Supermarket Management For Industrial Engineering: Implementation Of Innovative Billing System With Espouse Pay Wave Technology

About the OZ Supermarket and its range of products

Discuss about the Supermarket Management for Industrial Engineering.

The Supermarket named the OZ supermarket was recently opened (Pinchin et al. 2014). A variety of products are available in the supermarket ranging from the family and stationary products to the items that are non-perishable. In addition to offering the variety of the products the supermarket officials are also looking to implement an unique and innovative billing system for the benefit of the customers. They have realized that it is very irritating and also very time consuming for the customers to wait in the long queues for the billing of the products. In addition to this process becomes very complex and irritating for the supermarket staffs as well. Hence, the implementation of this system would benefit the staffs and as well as satisfy the customers also. Hence this would encourage the customers to visit the supermarket more and increase their sales and enhance their reputation as well.

The supermarket authorities have decided to abolish the system of cash payment methods. They opted for the cashless procedures instead. They wanted the new billing system to be automatic. Hence, it would not require any manual procedures. For the implementation, these features into their billing system the supermarket authorities are looking to use the espouse Pay Wave Technology. This system would be changing the concept of the basic billing systems in the markets. The process would allow the users or the buyers to just walk into the supermarket make the purchase and simply walk out of the store without having to worry about standing in the long queues for much longer.

The system would implement a number of procedures (Peng et al. 2014). In this purchase is made simply by putting the product into the trolley and simply exiting the supermarket complex. The rest of the processes are performed automatically. The trolleys are equipped with the RDIF or the Radio Frequency Identification System. In this system the tagging and the labeling methods of the products are performed. For labeling the items or the products a chip is used. The chip is installed into the products and they would contain the details about the product in them. The information such as the product id, the product name and the status of the current product is stored in the chip. The products can also be tracked with the help of these chips. Some additional chips are installed into the trolley also. These chips can detect the product once it is placed into the trolley.

Implementation of the innovative billing system for the benefit of customers and staffs

When an item is placed into the trolley chip in the trolley detects the chip that is installed in the items (Green et al. 2016). After this process the cost of the product is detected and added to the bill of the customer. In this way the chips keeps on adding the costs to the bill of the customer. In addition to this the total bill of the customer is calculated once the person leaves the complete with the products and the totaled bill is deducted from the balance of the customer and the balance on the customer account is updated accordingly. The balance and the account details of the customers are maintained with the PayWave Card. In addition to the chips are also designed very efficiently. If customer feels like returning the product or changes the mind, they can simply place the product back to the place from where they took it and the bill on their card would get reduced.

In addition to all these the system also has an efficient monitoring procedure in it. The system would prohibit the customers from the act of stealing products or leaving the supermarket complex without proper payment for the product that they have procured from the market. For implementing this, the chips have an alert system installed in them. This would detect the current balance of the customer and check if the customer has an appropriate balance or not. The alarm goes if the bill of the customer exceeds the current balance in the account of the customer. This kind of situations can also arise unintentionally, when the customer is not aware of the balance in his account and make the purchase without proper knowledge. In this kind of situation the customer can go the customer care desk and refill their account instantly. There is also a provision for temporary cards for those who do not possess a Pay Wave card.

In addition to this, the parking policies that are implemented by the supermarket are also very efficient. According to the policy of the company the parking charges are higher during the peak seasons and are lowered during the lean seasons. In addition to this the supermarket also has some compensation policies for the senior citizens and the handicapped.

Although the existing procedures of the supermarket are very efficient yet some recommendations are provided to improve the overall outlook of the supermarket structures.

Procedures involved in implementing the espouse Pay Wave Technology

Implementation of the cash system besides the cashless system: In addition to the adopted method of the cashless billing system, the organization should also have a provision for the cash billing system (Oyewole et al., 2013). This would enable the customers to opt for the system in case of urgency. This would also allow the current staffs of the supermarket to preserve their position in the organization.

Staff Satisfaction: If the systems are implemented the organization would have no further use of the present staffs in the financial departments (Edwards et al., 2014). Hence, they should be allocated to some different sectors of the supermarket. This would increase the efficiency of the super,market and also keep the staffs satisfied with the organization.

Monitoring: There should be proper monitoring process in place for looking over the components that are used in the system (Mascia et al., 2014). It is to be seen that the components are not stolen or tampered with. In addition to this it is also to be seen that the components are functioning properly or not. This be helping in tracking the product of the supermarket and maintaining the efficiency of the system. 

The supermarket authorities have a perfect plan in place for the implementation of the cashless system. This system would increase the ease of accessibility with which the customers can buy products in the supermarket. This would increase the amount of satisfaction of the customers. This is very effective for the business as the level of customer satisfaction is very essential for any type of businesses. In addition to the efficiency of the company the reputation of the company is also enhanced with the increased amount of customer satisfactions. Therefore the authorities of the supermarket should make this an important issue for themselves. Hence the authorities of the supermarket wanted to implement the cashless method for the billing system of the supermarket. As a result of the implementation of the system the customer ease of access is increased and they are satisfied with the system in return.

In addition to the customer satisfaction the authorities of the supermarket can also implement a feedback system that would help the system to obtain the information about the processes from the customer’s point of view. With this system the customers would be able to provide the authorities with the issues that they are facing or also the suggestions for the improvement of the system. The authorities can act on the feedbacks and provide efficient solutions for the situations. This would increase the overall efficiency for the organization and also enhance the relationship in between the organization and the customers. For the implementation of these procedures the supermarket can implement the following procedures.

Efficient monitoring procedure and parking policies of the supermarket

The supermarket can obtain feedbacks from the customers about the products that they sell to the customers or also the products that they offer to the customers and also for the services that they provide to the customers. The organization should try and implement a system in which the customer would be able to provide feedback and ratings for the product and services of the supermarket. The customers would be able to service ratings as soon as they leave the complex of the supermarket. In addition to this there should also be a online system where the customers would be able to provide the ratings of the product that they have purchased.  In addition to this the customers should also have a say over the prices of the products. The authorities at the super market should record these ratings and work on improving them. They should keep in mind the average rating of a particular product while performing the audit of the products. In addition to this the rating system would also provide the supermarket indications about the popularity and the demand of the particular products. In addition to this it would also provide the indications about the areas that the supermarket is lacking in. hence this would increase the service and the product efficiency of the supermarket.

The supermarket authorities should try and implement an online portal for the customers so that they can provide the proper feedback and the feedbacks or the comments of the customers can be recorded in the portal. In addition to all these the portal should be online and active 24/7 so that the customers can provide their feedback and grievances at any time that they want. This would provide an efficient option for the customers to communicate with the system very easily. In addition to this the customers idea about the organization can also be noted easily by the authorities and would help them in acting immediately in resolving the situation. This would establish a very healthy relation in between the customer and the supermarket. In addition to this the customer satisfaction level would also be enhanced very efficiently.

In addition to the rating system and the feedback system the company should also try and implement a website for their market. This would provide a number of options for the customers and also the company officials. The website would provide the customers with the information about the supermarket in details. In addition to this they would also provide information about the products that are offered by the supermarket. In addition to this the information about the operational activities of the supermarket and the list of holidays and the policies that are involved with it can also be obtained by the customers from the website. The website would also provide an efficient platform for the supermarket to provide advertisement of the new products that are going to be launched by the supermarket and also provide the information about the seasonal sales. The website would also help the customer to create an account where they would be able to view the information about themselves and update them. The account would be linked with the Pay Wave card of the customers and would update their bills and balances automatically on regular basis. In addition to this the website would also contain a customer service option where the customers would be able to contact the customer care center of the supermarket where they would be able to lodge any kind of complains or clear their doubts from the customer care executives. As a result of all this facilities the overall reputation of the supermarket would be efficiently enhanced.

Recommendations for improvement of the system

In addition to the website the organization should also have a section in the website where there would be customer care center. They should be active 24/7 and process any kind of request made by the customer with an immediate effect. This would make the customers satisfied with the services and also increase the reputation of the supermarket. Hence, as a result this would increase the overall efficiency of the system that is implemented by the supermarket.

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