Incorporating Unmanned Delivery Robots In Target Australia Pty Ltd's Business Operations

Identification of the potential business venture incorporating a new and emerging technology

Identify a Potential Business venture Incorporating a new or Emerging technology and Produce a report on their venture to the class.

The report focuses on the implementation of a new technology in a company. It can be said that development of technology and science in the company operations leads to the success of the business of the company in terms of competition and profitability. The company chosen for new technology is Target Australia Pty Ltd. The technology that Target Australia Pty Ltd will be using in terms of product delivery is Un-manned delivery options using robotics vehicle. The report will provide a detailed description of the technology used by Target Australia Pty Ltd in its business operations. Apart from that, many issues are pointed out in terms of legal problems, competitor’s pressure, environmental support, governmental support, etc. are to be described in details so that the company can use the technology in order to increase the profitability as well as increase of sales. The main aim of Target Australia Pty Ltd is to increase the customer satisfaction by the use of robots in the Un-manned delivery options so that it can put emphasis on the issue of decreasing sales.

Background of the organization:

Target Australia Pty Ltd is a departmental store in Australia that sells products at mid prices. The company is owned by Wesfarmers and has largest number of stores across different region of Australia. Target Australia Pty Ltd is operating over 125 Target County Stores and 183 Target stores across Australia. The company has reputation as a well known retailer that focuses on selling cosmetics, clothing, electrical, toys, consumer electronics, fitness and homewares. Target Australia Pty Ltd is considered as an iconic retailer in Australia that has dedicated to create style, fashion, and quality, which are affordable to common people. The company is committed to provide quality products and services to the different Australian consumers. However, it can be said that due to the high competition and the different of departmental stores that are ruling in Australia, the sales of the company is gradually decreasing in terms of online platforms. Hence, the company is focused on using technologies that are used in the faster delivery options to the Australian customers (Target, 2017).

Potential need for incorporating the potential venture:

The only major reason for availing the unmanned delivery service is to offer the fastest service and reduce the wait to near zero time. The aim of the Company is to deliver quality products at a low price and in the least possible time. Target Australia Pty Ltd business model is pretty simple (Leonardi et al., 2014). It has been found that the demand for the supply of product is increasing and people are relying on home delivery rather than going to the market and making the purchase. Keeping the increasing demand into consideration, it is important for the Company to deliver the product as quickly as possible. It is for the same reason unmanned delivery service could be the most effective strategy that Target Australia Pty Ltd could undertake in order to fulfill the objectives of the business (Nufer, 2013). In addition to this, there also remain the chance that the Company would also be able to increase the influence and prevalence of its brand in the online market.

Discussion on the acquisition of the new technology

It has been found that the Company has not been gaining the targeted revenue as it has aimed at. The reason could be the increased number of competitors in the market. In order to create greater domination in the market, it is important to come up with an innovative approach that would eventually help to boost the sales of the Company and would target more numbers of consumers (Rubinstein et al., 2014). If the Company becomes successful in the unmanned delivery services, it would create a revolutionary move in the online retail services and Target Australia Pty Ltd would be considered as the innovator of the service in the major operating regions of Australia. In fact, this mode of service would make it challenging for the competitors to compete with Target Australia Pty Ltd and provide similar service to the increasing demanding consumers. In addition to this, the Company would also get the potentiality of making sustainability approach towards the environment (Belik, 2016). It is when the delivery option would no longer depend on fuel based vehicles the Company can contribute towards a greener and pollution free environment as well.

Proposed innovative approach undertaken:

The innovative delivery option that has been undertaken for this retail company is that the company would come up with an app that would give the consumers the ability to control the delivery of the product. It has been found that many organizations like Amazon or Dominos has already considered the option of unmanned delivery in order to reduce the time and cost of delivering products (Hilvert & Swindell, 2013). However, the new and innovative approach that Target Australia Pty Ltd would consider is that the Company would offer the control of the delivery location to the consumers only. The consumers would be able to reset the delivery location as per their convenience. It has been found that many times the location set by the consumers needs to be changed because the delivery takes time and by the mean time, the consumers might have to change the location (Miller, 2013). However, it can be ascertain that the change in location would not be far away.

Most importantly, Target Australia Pty Ltd is responsible for delivering the product in the local regions only and thus, the change in location would not be much complex. It is a unique means of delivering service and that it is expected that in target would undertake this approach, it would eventually increase the revenue of the organization. It has been found that the major delivering areas where the Company has to deliver its products are the college campuses or the office and residential areas where there remains the opportunity of delivering products in the open and wide areas. Thus, there would be enough space for the drone to navigate the area and deliver the same to the consumers. As commented by Friedman and Gerstein, (2014), people are getting accustomed with the changes in the services and the experiences with manned and unmanned services are common scenarios. Robotic cars, use of robots for serving people in restaurants are common things with which people are getting accustomed. Thus, the opportunity of delivering goods by unmanned vehicle is high.

Advantages and benefits of the acquisition of the technology

Advantages and benefits of the acquisition of the technology:

If Target Australia Pty Ltd would undertake the option of unmanned delivery, the organization would be gaining advantages from various aspects of the business. These can be mentioned below:

1. Innovative delivery option: This delivery option looks like a science fiction but in real. The new delivery system has the advantage of delivering the product within a small time.
2. Advantage of delivering in difficult terrain regions: Target Australia Pty Ltd would be able to deliver its products even in the difficult terrain like the mountains, jungles with ease taking the shortest route in many cases (Hilvert & Swindell, 2013). Thus, any kind of restricted area in terms of its infrastructure like the rail lines or the highways can be easily avoided and drone delivery service would do the rest of the work.
3. Cost effectives: Most importantly, unmanned delivery services are cost effective compared to what is paid to the human pilot that remains the only option for delivering the products. When the overall cost of service and delivery reduces, there would remain the opportunity for the Company to reduce their overall cost of the products and they could offer more discounts or free delivery charges to the consumers (Belik, 2016).

It is important to legalize the delivery approach that the organization might undertake. The Company needs to test the delivering options so that it would not create any kind of mis management in the area of operation. Therefore, it is expected that if al, kinds of legal formalities are met and the unmanned delivery vehicle is tested before making the delivery in actual, there remains the possibility that the planned delivery option would be a successful one.

Legal problems:

The legal problems of the use of robotics in the system of Un-manned delivery options are restricted to the daytime use. It is said that the robot vehicles usually do not operate with the persons who are not associated with flights. Those vehicles should yield to another aircraft. The vehicles will fly more than 500 ft above the sky. The operations of the technology will be controlled by the consumers in terms of their time of delivery of items to them. The regulatory body in Australia has formulated laws and orders that will formulate laws of the sky. The robotic vehicles must have the remote pilot certificate. On the other hand, hobbyists are responsible for flying the un-manned vehicle without having two licenses (Visser, Nemoto & Browne, 2014). The regulations of the regulatory departments in Australia have many limitations such as the robotics vehicle operators must keep the unmanned aircraft system in the line of sight. It will effectively prohibit the drone services of Google and Amazon. The operators must be minimum of 16 years of age while having a remote pilot certificate that will come from UAS rating. The vehicles must pass the privacy issues that falls under National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The robotics vehicles of Target Australia Pty Limited have to pass through a background check of TSA. They must have anti collision lights if they will fly in twilight. Otherwise, the vehicles are not allowed to fly in the evening or in low light (Rodrigues et al., 2017).

Environmental issues:

It can be said that the un-manned delivery system of Target Australia Pty Ltd are responsible for having environmental impact. The robotic vehicles in terms of energy consumption are equivalent to run approximately 5 to 6 times as many delivery vans on the road. It can be said that the environment gets affected in terms of the aerial environment. It is seen that the robotic vehicles present in the sky are hurting the creatures above the sky. Apart from that, it is termed as a willful destruction of the aerial habitat of the birds. The energy consumption is also huge (Nicholas & Carswell, 2013). Target Australia Pty Ltd will notice many accidents in the un-manned delivery system technology automation.

Potential steps undertaken for achieving the objectives

It is seen that government of Australia may support the technologies used by Target Australia Pty Ltd in the un-manned system delivery using robotic vehicles in their country like that of the delivery of the products sold by other companies. Government of Australia is responsible for the support of the technology of the company that focused on the exploration of the viability of the delivery of the small parcels that is delivered by the robotic vehicles. It is for the first time Australian company uses this technology for faster delivery of their products to the customers in their online platforms. However, it can be said that the other teams of regulatory bodies of Australia that are related with this technology such as Civil Aviation Authority that will give permission to the company while exploring three major areas such as obstacle avoidance, operations beyond the line of sight, and flights where a single person operates different multiple robotic vehicles (Rodrigues et al., 2017).

It can be said that the robotic vehicles of Target Australia Pty Ltd. are responsible of carrying many deliverables that weighs 3 kg. It is predicted that the company will increase its sales by using this technology. The sales amount will result to almost 85% of the sales. The aim of the company is to deliver the products within 30 minutes of time to the customers around different parts of the world. This approach is considered as the ground-breaking approach that will be safely used by Target Australia Pty Ltd in the logistics industry. The approach is responsible for identifying different types of safety regulations and operating rules that is required for moving the drone industry across different parts of the world (Pajares, 2015).

Robotic vehicles technology in the un-manned system of delivery is a modern technology that will be not only used by Target Australia Pty Ltd. but also many other companies in different sectors. The lists of companies using drone technologies are Just Eat, Yo! Sushi, Walmart, Balfour Beatty, Amazon, Drones for farming, Asda drones, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, etc. These companies use drone technologies for many purposes (Duan & Li, 2014). However, it can be said that as a departmental store after Asda, Target Australia Pty Ltd. is the first company that has used drone technology in the delivery of their products to the customers in Australia. Apart from that, it can be said that there are few companies, which are using the drone technology for delivering customer’s products. The list of companies is Domino’s Pizza, Ukranian Postal Service, Mercedes, Workhorse, etc. These are considered as the direct competitors of Target Australia Pty Ltd. of the delivery services (Yang & Coughlin, 2014).

Identification of difficulties

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the robotics vehicle technology that will be used by Target Australia Pty Ltd.  has numerous benefits. It is mentioned in the report in a detailed manner. However, the company is facing many issues in terms of legal aspects, environmental aspects, competitor’s aspect, etc. Recommendations will be formulated based on the problems that will be faced by Target Australia Pty Ltd.  in terms of implementation of the new technology in the different business operations in terms of product delivery. Target Australia Pty Ltd. needs to develop the robotics ecosystem, which will improve regulatory spaces for the technology management before the delivery through the vehicles can get off from the ground. The un-manned system of delivery using robotic vehicles recognized of having a great potential while enhancing the services in order to provide rapid parcel delivery to millions of customers, which will increase the overall efficiency, and safety of the transportation system of the products delivered by Target Australia Pty Ltd. It is also pointed out that, there are certain characteristics of the products that are delivered by the technology. However, it can be said that 70% of the packages of Target products fit the criteria of the weight qualification program of the company. There are many legal regulations that the company is facing in Australia in order to continue the operations within the country.

The report describes about numerous benefits and aspects of un-manned system of faster delivery. However, apart from having many advantages, there are issues also that Target Australia Pty Ltd. will be facing while using the robotics vehicle technology in the actual field of operations. Though Target Australia Pty Ltd. is one of the most renowned companies in Australia, it has used many technologies for starting the un-manned system of faster delivery services for fast delivery of the products to the Australian customers. But recommendations are provided based on the issues that will be faced by the new technology (Callam, 2015).

The company should use anti collusion lights to the robotic vehicles so that they can work in the twilight.

The vehicles must pass to the tests of the regulatory bodies of the Australia.

The emerging technology must reduce the environmental impact of the atmosphere.

The vehicles must improve their services while increasing their areas of operations as the competitor companies are increasing (Anderson & Gaston, 2013).

Target Australia Pty Ltd. must approach to government of various countries for the world to get support from different aspects such as financial and other technological help.

Technologies are to be used that are to be used for increasing the durability of the technologies of Target Australia Pty Ltd

References

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Belik, M. (2016). Innovative developments and managerial factors as key enablers of deepwater riser project delivery (Master's thesis, University of Stavanger, Norway).

Callam, A. (2015). Drone wars: Armed unmanned aerial vehicles. International Affairs Review, 18.

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Rodrigues, D., de Melo Pires, R., Marconato, E. A., Areias, C., Cunha, J. C., Branco, K. R. C., & Vieira, M. (2017). Service-Oriented Architectures for a Flexible and Safe Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, 9(1), 97-109.

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Target.com.au (2017) About Us Retrieved from: https://www.target.com.au/help/contact-us [Accessed on: 20-5-2017]

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