PRE2016 3 Groep17
Concept: Automated product scanning in supermarkets
Team members: Ava Swevels, Lisan Wolters, David Elshove, Vansh Kharbanda, Johan Kon & Thomas van de Wiel
How to use this page
In this wiki, a weekly update will be given on the progress of the group. The total Wiki is therefore divided into weekly modules. At the end of the project, the conclusions and results will be given, as well as a discussing of the concept and an evaluation of the group process.
Week 1
Note that the first week of the project, the team decided to investigate and research a street-level garbage sorting system. This had been changed to 'Automated product scanning in supermarkets' from week 2
Selection of idea
The first idea we had was to make an educational application in which we would make several short lectures for last year secondary school students. With the knowledge they gained, the could then make a working robot from a package of parts. By doing this, we would show the students how fun an engineering education can be, in order to make them seriously consider higher education in a technical institute. However, it proved to be hard to distinguish our idea from the existing "stichting techniekpromotie", which does pretty much the same thing.
We then thought of a a societal problem which really needs to be solved, such that we could think of a solution that could solve it. We came up with the following. Garbage sorting is a huge problem in society. Not sorting your garbage has a serious impact on the environment. Some team members indicated that especially students omit sorting their waste. What if we could solve this problem by making a bin that automatically sorts your waste, once you throw it in? Then we figured that this bin would become rather big because of all the sensors and the actual sorting system, and that most students would not have room for this. Furthermore, it would be an expensive solution for which the target audience probably wouldn't want to pay. But since students are mostly clustered in an area, we could scale up the idea to come across this problem. What if we make a garbage sorting system on street level, similar to already existing underground trash cans ([1]), but in which you can throw all garbage at once if you did not sort it. This way we avoid high costs for the user, while maintaining the benefits for society. This idea got the groups approval and was thus selected for further investigation. The group decided that it wanted to do a study on the possible effects of such a system and to develop a working (scaled down) prototype of the system.
A literature study to similar existing systems is done, as well as a study to the possible societal impact of such a system. Furthermore a presentation is be prepared in order to get green light for the execution of the idea. To visualize the idea and to add convincing power, a 3D CAD-model is made. The model will also serve as a step up towards the prototype and to make sure all team members are talking about the same concept. A discussion will be given below.
Existing alternatives
This section reviews the state of the art and related work relevant to our research. A list of the current knowledge in the field of our research has been made. The used sources are listed below.
There already exist several automatic sorting trash cans, each has their own purpose and implementation. The first sorting bin we will discuss is the Auto-Trash from Jay Donovan. This was a technical craft project to sort between compostable items and recyclable items. They have used a Raspberry Pi module, which was equipped with a camera to detect and recognize each item placed on top of the can’s rotating top. Image recognition was used to distinguish the items, and then the item is sorted appropriately (Donovan, 2016) . Our product differs since it will be implemented on larger scale, namely on the level of the municipalities and not on the level of personal houses. Furthermore, our product will be able to sort the items in more different categories and it will also be able to sort several items at the same time. Therefore the user does not have to adapt to throw his trash one by one into the bin.
The second sorting bin is the R3D3 from the company Green Creative. This is a very small and compact bin which can be placed in public spaces and in work areas. This bin accepts one item at a time, then it detects and recognizes the item and then, after compressing the item, it is sorted appropriately. This bin accepts 3 sort of items, namely cans, disposable cups and plastic bottles. When the bin is almost full, the garbage collector will get an alert to empty the bin (Green Creative, 2017). Our product will have different features than this bin, and therefor will have an added value. Our product will be on a larger scale, as stated before and our bin can also sort other materials. Furthermore our product will also be able to compress the waste and it can also alert the garbage collectors when the storage space is almost full. This way they will never have to make a trip to collect a half-full garbage storage unit, which saves money.
The last sorting bin differs from the first and second one in terms of scale. This bin is developed by Sintef, a Norwegian research team. They have developed a sorting machine for waste on a large scale, namely on factory-level (Sintef). The sorting machines use spectography and infrared light to analyse the materials in a product. Then the items are identified and sorted into various divisions (Sciencenordic). Our sorting machine differs since we won’t implement our machine at this level, but on a lower level, namely in the municipalities. This is more convenient, since a lot of cities already have underground waste container, thus the sorting can take place in these containers. Therefore transport will be reduced, since the waste does not first have to be transported to a factory to sort it, and then transported to the factory where the materials will be recycled.
Evaluation concept with repect to USE
Our automated sorting trash cans will have impact on users, society and enterprise. Not every household will have an own automated sorting trash can. It will only be place on a limited amount of places in the municipalities.
For some of the users of the product it will make sorting easier. Nowadays we have to sort our trash in a lot of different containers. These containers can be replaced by only one container. If the trash bag is full the trash will be thrown into an automated sorting trash can. This will reduced the amount of containers households will have as well as the amount of effort needed. While we do not need to know in which container we need to sort which material. In some municipalities there is a penalty for sorting wrong. If a person has thrown something in the wrong bin, even without noticing. This person can get a penalty(Tilburg). This problem will get solved for the user, while he/she cannot throw trash in a wrong container. “ “It’s really beneficial for individuals to sort their trash at home so it can be recycled. This enables them to contribute to a better environmental utilisation of the resources in the trash,” says Political Advisor Audun Garberg at the Ministry of the Environment. ” (Sciencenordic). This refers to an impact which can happen, but must be avoided as much as possible.
The society will have more assurance that trash is sorted correctly. It is humanly to make a mistake when you try to sort your waste yourself. Besides there are still a lot of people who do not sort their trash. All the thrash which is not sorted now, will be sorted in the future, which is better for the environment while more products can be reused/recycled (Milieucentraal). In the beginning this invention will be an investment for society, but this will later earn itself back. While there is less transport needed. With this automated sorting trash cans not all household will have their own container, but only limited places in the municipalities will have these. This will shorten the route of the garbage trucks. More materials can be reused as well while all trash will be sorted correct. This increases the amount of materials we can reuse instead of producing them again, we can save money as well (Tilburg).
For enterprise this product will change the work for companies which collect the garbage. Garbage containers will not be placed at all houses, but only at one point of the street. There will be sensors included, with which can be measured whether the garbage container must be emptied. This will change the route the garbage men need to take to collect the garbage. It will also change how many times they need to empty some of the garbage containers. This can be checked every day.
Presentation of ideas
The presentation will be given on Thursday 16/02 between 13:45 and 17:30 in the Metaforum building, room MF08.
CAD-mockup
Some pictures of the CAD-mockup can be found under the links below.
Trimetric:[2]
Isometric:[3]
Side 1: [4]
Side 2: [5]
Top: [6]
Bibliography
Donovan, J. (n.d.). Auto-Trash sorts garbage automatically at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon. Retrieved February 09, 2017, from https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/13/auto-trash-sorts-garbage-automatically-at-the-techcrunch-disrupt-hackathon/
Green Creative, R3D3 smart and connected sorting bin. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from http://www.green-creative.com/en/r3d3-sorting-bin
Sintef. (n.d.). Automatic sorting of waste for recycling. Retrieved February 09, 2017, from https://www.sintef.no/en/projects/automatic-sorting-of-waste-for-recycling-/
Sciencenordic, Machines are better than people at sorting household trash. (n.d.). Retrieved February 09, 2017, from http://sciencenordic.com/machines-are-better-people-sorting-household-trash
Tilburg, controle afvalscheiding, retrieved February 12, 2017 from https://www.tilburg.nl/inwoners/afval/controle-afvalscheiding/
Milieucentraal, afval verwerken, retrieved February 12, 2017 from https://www.milieucentraal.nl/minder-afval/afval-scheiden-en-recyclen/afval-verwerken/
Week 2
The group has decided to switch to researh and the making of a prototype regarding a new barcode scanning technology that could reduce the waiting time at supermarkets and possible replace checkout personnel. We will start by giving an introduction of an alternative technology that could be used to replace barcode scanning, indicating why we think it will not be used the coming years. This is followed by research on the current state-of-the-art. Lastly, the user and enterprise questionnaires that will be used to gather data on this technology are presented. Note that this week the focus was on making and dividing a planning, which explains some delay on content. The planning can be found at [7]. The project plan contains goals, sub goals and concrete activities with deadlines and a task distribution. A Gantt Chart has also been included to show the time span of the activities within the project, indicating important milestones (black), interim deadlines (yellow) and project deadlines (red).
RFID in supermarkets
Barcodes as we know them have been used in supermarkets since 1974 already. [1] In all these years, the technology behind then has not changed significantly. Over the years, lots of new technologies have emerged. So why would it be a good idea to improve this old barcode system instead of revolutionizing the supermarket checkout system? To investigate this, we will look into one of the current technologies which could be used for this purpose: RFID technology. In this article, the general principle of RFID tags is explained. After that, the advantages and disadvantages of RFID technology are listed. Finally a conclusion is drawn regarding future possibilities for barcode and RFID technologies in the supermarket scene.
First of all, what is RFID technology? RFID of Radio-Frequency Identification. It is a general term used for small electronic devices consisting of a small chip and an antenna. The device can carry small amounts of data. [2] The basic working principle is the following. When the RFID-chip detects a field of a scanning antenna (one that asks for information), it gets activated. The RFID-chip then sends its information to the antenna, which now knows all details about the chip that was detected. [3] Examples of fields where RFID technology is currently used are banking and postal services. More and more banks equip their credit cards with RFID technology, in order to enable users to pay small amounts of money with just moving their card near an RFID scanner. [4] Postal delivery companies use them for track and trace of their packages to give customers real-time information on the status of their order. [5] With RFID-chips becoming increasingly cheap (currently one to several cents [6]), the door is opened for many more daily life applications.
A logical extension to this contactless way of tracking items trough small chips, is scanning of products in supermarkets. The main advantage of RFID tags over barcode technology is that using the former enables faster checkout rates. Customers can walk through RFID gates instead of having to put every item on a conveyor belt, having them scanned by a human, putting them in their shopping cart again. It would substantially reduce time needed to shop and would make the overall experience a lot more pleasant. [7] Supermarkets would benefit from this technology in lots of other ways as well. The biggest cause of shrinkage in supermarkets is caused by internal theft. RFID technology would make it possible to pinpoint when and where items disappeared, making it easier to prevent similar events in the future. There are already examples of decreased shrinkage rates in supermarkets using RFID tags. Secondly, theft by customers would be more difficult because of the previously mentioned checkout gates. Another example of the benefits of RFID tags is the possibility to track where in the supermarket the products are located. Have they been put in the shelves yet? How many items are still stocked? What is the expiration date of certain products? This extra knowledge would enable supermarkets to stock, move and sell their products more efficiently, thereby reducing financial losses due to excess stock or spoilage of products. It would also make it possible to automatically send an order to an employee to restock a shelve once this is necessary. Furthermore, automatic orders for restocking the stockroom could be done. [7] Besides faster checkout, customers comfort could be improved by using other features of RFID technology. For example, customers can check whether the product they want to buy is still available at the supermarket, so that he knows whether he needs to go or not. Supermarkets could equip shopping carts with a system that automatically registers anything you put in or take out of your shopping cart and display the price of your items real time (‘smart carts’). Estimated arrival times of out-of-stock products can easily be communicated with customers. Customers could be informed of their optimal shopping route based on their online made shopping list and the information the store has on the location of its products. Additional product information could be given, using RFID tags and smart carts. [7]
The list of advantages this new technology offers is inexhaustible. So why are we not all shopping like this already? First of all there is the price of producing the tags. A price of several cents might not seem much, multiply this number with the amount of products in your weekly shopping cart and ask yourself whether you still think it is not that much. Fact is that a lot of supermarkets are just not able to bear this small added cost without disappointing customers and losing incomes. [8] A second issue is the cost of changing the entire checkout system. Changing to an RFID-based system would require massive changes in supermarket infrastructure, which go hand in hand with high costs. In the ever more competitive market of today, a supermarket simply does not have the possibility to change the entire system without increasing the cost of their products. [8] Thirdly, it is impossible that all manufacturers of products that are in the supermarket change to RFID-technology at the same time. There will be a transition period in which both barcodes and RFID-tags will be used. This would pose big problems for checkout system. Supermarkets would be forced to use conventional barcodes until all products are equipped with RFID-tags. This would create a situation in which the store pays for the RFID-tags, without being able to use them to their fullest extent. [8] Another issue is the current technological state of RFID-tags. Products could be missed at the checkout when multiple signals overlap, since the reader is only able to accept one signal at a time. Also, products in the middle of your shopping cart could be missed at the checkout because the RFID-signal just isn’t strong enough. Smart carts are one way to avoid the last problem, but nonetheless, lots of issues remain. [9]
We have seen many ways in which both customers and supermarkets could benefit from RFID technology: faster checkouts, tracking of stock, reducing theft and spoilage of products, making the overall shopping experience more pleasant. However, there remain some issues that make it just not feasible at the moment to make the transition to RFID technology as a replacement of barcodes. Mentioned issues included the both price of the tags and the cost of changing the entire supermarket infrastructure. Add a costly transition period and current technical issues to that and the conclusion is clear: RFID technology is not (yet) able to revolutionize the shopping experience. The coming years, barcodes are still expected to play a huge role in the checkout line of supermarkets. It is therefore not wasted effort to develop a new scanning system that makes faster checkout possible with the current barcode system. Au contraire: it would overcome huge investment issues by relying on already used principles, while still maintaining one of the biggest advantages of RFID-tags, namely faster checkout. Such technology would be shaped to society, instead of demanding a change of the entire factory-to-customer chain.
[1] Who invented the barcode?, Barcodes, http://www.barcode.ro/tutorials/barcodes/history.html, accessed on 20-02-2017.
[2] What is RFID?, Technovelgy, http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/technology-article.asp, accessed on 20-02-2017.
[3] How RFID works, Technovelgy, http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=2, accessed on 20-02-2017.
[4] Contactless Smart Card, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contactless_smart_card, accessed on 20-02-2017.
[5] Monitoring mail with RFID technology, IPC, https://www.ipc.be/en/services/data-solutions/rfid, accessed on 20-02-2017.
[6] RFID tags, Alibaba.com, https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/paper-roll-blank-13-56mhz-Mi_60592283328.html, accessed on 20-02-2017.
[7] Grocery industry operations are facing a real paradigm shift, RFID arena, http://www.rfidarena.com/2013/4/11/grocery-industry-operations-are-facing-a-real-paradigm-shift.aspx, accessed on 20-02-2017.
[8] Issues of item-level RFID tagging, Quora, https://www.quora.com/Whats-holding-the-grocery-industry-back-from-doing-item-level-tagging, accessed on 20-02-2017.
[9] Problems with RFID, Technovelgy, http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-Article.asp?ArtNum=20, accessed on 20-02-2017.
User Study
Currently being reviewed by R. Cuijpers.
Enterprise Study
Currently being reviewed by R. Cuijpers.
Week 3
Literature study: current systems available
In general, we can state that people don’t like to wait. This means that we should look for ways to reduce waiting time for the users. This will lead to profitable sales and helps return the customer to the stores (Wiseye, n.d.) and thus we will enhance the productivity of an enterprise. We will only focus on reducing waiting times in supermarkets. Therefore, we first should look at what systems are available at the moment, and then we should look for solutions which will reduce this waiting time.
All system services which involve waiting lines of supermarkets can be described in terms of the number of waiting lines and the number of servers (Krajewski et al., 2010). We will discuss each system which is available at the moment in these terms, and then state advantages and disadvantages. In the end, we will draw a conclusion.
Firstly, we have the electronic cash registers and the Point Of Sale-systems. These are systems in which a cashier helps the users and scans the items for them. They will also deal with the payment afterwards. Typical about these kind of systems is that there are multiple lines. This is appropriate when specialized servers are used or when space consideration make a single line inconvenient (Krajewski et al., 2010). In a lot of supermarkets, there is a small amount of space. Thus we could state that the multiple line is convenient for these stores. However, there are also some supermarkets which are gigantic, and still there are multiple lines. This is inconvenient for those stores, since customers will perceive this situation as unfair in terms of equitable waits. That is, the customer can be penalized by picking the slow line (Krajewski et al., 2010). This system has in most cases several server facilities and server proficiency. Thus they have parallel service providers offering the same service. Therefore, these systems are multiserver systems (Krajewski et al., 2010). Obviously, a multiserver system will speed up the whole process. In general, supermarkets will have a multiserver system.
Secondly, we have self-scan systems. There are two versions of these, namely the self-service checkout and the hand-held self-scan. Both these systems are multiserver systems and are also single line systems. This means that the customers will wait in one line, and once it is their turn, they will be divided over the different counters. This system is perceived more fair by the customers, since all customers have equitable waits. Furthermore, the enterprise need fewer cashiers to pay and self-checkout take less space than the single traditional checkout with a cashier.
However, there are disadvantages for both systems. First of all customers experience difficulties with scanning their products when the barcodes don’t scan properly (Jarrett, 2016). Furthermore, customers experience that the amount of space left to pack your groceries is small. Which can make it difficult to put your groceries in a bag after you have scanned them. Lastly, customers feel afraid that they probably have scanned something wrong which makes them feel uncertain and afraid to get arrested by security (Winterman, 2009). For the enterprise these systems are also disadvantageous. Customers can easier commit a theft, since the enterprise lays the responsibility of scanning the products with the customers. There are still two things left which are not seen as a benefit or as a drawback. The first one is the time it takes to scan and pay your products at a self-checkout. With the self-service checkout customers have the feeling that it is going faster since they are doing the work by their selves instead of waiting for a cashier scanning all the products. But in reality it takes you longer at a self-service checkout. The second is that face-to-face time with store personnel can reduce. Since one doesn’t encounter a cashier at the self-service checkout, one will have less contact with store personnel. However, customers don’t experience this as negative, as long as the supermarkets provide a good service (Winterman, 2009).
There are several aspects, we would like to point out for the hand-held self-scan. With this system, the customer scans their products immediately while shopping. This way the customer can keep track of the total cost of their groceries during shopping. The purchaser can place the merchandise in their shopping bag while shopping, which will prevent unpacking at the cashier. The aim of this self-scan is to make shopping faster and easier (Carlberg et al., n.d.). A developer of this scanner is Kroger. His goal was to reduce the wait time at registers at stores. Research has shown that this scanner has reduced the average checkout time in its stores with three minutes and 30 seconds (Anderson, 2013). This can be seen as a benefit for the customers. Besides this reduce of time, customers say that it is easy in use and that the idea of this self-scanning is appealing (Husain, 2016).
Thus in general, we can draw the following conclusions about the self-service checkouts. These systems reduce the waiting times, but not necessarily the check-out times. However, this doesn’t form a problem for the customer, since they don’t experience it this way. Furthermore, these systems are disadvantageous for the enterprise, since the enterprise must lay the responsibility with the customers, which make committing a theft easier for the customer. Thus, these systems do reduce waiting time, but they come with too many disadvantages.
An example of a self-service checkout: [8]
An example of a hand-held self-scan: [9]
We should find a system, which will reduce the check-out times and the waiting times, but still lays the responsibility with the enterprise. A solution for this can be an automated check-out system. Thus this comes down to having several scanners which will be able to scan all products by themselves. Lucky for us, such a system has already been invented. Namely, the ‘360 scan portal’ of Wincor Nixdorf. The ‘360 scan portal’ is world’s first automated scanning solution which is practicable in use. It consist of a conveyer belt, the scanner and a customer display. The customer display is used to show the customer how the 360 scan portal works and shows that the customer needs to place the merchandise on the conveyer belt one by one. While the products are on the conveyer belt the barcode scanners scan the product. For this the barcode does not need to be on a certain place, while it can scan the whole surface of the product. This scanner changes the task of the cashier. It cannot exclude the cashier completely. If products have a damaged barcode or a minimum age the cashier is still needed. But it will relieve their time-consuming and physically strenuous task of scanning the products. Which allow them to have more time for the customer friendly service (Wincor Nixdorf, 2011). Wincor Nixdorf has already done a few test runs. Which showed that the 360 scan portal still needed some improvement. Mostly the scan rate needed to improve. The scan rate was already above the 90 percent, but they want to reach a scan rate of 98 to 99 percent (Wincor Nixdorf, 2011).
A 360 degree barcode scanner can have multiple advantages for users and enterprise. The users, customers, will experience benefits with shorter waiting times. Since products can be scanned and processed with an increased speed. The customer will not have to search the location of the barcode on the product. The customer can just place the products on a conveyer belt and the barcode will be scanned automatically. This will lead to more satisfaction for the customer. However, another user, namely the cashiers, will benefit as well. With a cash desk as still used in the shops the cashier has to pick up every product separately which can have medical consequences. While they do not need to scan the products anymore they have more time left to help customer if needed (Vardon, 2015). For enterprise this 360 scanner will be a big investment at first. All current cash desk in the store need to be replaced. But with these new automated scanner, there can be less cashier at the same amount of cash desks. The retailer will have less compensation consequences for the cashiers while they will encounter less medical consequences (Vardon, 2015).
In terms of waiting lines, the enterprise can choose whether they want it to be a single-line system or a multiple-line system. Since the enterprise needs to redecorate their stores to implement these systems, they can also change how they will arrange the waiting lines. Therefore, it can be possible to make a single-line system.
Thus we can conclude that this ‘360 scan portal’ is the perfect system for checkouts. These kind of systems will reduce the waiting times for the users and will result in a better user experience. This is beneficial for the enterprise, since users will return to their supermarkets. Furthermore, the responsibility of scanning the products will still lay with the enterprise, which will make theft less convenient for the customers.
A New Era At The Checkout. (2011, December 09). Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://www.wincor-nixdorf.com/static/finanzberichte/2010-2011/q4/en/reengineringprocesses/aneweraatthecheckout.html
Anderson, G. (2013, April 25). Why Aren’t More Stores Giving Customers Hand-Held Scanners? – RetailWire. Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://www.retailwire.com/discussion/why-arent-more-stores-giving-customers-hand-held-scanners/
Carlberg, G., & Karlsson, M. (n.d.). An Evaluation of a Self-Scanning-System in a grocery store environment: improvements, suggestions and further development.
Husain, S. (2016, April 21). AutoID & Data Capture Blog. Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://www.vdcresearch.com/News-events/autoid-blog/Handheld-Self-Scanning-Solutions.html
Jarrett, C. (2016, December 16). The Pros and Cons of Using Self-Checkouts. Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://www.businessbee.com/resources/profitability/the-pros-and-cons-of-using-self-checkouts/
Krajewski, L. J., Ritzman, L. P., & Malhotra, M. K. (2010). Operations management: processes and supply chains - Supplement C. Upper Saddle River (NJ): Pearson. Queue management. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://www.wiseye.co/?page_id=99
Vardon, J. (2015, August 27). 360 Degree Scanning: Saving Time, Adding Value. Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://risnews.edgl.com/retail-news/360-Degree-Scanning--Saving-Time,-Adding-Value101858
Winterman, D. (2009, December 09). The problem with self-service checkouts. Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8399963.stm