption has resulted in bringing innovation at the companies
 The consumers experience negative mind sets about the company and
its functions
 The lack of sales revenue and profit level achieved in business
 Time consuming process of making payments at the checkout counter
within the supermarket chain

Focus of the project
 The actual focus of the project is to introduce the Trolley scanner and deal with the
challenge or issue faced within the supermarket industry
 The Trolley scanner should automatically monitor the product and its price, when the
product is put in the trolley, furthermore create convenience for the clients to make
payments
 The Applied Creativity & Innovation model to facilitate convergent and divergent
thinking
 This facilitates innovation, creativity and decision making collaboratively by the team
members too

Exploration and idea generation
 The application of this model within the supermarket
industry could benefit the businesses to use the
creative thinking tools and support long term
innovation and facilitate higher engagement of
project team members
 The involvement of organisational manger or leader
is essential to promote good understanding of
organisational behaviours and idea generation
techniques too
 The different idea generation methods include the
pass fail evaluation, use of evaluation matrix and
SWOT analysis
 The IPPCO techniques ensures better understanding
of the problem and determine the best possible
solution to facilitate innovation and creativity

Evaluation of ideas and concepts
 The highly competitive supermarket industry
has enabled the business organisations to
implement advanced technologies and
facilitate innovation and creativity for raising
the business performance
 The Creative Problem Solving Institute
proposed the IPPCO technique for evaluating
the opportunities and benefits with the use
of scanner in trolleys
 The Trolley acts as a traditional barcode
reader, which has made the processes a lot
more seamless and shopping experience
much more convenient for the clients

Trolley scanner design
 The trolley scanner design is based on a project that
progress on through various stages for development and
functioning of the Trolley Scanner
 The components are based the Technology Evaluation
and Commercialisation Module Guide that can validate
the processes and facilitate the designing of the Trolley
Scanner
 The product description is based on the TPM worksheets
that help in drawing relevant information and conduct
the critical analysis for the project
 The Trolley scanner design includes various components,
all of which are allocated to different project team
memebrs and to meet the design criteria requirements

Major components of the Smart
Trolley Design
 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

Design of Trolley scanner

Trolley scanner development
 The Applied Creativity and innovation has supported the development of
the Trolley Scanner and provided the best innovative solution through
collaborative 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 process too
 The Barcode scanner and a screening device should be set up for
scanning the product and its price while the touch screen provided
display for navigation purposes.

Trolley scanner development
requirements
 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
 Product scanning tool
 Wheels used to move the trolley
 Portable device power supply required to produce electricity and make
the Smart Trolley functional

Analysis of system design
requirements

Strengths of the project
 By accomplishing the project, the supermarket chains would be able to
become more focused on the customers; shopping experience and
create positive mind sets among them through innovation
 The project can also benefit the team members to work collaboratively,
which should improve their skills and knowledge through idea
generation and collective decision making
 The time at checkout lines and payment process would be reduced to a
large extent
 The advanced application integrated into the Trolley Scanner should
boost functionality and ensure automation of digital receipts and
prevent wasting paper too

Suitability for the customers
 With the lesser time required while making purchases from the
supermarket chain and lower waiting time in queues at the shop, it
could suit the customers
 Self assessment of product and its price should be possible by the
clients themselves after putting the item in the cart
 Higher engagement of stakeholders including the Budget or Safety
Committee, Customer service representatives, Technical department
workers and Master Mind groups
 This would speed up the implementation process and ensure continuous
improvement all throughout the business functioning within the industry

Limitations and solutions
 Errors during implementation process of the Trolley Scanner can be a
major limitation to successful product purchase and billing
 Lack of knowledge and understanding about the seamless shopping
experience
 The customers still need to visit the checkout after making purchases
and evaluating the prices during the shopping process
 The use of can and Go technology is a major innovative solution to the
challenge
 The Scanner Trolley should incorporate Artificial Intelligence or AI
technology and augmented reality

Conclusion
 The report was prepared to focus on the challenges within the
supermarket industry and how the project team members were engaged
in generation of ideas and decision making
 The long waiting time in queues at supermarket chain stores and
excessive time taken in the checkout would be resolved
 This could though be supported by evaluation of new ideas,
collaborative decision making and on the basis of IPPCO method or
technique
 The use of Trolley Scanner aimed to improve the business functions’
efficiency and enrich the experiences of customers within the
supermarket industry of Australia

Mind map for Deliberate creative
thinking and innovation

Bibliography
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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.
 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.

Thank you