Crowd Planning Tool for Retail Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Retailers face challenges in managing crowds during periods of increased activity, leading to disorderly and unsafe conditions, and struggle to create effective crowd management plans that comply with regulations.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for generating, editing, and managing crowd management plans using a networked system with a central server and store servers, featuring a crowd planning module that allows users to create and approve maps, and transform them into consumer-friendly web-based maps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a detailed crowd management plan is implemented during periods of increased activity, then crowd control and safety are improved, but the complexity of planning and managing multiple scenarios increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments crowd management plans into multiple distinct scenarios (e.g., holiday periods, sale periods, special events, evacuations) that can be independently created, stored, and managed. Each scenario represents a separate crowd management plan that can be activated based on specific conditions, reducing the complexity of managing all scenarios simultaneously while maintaining comprehensive safety coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables preliminary creation and storage of multiple crowd management plans for different scenarios before they are needed. Retailers can pre-define plans for various increased activity periods and store them in the database, allowing for quick retrieval and implementation when specific scenarios occur, rather than creating plans reactively under pressure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple crowd management plans are created for different periods of increased activity, then adaptability to various scenarios is improved, but the time and resources required to create and manage these plans increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows retailers to create template crowd management plans that can be copied and reused for similar scenarios. Once a plan is developed for one type of increased activity period, it can be replicated and adapted for other similar periods, significantly reducing the time and resources required to create multiple plans while maintaining scenario-specific adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a universal crowd management platform that handles multiple different scenarios through a single integrated system. The same infrastructure supports various plan types (holiday periods, sale periods, special events, evacuations), allowing the system to be versatile across scenarios without requiring separate management systems for each scenario type.
3Ease of operation
If crowd management plans are transformed into web-based maps, then ease of viewing and accessibility for consumers is improved, but the complexity of the transformation process increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces physical or static crowd management plan representations with dynamic web-based map visualizations. Instead of relying on physical signage or static documents, the system uses digital mapping technology to create interactive, accessible web-based representations of crowd management plans that can be easily viewed and updated online.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces a transformation module as an intermediary component that automatically converts crowd management plan data into web-based map format. This intermediary handles the complexity of transformation internally, shielding users from the computational and procedural complexity while delivering the simplified web-based map output for easy consumer access.
Data Source
AI summary
According to one aspect, embodiments of the invention provide a crowd management planning system, the system comprising a plurality of store servers configured to be coupled to a network, and a central server, the central server comprising an interface configured to be coupled to the network, a database, and a crowd planning module coupled to the interface and the database and configured to communicate with each one of the plurality of store servers, wherein the crowd planning module is further configured to provide a crowd planning tool to at least one of the plurality of store servers, receive crowd planning information from the at least one of the plurality of store servers based on users' interactions with the crowd planning tool, and store the received crowd planning information in the database.