[Use] Ideo (2003) IDEO Method Cards

Identifying phase:

After having some background understandings about the System [Supermarket Self-Checkout] using the Activity Checklist, I continue to use the IDEO Method Cards to further 'Learn', 'Look' and Ask about the System. In this case, I only choose 2 protocols which are

• Protocol 1: 'Flow Analysis' in 'Learn' Category [P1]
• Protocol 2: 'Fly on the wall' in 'Look' Category [P2]

Planning phase:

P1: Flow Analysis

HOW: Represent the flow of information or activity through all phases of  a system or process.

WHY: This is useful for identifying bottlenecks and opportunities for functional alternatives

I am Hoang, want to understand 'Supermarket Self-checkout system'

My procedure will be:

• Step 1: Understand the processes of how customer checkouts the items using the Self-checkout system by 
• using Google
• trying out myself
• observing in the Supermarket
• Step 2: Represent the flow of activity through all phases using Flow Chart
• Step 3: Try to identify any bottlenecks or opportunities for improvement

P2: Fly on the wall in 'Look' Category

HOW: Observe and record behavior within its context, without interfering with people's activities

WHY: It is useful to see what people actually do within real contexts and time frames, rather than accept what they say they did after  the fact.

I am Hoang, want to understand 'Supermarket Self-checkout system'

My procedure will be:

• Step 1: Go to the supermarket and observe what customers do when they perform self-checkout activity.
• Step 2: Try to observer different groups of people like young and old people, male and female...
• Step 3: Try to look for differences by comparing activities performed by these groups
• Step 4: Combine with P1 to identify any bottlenecks or opportunities for improvement

Execution phase:

I found the following:

1. The procedure of using Self-checkout system at Tesco can be briefly illustrated as below:

Figure 1. Flow of activity through phases of Self-checkout system.

2. I found the following inconveniences :

• When scanning items, some customers found it's difficult to allocate the barcode of some products

• It took longer time to perform the process of weighing item(s) without barcode comparing to the process of scanning item(s) due to the 'Choose item name' step.

• There is no container in the left-hand side. Customer need to bring their own bag and it took time to use the machine to scan, put and re-arrange items in the bag simultaneously especially with big size item
• Young people performed the self-checkout activity faster than aged people. 
• In rush hour, people still needed to wait in a queue for using tradition checkout and self-checkout method.

3. My suggestion for improvement:

If we can replace the barcode system with Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, there is no need to scan through one by one item. Customers only need to take their shopping carts/baskets and go through the electronic reader that will detect every item in the cart. The last thing to do is payment process. No lines, no waiting.

Considering the price of this technology. Their was an significant drop of RFID tag's price in 10 years:

Figure 2. Global Average Factory Selling Prices for RFID Tags 

I also searched some prices for the RFID tag on Alibaba.com and noticed that the prices were between 0.05 to 0.15 dollar per unit. 

References:

Alibaba 2015, Active rfid tag price, Alibaba, viewed 17 September 2015, http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/active-rfid-tag-price.html.


RFID Journal 2015, U.S. Manufacturers Report Greater RFID Usage, RFID Journal, viewed 17 Setemper 2015, http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?9589/3#back-from-modal.