Real-Time Order Collection Coordination via Mobile Check-In Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional online grocery delivery or pickup systems require stores to collect orders during morning hours, leading to inefficient use of capital and labor, as orders need to be stored in backrooms with multiple temperature zones until dispensing to customers later in the day.
Innovation Solution
A system that utilizes a mobile check-in feature to track customers or delivery services en-route to pick up orders, allowing the system to determine when the estimated collection time matches the estimated travel time, thereby coordinating the display of instructions for store employees to begin collecting orders in real-time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If orders are collected during morning hours and stored in backrooms with multiple temperature zones, then orders are ready for customer pickup, but capital investment and human labor are inefficiently used
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by collecting customer information and calculating estimated collection times in advance, but delays actual order collection until the estimated travel time matches the estimated collection time. This avoids premature collection and storage, thereby improving capital and labor efficiency while ensuring order readiness when customers arrive.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors customer travel time and compares it with the estimated collection time, using this feedback to dynamically determine when to initiate order collection. This real-time feedback mechanism ensures orders are collected at the optimal moment, avoiding both premature and delayed collection, thus improving both reliability and productivity.
2Ease of operation
If orders are collected in advance, then customers can pick up orders later in the day, but orders require storage space in backrooms with multiple temperature zones
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from a static, fixed-schedule collection approach to a dynamic, real-time approach where collection timing is continuously adjusted based on customer travel time. This allows orders to be collected moments before pickup rather than hours in advance, dramatically reducing storage space requirements while maintaining customer convenience.
Solution Approach 2:
Customers provide their own travel time information through the mobile application, enabling the system to self-adjust collection timing without requiring manual scheduling. This reduces the need for advance storage while maintaining ease of pickup, as the system automatically coordinates collection based on customer-provided data.
3Reliability
If orders are collected long before dispensing, then orders are available for customer pickup, but both capital investment and human labor application are required inefficiently
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses real-time feedback from customer travel time monitoring to dynamically adjust order collection timing. By continuously comparing estimated travel time with estimated collection time, the system initiates collection at the precise moment when customer arrival is anticipated, eliminating the time waste associated with premature collection while ensuring order availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the timing parameter of order collection from a fixed morning schedule to a dynamic time based on real-time customer travel conditions. This parameter change allows the system to optimize both order availability and resource utilization, reducing wasted time on both capital investment and human labor while maintaining reliable order availability.
Data Source
AI summary
A system comprising one or more processors and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computing instructions that, when executed on the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: determining, using a predictive analysis, an estimated collection time to collect one or more items of an order; receiving a mobile check-in from an electronic device indicating that a pickup is en-route to pick-up the order from the store; tracking a location of the pickup; periodically determining an estimated travel time for the pickup to travel to the store from the location, as tracked; and transmitting instructions for the one or more employees of the store to begin collecting the one or more items of the order on a store interface Other embodiments are disclosed herein.