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THAT in the Supermarket Information devices are used extensively in shops and in the distribution of goods and one area in which their use is particularly essential is supermarkets. Computer systems are used in a variety of ways in the present00, large supermarket, from share control to maintaining temperatures in refrigerators and termes conseillés. In this section we will appear in more details at these types of systems in a single particular huge supermarket, which can be part of a national sequence.

The supermarket uses a number of computers which can be located in a room known as the system office and form the upermarkets own Local Area Network. These types of computers are accustomed to control the stock and are also connected to the checkouts. These are the , branch computers’. The computers happen to be multifunctional, every can access the data, which provides the administration a number of get points. Admin and stock control staff now have use of hand held pcs, SEC (Shelf Edge Computers). These are employed for price improvements, creating share pictures (information on stock totals) as well as for forecasting deliveries. Like corporations, they have tried giving clients hand held scanning devices to enter their own shopping.

The experiment continues to be discontinued because of huge stock losses, staff called them ‘Shop and Rob’ rather than ‘Shop and Go’. The corporation is currently looking at developing a better system to get rounded these complications. Each merchandise to be sold must have an identifying code number which can be different from those of every other product. Different sizes of the same product also need distinct code numbers. These code numbers are printed on to the labels or perhaps packaging with the product by means of bar requirements. Located at each checkout is definitely an ELECTRONIC STAGE OF SALE ( EPOS ) till. This

EPOS till consists a keyboard, a digital screen, a scanner which reads bar rules, a set of weighing machines, a printer, a credit / debit card reader and a till drawer. Each right up until also has its very own base to which all of the previously mentioned is attached. It is the base unit which is connected by simply cables to the branch computer in the supermarket’s system office. Bar unique codes are made up of some black lines and white colored spaces. Consider the bar code. You can see it is split into two halves, and each half can be contained within two slender black lines. The plan shows the pattern of lines for each digit within the bar code.

Notice that the pattern for a digit around the right side half of a bar code is the opposite of the one particular on the left side half. Various bar unique codes today utilize the European Content Number or perhaps EAN. This is certainly a thirteen digit amount which can be used to uniquely discover a product. Using the bar code shown for example: a) The first 2 digits symbolize the country that the company generating the product comes. 50 , U. K. b) The next five digits represent the business which created the product. 00208 , Lyons Tetley Limited. c) The following five digits represent the product. 02100 , 80 Tea bags. ) The last quantity is a verify digit. This really is used to guarantee the bar code has been examine correctly. Thus 5000208021000 may be the EAN for a box of 80 Tetley tea bags. The bar unique codes on items are read by the EPOS tills with the checkouts. This really is achieved by by using a scanner, which sends out infra-red laser beams with a set of mirrors, enabling the line code to become read at most of the angles. For the item can be passed within the scanner, the black and light parts of the code will be detected by the laser, because the dark parts reflect very little lumination whilst the white parts reflect almost all of the light.

This really is converted into electric pulses which can be sent along the cables towards the branch laptop. The part computer after that searches its stock apply for the product matching the EAN number. Once this record is located the purchase price and description of the system is extracted and sent back for the EPOS until at the peruse which then reveals this item and selling price on the digital display, styles them over a receipt and adds the cost to the total. At the same time, the branch computer records that you of this item has been marketed. We look at how this is certainly used for stock control on other pages.

When a bar code have been correctly sought, the reader emits a bleep. In the event that no such sound is done, the item may be passed above the scanner again until it have been correctly read. The keyboard is employed to enter codes of products that will not scan, one example is reduced value items. The scales with the EPOS right up until are also associated up to the part computer. All loose fruit and vegetables are considered at the checkout. Each product has a code number which will, when typed in at the key pad, gives the buyer a description from the product around the receipt along with the weight and price with the purchase.

The weight of the product is likewise deducted through the stock data file. As well as stamping an itemised receipt, the printer attached with the EPOS till could also print the name of the supermarket, the date plus the amount still to pay on cheques and charge / mastercard vouchers. This kind of lessens the possibility of faults as well as minimising the amount of time a customer must spend in the checkout. Not every customer pays off by funds or check though. Various now choose to pay with a debit card such as Move or Delta. In these cases the customer’s card is swiped through the sdmmc which says the information ( such as the bank account umber and date of expiry ) held on the magnetic deprive on the back side of the card. The most up-to-date in store development has been the entrance of smart card readers at the EPOS. A debit card with a clever chip is put in the target audience and the buyer then gets into their PIN NUMBER to authorise the money getting taken out of all their account. This really is much more secure than signing a brand as it may not be forged. This info is then included with the details of how much the customer has put in and, after checking that sufficient cash are present, utilized to transfer this amount in the customer’s savings account to that of the supermarket’s.

This method is called ELECTRONIC FUNDS COPY and functions even if the supermarket’s bank is different from that in the customer. CHARGES The price of an item, as we have found, is brought to the EPOS terminal if the product’s tavern code is read. Before, every single item had a price sticker attached and when an amount change was required, new labels had to be placed in the old types. This was an occasion consuming job, as each item available of the product requiring the retail price change essential a new labeled. Mistakes had been sometimes made and clients over or undercharged. At present there are zero price product labels ttached to products, nor does the product packaging of the merchandise show the selling price. The only reference to the price of a product or service is covered on a ingredients label attached to the shelf wherever that system is situated. These kinds of shelf brands are made by the department computer and they are printed out in different sizes according to the size of the shelf screen for a particular item. Technology. While bar rules are scanned, the part computer actively seeks items which are on special offer and discounts the amount paid where important. STOCK CONTROL There are, in fact , six department computers linked to the EPOS ports at the checkouts.

They all record information about items sold and give backup for every single other. If perhaps one pc was used and it stopped working, the superstore could not function. These branch computers happen to be linked with the satellite links to a large main laptop housed in the supermarket’s hq elsewhere in the country. All branches of this superstore are also linked in this way to the main computer system and this can be an example o an extranet. Special offers such as Multibuy , “Buy two and purchase one free” or perhaps LinkSave , “Buy 1 product and save 50% on another” could not become offered before the introduction info

After the supermarket has closed at the end of the day, the following happens: 1) The branch computer delivers the details of each individual sales to the key computer in front of Office. 2) Using this information, the main computer updates the record with the number in stock of each item in the store. The SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION’S allows managers to get a real time stock photo and enables a director to elevate stock shipping from not 72 hours to forty-eight hours. In addition, it gives a better picture of stock failures and enhances the assistance the shop can give it is customers 3) Using a outlook of product sales along with other factors ( uch as the next thunderstorm and the event etc . ) the system quickly orders the right amount of stock needed by the store for the next readily available delivery 48 or 72 hours in advance. 4) The main computer likewise transmits these kinds of orders to computers inside the distribution zones (large facilities storing items ready for delivery to shops ) throughout the satellite link. 5) These types of distribution centres then provide the required share to the retailers immediately. 6) Price improvements and prices of new products, special offers etc . will be sent back to branch pc in the supermarket. ) Fresh shelf labels are printed and the evening staff with the supermarket place these on the shelves ready for this day. The business also uses computers for staff recruitment. New applicants can fill out an application type over the Internet and still have it vetted by the Head Office. This saves time at branch level and serves to get rid of a lot of applicants. If an applicant floods in a form at the branch, this can be scanned in and after that uploaded towards the Head office. MERELY IN TIME sixth is v STANDARD WAY OF STOCK CONTROL In the standard method, a shop selling cookers etc, will keep it stock in a shop and in a great attached storage place.

When inventory in the shop are runs low it is replenished from the warehouse. A check can be kept on how much stock with the warehouse. If the warehouse requires new share, an order is placed with all the appropriate suppliers ” or perhaps with the organisation’s main factory ” as well as the goods happen to be delivered. In addition to being used for share control, the info from checking is gathered on the primary computer in front of Office to develop a , profile’ or perhaps description of the way in which their customers store. For example , exactely customers who also use a cleansing powder to people who use a liquid detergent an end up being calculated through the sales of washing in particular in any particular store. Using this sort of info, the amount of corner space to get given to a product can be computed. OTHER USES The stores are big users of email. Each store is connected to each other, to each depot and to the Head Workplace. The email is used for location initiatives, promotional planning, top quality control problems, head office press releases, warning about shoplifters and banning letters. The ‘just-in-time’ system makes use of a stock details system. Because products move through the electric points of product sales (EPOS), the kind of data can be sent to a atabase that contains information about stock levels. Once stock is catagorized below a set level more is usually ordered. As a result only a bare minimum of necessary share is bought and there is no requirement to maintain a big, fully stored warehouse. Occasionally the system is definitely fully automatic, working out just how what inventory is needed and electronically control and interacting the order. Advantages ¢ Money is definitely saved mainly because less factory space should be purchased and maintained. ¢ Economies could be made in consider to work costs, i. e. fewer staff will be needed. ¢ The business is somewhat more aware of and more responsive to hanges in supply and demand Disadvantages ¢ If there is interruption to the transfer system, retailers and businesses will quickly run out of share. ¢ Outlets can still become caught out by simply sudden changes in buying patterns. In such cases they frequently find themselves without the stock the purchasers are asking for. ¢ An ICT system can be costly to build and maintain, and expertise , which may also be costly ” will be necessary to run it. INTERNET SHOPPING Several supermarket businesses now have websites which permit you to shop over the Internet, this has allowed them use of different market segments i. at the. people who you don’t have ransport to reach the store. Businesses have recognised that the Internet allowed visitors to interact with each other in a different way, and it gave the potential for creating new market segments and in reinvigorating old ones. Businesses started to use the Internet in several ways: ¢ As a means of communicating information about the products and services they offer, ¢ Like a ‘virtual shop’, allowing customers to purchase goods and services online, ¢ As a cost-free service helping to make money by advertisers to use the site, ¢ As a membership service, elizabeth. g. enabling subscribers entry to valuable info such as could be ontained in research documents, ¢ While an interactive site that encourages clients to give all of them feedback on their products. Measures in interactive searching 1 . The customer views the company’s products using a website and selects the object(s) to buy. 2 . The consumer enters his order, along with credit card particulars, via a great on-screen type. 3. An encryption system or secure link is used to protect the transaction also to ensure mastercard details are generally not accessible. some. The purchase is received and brought to a data source. 5. The knowledge in the data source is communicated to a distribution centre exactly where rders are made up. 6. The order can be delivered to the client. Advantages to the customer ¢ Clients do not have to travelling long distances to the shops and have difficulty through throngs to make all their purchases. ¢ It can be good for those customers who also are disabled or who, for some different reason find it difficult to travel to shops. ¢ New, smaller, even more specialised businesses present themselves in he world wide web, thus widening the range of goods and companies available. Positive aspects to the business ¢ Overheads can be minimize. A web-affiliated business does not necessarily desire a high street shop and personnel to run this.

Small specialist concerns have therefore had the opportunity to establish themselves on the web with very little capital outlay. ¢ Many new businesses have been developed via the Internet, several have been good some not really. The overall result, however , continues to be to invigorate the business environment by presenting healthy competition. Some issues ¢ In spite of assurances by simply business that their sites are protected, many people are restless about giving out their credit-based card details on the web. There have been enough examples of Web-based credit cards fraudulence to justify this fear. ¢ Anyone can set up a business online and some ebsites are not operate in an honest and dependable manner. Consumers have ordered and paid for goods that hve under no circumstances arrived. ¢ Shopping is not just a functional action. It is also a social activity. People shop to be with their particular friends and enjoy the ambiance of neighborhoods and metropolitan areas. Computers are also used to control the freezers and chillers throughout the store. In the warehouse, the best freezers must be kept in a certain temp range. This really is achieved by having temperature receptors inside every single freezer which usually monitor the conditions and change the chilling motor upon or away.

On the floor from the supermarket are many freezers and chillers which are used to store and display lots of products including fresh meat, dairy create and frosty goods. CONTROL SYSTEMS Several products will vary requirements in terms of temperature. Refreshing meat, for example, may have to become kept in 4 C whilst goodies has to be placed at -15 C. The freezers and chillers consequently are stored at various temperatures and, in the past, an employee of the supermarket had to check the temperature in the chiller every hour. Now every fridge and chiller is related to a computer in the branch workplace.

A temp sensor in each freezer or chiller constantly DISPLAYS the heat, sending data back to this kind of computer which usually sends alerts back, as needed, switching the freezer / chiller motor on or off, hence maintaining the correct temperatures. An exhibition on each refrigerator / chiller shows the temperature to customers. the build up of ice but without thawing the food. Any kind of breakdowns are detected quickly, minimising the chance of food thawing and therefore being wasted. ADVANTAGES The advantages of using Technology in supermarkets can be split up into two sections, the enefits to the customer and the rewards to the superstore and its management. It must be appreciated that improvements and advancements come about over a period of time, for example, while the launch of Information Technology may save the supermarket chain funds eventually, it requires a good deal of expense, both in terms of resources and teaching, initially and throughout their development. This is certainly called a , closed loop control system’. As can be seen through the diagram, the freezer may be either in or away ( the task ) that leads to the freezer being a particular temperature ( the RESULT ). The temp of the fridge s in that case either too much, too low or perhaps alright which FEEDBACK is utilized to change the procedure if necessary (turns the fridge from away to in, or onto off. ) Every three or four hours, every single freezer needs to be defrosted plus the computer settings this process too, turning the freezer away long enough to avoid To the customer 2. faster plus more efficient checkout services. 2. itemised until receipts. 5. products even more tailored to the requirements. * fresher goods as a result of low stock levels kept by supermarkets. * special offers. * rewards to the superstore passed on in the form of lower prices or increased customer services. * various methods of payment. chilled or frosty food held at the appropriate temperature. Towards the supermarket and its management 5. efficient stock control, much less chance of products being sold-out. * better checkouts, significantly less chance of mistakes by staff. * capacity to use product sales forecasts and , profiles’, leading to better use of rack space. * little storage place space needed in every single supermarket due to distribution system. * capability to monitor the performance of checkout personnel. * rack pricing more affordable than labels on items. * capability to use electronic digital funds transfer improves income. * effective management of chilled and frozen items.

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