Shopping Self-Service System at Carrefour, UAE

Shopping Self-Service System at Carrefour, UAE

Question 2: Architecture Drawing

Figure 1: Shopping Self-Service System at Carrefour.

The system designed for this section includes the primary components required to ensure it is functional. It is important that the proposed system is able to have isolated components that can operate independently. Components available cover primary functions expected of the shop and all have subsystems that help run processes at Carrefour. The system architecture diagram is shown in Figure 1 above with components being able to operate as modules. However, they are integrated to the backbone which will represent Carrefour’s primary system.

The connection to the backbone linked to the company network will have an Intranet for internal operations and an Extranet for suppliers (Vlosky, Fontenot & Blalock, 2000). All the IT (Information Technology) components on the Extranet will also be isolated from shop operations with limitations being to just the warehouse management system. There should be more InfoSec measures in place to provide additional layers of security to the system. It helps avoid threats and vulnerabilities that may be experienced on the system. Firewalls will be a standard for isolated components to facilitate secure communication(s).

There are nine major components in the proposed system, each serves critical operations in the functionality of the system. The “Master Data Management” module will be dedicated to serve Carrefour and a data warehouse will be implemented in its place. Its connection to the core function, “Shopping Self-Service System at Carrefour, UAE,” means it will be integrated to the company’s core data backbone. Data flow in the architecture is generalized with connections only showing the links between modules rather than direction of flow. They indicate that the two modules have some level of integration that allow them to communicate and carry out functions as a unit (Buchgeher & Weinreich, 2009).

Connections in the system will only involve direct components with no part mediating links to third connection modules. The core component is what the company will be linked with to facilitate management of the system. It will facilitate both local and remote connections but any functionalities must be approved by the system administrator. The return subsystem will be automated but will require verification and thus human intervention will be required but the rest of the system should function autonomously. Autonomy will be facilitated by in-house integrated IoT capabilities that will integrate artificial intelligence.

It is almost impossible to have absolute autonomy in the system because of the nature of operations. However, a successful system should have all the repetitive operations automated in checkout processes. The goal for the system should be to implement as much automation for the processes as possible (Bitner, Ostrom & Meuter, 2002). It is also important to make the shopping experience more appealing to customers by dropping the inconveniences of shopping in normal stores (Åkesson, Edvardsson & Tronvoll, 2014). The Carrefour Company’s system backbone will have a reporting to facilitate efficient operations for shoppers. Monitoring will be crucial to help bolster customer experience and operational effectiveness.

Question 3: Risk Identification

Like every project, this proposed system has been carefully evaluated and a number of technical risks identified. They are associated to either the functionality of the system or errors in the usage of the product and its services. High quality equipment will be integrated as part of the project with focus on the core components at checkout. It is important to have the project risks identified to help in the creation of an effective risk management strategy. A sound plan for the management of risks will help the project team anticipate problems and counter them before they can escalate.

The risk management process involves a number of steps to ensure risks are identified and accurately evaluated. It helps devise optimal risk mitigation strategies. Identification of risks requires anticipation of processes and the possible ways in which things can go wrong (Dinu, 2012). Once this is done, the project team will be able to assess based on the dynamics dictated by the cause of the problems.

It is mostly associated to the threats and vulnerabilities in the shopping processes with a few relating to the environment and setting. The system will be developed with redundancies to help reduce and effectively eliminate downtimes for efficient service delivery. It is impossible to guarantee absolute elimination of threats and vulnerabilities in the system. The anticipated risks in the proposed project are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1: Summary of anticipated risks in the proposed project.

 Question 4: Risk Register

The risk register table below, Table 2, comprises of the main risks identified Table 1, their category and estimated risk factor. For easier reference, the risks will be identified through their Risk ID which is specific to every risk identified in the previous step. The risk ID will be a substitute of the risk summary. The probability column will be quantified as percentages for an easier understanding and interpretation of the table. The impact will be allocated a 5-point Likert scale to quantify it using a qualitative approach. The five points used to qualify impacts of risks on the system are: Very High, High, Medium, Low and Very Low.

Table 2: The Risk Register (Probabilities and Impacts)

 Question 5: Risk Analysis Worksheet (RAW)

Risk planning and identification are just parts of risk management. The entire process of risk management ends in the documentation of risks and outcomes after interventions have been initiated. The risks identified in this project are summarized in Table 3. Some risks in projects can be mitigated with minimal intervention, especially those that are expensive to eliminate. In such cases, Carrefour will adopt a model where operations embrace risks and establish a way of co-existing with the risk until it becomes part of operations or goes away on its own. COVID-19 is a classic example of such risks; organizations have devised strategies and models where they operate regardless of the underlying coronavirus pandemic.

The table will include a Risk ID, Risk ID Date, Risk Identifier and a Risk Statement. The risk ID will be different from that in the risks register because it is associated with risks where interventions have already been made and outcomes reached. Risk ID Date will define the date the risk is identified which also marks the date when intervention is initiated. The risk identifier or name refers to the kind of risk successfully managed in the project. Risk statement describes the identified project, i.e., provides details (technical, operational or any other) about associated risk from the risk name column.

Table 3: Risk Analysis Worksheet (RAW)

 Question 6: Failure Mode and Effects Analysis Worksheet (FMEAW)

On the complementary Excel worksheet.