Perishable Food Order Platform Using Digital Shelf Tags
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Solution Overview
Problem
Online grocery ordering for perishable items often results in time-sensitive orders where the quality dates of selected items may not align with the consumer's planned use, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs due to the inability of third-party shoppers to access items with later quality dates, which are typically placed at the back of shelves.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that maintains a user profile with preferences and planned schedules of food item use, identifying quality date requirements and determining a food item selection and order fulfillment strategy based on these criteria, supplier inventory quality dates, and cost differences between items with varying quality dates to optimize the selection of perishable food items for online orders.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If third-party shoppers physically retrieve items from store shelves, then order fulfillment is achieved, but the ability to access items with later quality dates at the back of shelves is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables automated self-service through digital shelf tags and mobile device integration. The shopper's mobile device receives real-time notifications about quality date information, allowing them to autonomously select items with optimal quality dates without requiring staff intervention or physical access to the back of shelves.
Solution Approach 2:
Digital shelf tags serve as intermediaries between the inventory system and the shopper. These tags display quality date information and receive control signals from the system, mediating the selection process to ensure items with appropriate quality dates are identified and selected without requiring the shopper to physically search the entire shelf.
2Adaptability or versatility
If items with later quality dates are placed at the back of shelves, then inventory organization is improved, but accessibility by third-party shoppers deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The mechanical system of physical shelf arrangement is replaced with a digital information system. Instead of relying on the physical position of items to indicate quality date information, digital shelf tags provide this information electronically, allowing items to be organized by later quality dates at the back of shelves while maintaining easy accessibility through digital guidance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds an informational dimension to the physical shelf arrangement. By overlaying digital information (quality date displays) on the physical inventory, the system enables shoppers to access items with later quality dates that are positioned at the back of shelves, effectively adding a layer of information that compensates for the physical positioning.
3Reliability
If automated system determines food item selection strategy, then quality date requirements are met, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system achieves multi-functionality by integrating multiple capabilities into a unified platform. The same system that manages inventory tracking also handles quality date monitoring, shopper notification, and selection guidance, reducing the need for separate complex subsystems while maintaining high reliability in quality date compliance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where quality date information is constantly monitored and communicated to shoppers through digital shelf tags and mobile notifications. This feedback mechanism ensures quality date compliance is automatically maintained without requiring complex manual intervention or oversight systems.
Data Source
AI summary
Intelligent food order selection and fulfillment includes providing an electronic food item ordering platform through which users build and place electronic orders for food items, maintaining, for a user, a food item profile that includes preferences of the user relating to food item usage, receiving an electronic order for food items that includes perishable food items, receiving a planned schedule of use of the food items, identifying quality date requirements for the perishable food items based on the planned schedule of use, and determining a food item selection and order fulfillment strategy for selecting the perishable food items from a supplier food item inventory and fulfilling the electronic order, where the determining is based on the identified quality date requirements, known quality dates of the supplier food item inventory, and differences in cost, to the user, between interchangeable perishable food items with differing quality dates.