Electronic Change Manager for Retail Store Conflict Detection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems lack effective methods for electronically managing infrastructure changes across a network of retail stores, particularly in information technology planning, leading to potential conflicts and inefficiencies in scheduling updates and maintenance.
Innovation Solution
An electronic change manager system and graphical user interface (GUI) that visually represents change conflicts by displaying a change calendar with color coding or indicators, allowing users to add or modify changes while avoiding conflicts with existing changes or store activities, ensuring appropriate timing and order of IT changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual change management methods are used across a network of retail stores, then flexibility in scheduling individual changes is maintained, but conflict detection and coordination efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an electronic change manager system as an intermediary between multiple users and change records. This system automatically detects conflicts between changes scheduled at different retail stores by comparing change records in a centralized database, eliminating the need for manual coordination while maintaining complete visibility of all scheduled changes across the network.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides automatic feedback to users when they attempt to schedule a change that conflicts with existing changes. The conflict detection mechanism compares the proposed change against the database of scheduled changes and notifies the user of the conflict, allowing for immediate resolution before the change is finalized.
2Ease of operation
If multiple changes are scheduled independently without coordination, then scheduling speed is improved, but change conflicts and operational disruptions increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary conflict detection before a change is fully scheduled. When a user attempts to create or modify a change record, the system proactively checks for conflicts with existing changes at the same retail store and notifies the user in advance, allowing them to adjust the schedule before finalizing the change.
Solution Approach 2:
The electronic change manager enables users to independently schedule changes without requiring manual coordination with other users or departments. The system automatically manages conflict detection and resolution, allowing users to self-service the scheduling process while maintaining overall coordination across the network.
3Loss of information
If comprehensive change tracking is implemented across all retail stores, then change visibility and conflict detection are improved, but system complexity and data management burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The electronic change manager is designed as a universal system that handles multiple functions through a single interface: creating change records, modifying existing records, detecting conflicts, and providing notifications. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate tools and processes into one unified system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses a standardized change record template that can be copied and reused across different retail stores. When scheduling a change at a new location, users can replicate the change record from an existing one, automatically adapting it to the new store's context while maintaining consistency in the data structure and conflict detection logic.
Data Source
AI summary
A method to visually represent change conflicts between a plurality of changes within the network of retail stores on a display of a user device is disclosed. One of a change identifier or a store identifier is received from the user device. The user device is instructed to display a change calendar including a plurality of calendar blocks representing changes for one or more of the retail stores. A request to add or modify a change is received from the user device. The user device is instructed to display the change calendar according to the request. One or more of a color coding or an indicator are displayed to indicate whether a conflict is present between the change of the request and one or more of the other changes for the one or more retail stores.