Abstract
In this paper, we implement new technologies using various strategies within a period of time with customer satisfaction and great returns of the investments made. As we all know that every person on an average visits a grocery store on an average at least three time a week and there are grocery stores or chain markets in every area. Implementation of new technology includes both fast check out for the customers and also introduction of Internet Of Things in K-Market in a three-year plan where K-market might lose its customers as other chain stores are already in the phase of implementing. As we all experience the problem where we need to wait in the queue for the billing process and later we end up going to different stores where the process is faster and easy, and also for the employees it has been difficult to stock new products at dedicated places, ordering stock, maintaining required temperatures regularly where introducing the above technology would gain customers satisfaction and improve employee work culture and keep the stock and orders updated. Other retail stores such as Walmart have already implemented it, so K-market should invest into new technology which helps them solve their retail problem. By following the strategies so as to implement them and get changes in a great pace would help them with communication, alignment, consistent energy, change management in business process and focus. Edward Scott is the CEO and is responsible for maintaining and implementing technology. Kmart has a team of economists, data scientist who help the company in researching for new technologies and innovations and help the company to invest them in a right path and will them go for further discussion.
Introduction
Kmart Corporation is an American huge box retail chain headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The chain's administration acquired Sears for $11 billions of every 2004, framing another company under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. At its crest in 2000, Kmart worked 2,171 stores including 105 Super Kmart Center areas. For the 2005 financial year under the new organization, the Kmart store tally was at 1,416 with just 55 Super Kmart Center locations. By the second from last quarter of 2017, the Kmart store chain had 510 store areas (which now diminished to 432 after a few rounds of store terminations declared continuing Q3 of 2017). The last Super Kmart Center in Warren, Ohio shut on April 8, 2018. Kmart at present works stores in 47 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam (which houses the world's biggest Kmart). Kmart once in the past worked stores in Canada, Mexico, Singapore, and in Eastern Europe. Kmart ended up known for its "Blue Light Specials". These happened at astound minutes when a store laborer would illuminate a versatile police light and offer a rebate in a particular branch of the store, while declaring the marked down exceptional over the store's open address framework. A free substance calling itself Kmart works in Australia and New Zealand (see Kmart Australia) yet it never again has any connection to the American stores aside from in name. Super Kmart Center (Super Kmart) opened an all-new area in 1991 in Medina, Ohio, including a full-benefit staple and general merchandise. The second ground-up Super Kmart Center opened in Montrose, Ohio, highlighting an in-store video rental focus, and an in-store carryout Chinese restaurant. This area has additionally closed. The last Super Kmart Center in Warren OH shut on April 8, 2018.Enormous Kmart opened in Chicago, Illinois, on April 23, 1997. The arrangement centers around home molds, youngsters' clothing, and consumables. Most Kmart stores were rebuilt to this organization amid the late 1990s and the mid 2000s. Amid 1997 and 1998, Kmart changed over 1,245 of their general Kmart stores into Big Kmart stores. At first, the Big Kmart stores had turned out to be extremely fruitful, and before the finish of 1997, Kmart had seen their business numbers develop by 10% because of achievement of their Big Kmart stores. In 1998, Kmart obtained 45 previous Venture stores and changed over them into Big Kmart stores. By the finish of 1998, 62% of Kmart's stores were Big Kmart stores. Kmart later changed over about 1,900 of their customary Kmart stores into Big Kmart stores in 1999. Before the finish of 1999, Kmart had once more observed another expansion in deals numbers by 6.5% because of the achievement of their Big Kmart stores.
Problem statement
Grocery shopping is done at-least once a week where waiting in line makes the customer to shop at different stores or online, self-checkout lines have been introduced in few big chain stores but as few products are not in system makes the transaction take time and increase the line or chances of stealing the items as they are not recorded which reduced the work load for the employees but again increasing wait lines at self-checkout lines. And as we can see when we go to stores few most products are not stocked or empty, or they stocked in different racks which may confuse the customers and chances of not selling them at all. Few products such as dairy products, meat, frozen food is to be maintained at a particular temperature and there is no one to manage the temperature and all the products are in the same freezer which might create problem where the products will be spoilt as they are not maintained. At k-mart innovation center, new technologies are innovated, tested and then got for further discussion where for this issue of checkout, hands-free checkout at stores should be invented.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
Innovation team with further discussion have planned to implement hands-free technology for retail shopping experience and also implementing Internet Of Things for maintaining the products but should be implemented with a proper strategy. Any customer entering the store should have the application installed and should sync their mobile phone to the shopping cart which is installed with a chip and a scanner. The cart scans the products as we keep adding the products into the cart and the app is synced with the bill and products can be deleted or added at final checkout. One product at a time should be added into the cart for proper billing. Once all the products are confirmed the customer can do the payment with his card or through his phone and can directly walk out of the store. If the payment is not processed and the cart is being taken out, the alarm keeps ringing for the cart which intimated the employees and ensures shoplifting. Introduction of internet of things in the stores helps the employees to stack all the racks as per the products and arrange new products easily, and to maintain the freezer temperatures as per the product requirements as the chip scans the product requirements. The chip lets employee know about any expired products which help employee to remove them according to the shelf life or any products are empty at any particular rack which helps them easy stocking. Smart signage with IOT helps customers to buy new products and know prices and get aware of any new products.
TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTED BY COMPANIES
Hands-free technology is not completely new to the market. Big chain stores such as Wal-Mart have started to use the technology but it is not started in all the stores. Amazon is testing its beta version in California with self-checkout stores there were few problems noted by amazon such as cameras are not able to capture customers accurately, billing was not accurate, inventory was not accurate, stocking of products was totally odd, the server crashes is there was high usage. Internet of things is being used for different technology but it is being slowly under consideration for retail stores and will be in high usage and chips are manufactured by intel. IOT is being used by Starbucks, Nordstrom, amazon-go for various uses such as smart tags, price display, stocking, customer tracking. RFID will have installed at all the places where the data has to be tracked and help the company known for inventory reporting, customer requirements and improve the experience. The main motto is to not lose customers and improve the customer experience because if a customer is satisfied with a store they would be a regular customer and increase the profits. The company should not delay in inventing and implementing the technology until other stores have done it and lose the market. Consistent innovation of new technology leads the company for great outputs and impact.
UNCERTAINITY AND HOW TO DEAL WITH IT
Uncertainties are common during the process of any innovation or implementation and are tricky. It is not important that self-checkout process can be useful for customers or IOT can be useful for maintaining the store. It is important to predict all probable outcomes and be prepared (Marcus, 2016). Finding uncertainties is the most important part as it helps for fast change and growth. We recognized the technologies as there are other companies such as Amazon and Walmart have implemented it and are practicing it and Intel is being manufacturing chips for Starbucks, amazon-go for IOT as it helps us in solving uncertainties when raised by comparing it with others. As amazon is still in beta version, Kmart does not want to wait till other company technology arise and lose competition. Kmart has planned to implement the technology and planned the budgeting and implement within a span of three years and make it successful. Kmart have planned the chip design, to manage the crash and data servers, app synchronization with chips, sync for the racks and update the store, maintain stock and inventory. Regular communication between the team and reaching the miles stones as planned according to the three-year strategy to make it successful.
ANALYSIS AND PLANNING
WOW
Kmart Innovation Development group utilized system instruments to be more responsive to new astonishments while taking choices. Checking the limits of the association and checking if this change can draw out the required accomplishment by contrasting it and different exceptions, at Kmart choice is made to proceed and endorsement from the chief and different groups is given. Scarcely any adjustments in plan of action are to be finished. Checked how different organizations are managing this and what changes are to be done to have more upper hand and fruitful and what to be learnt from them. It is ensured on how comprehensive the current plan of action is to the progressions and required changes are done similarly. Contributions from all groups are taken by conveying and ensured each group at Target is engaged with this change (Gibbert, 2015).
So What?
As any innovation is new to the market so self-checkout and usage of IOT for the retail stores would be new to most of the customers as few stores such as Amazon, Walmart, Starbucks have implemented that technology in few of their stores which only few of their customers have experienced it and they have not been successful and few of them been in beta version so Kmart with its innovation team would like to be ahead in the market without losing any customers. Other who have implemented are facing issues such as server crash, customer tracking issues, inventory management, stock update so as to fill the empty racks. IOT had been facing problem managing connectivity, security and privacy of the data, compatibility issues between various devices and hubs.
OOMPH
It is essential to have decisions and ideas of individuals from group as for any change during the phase of transformation. This underlying thought set off a ton of protection in the organization which thusly cleared an approach to welcome a few observations at the issue. Furthermore, on account of this protection, a few gatherings were led and every single conceivable info are considered before taking up a significant methodology for this change and if this change would bring out accomplishment later on. Notwithstanding it, since all the colleagues alongside top administration are urged to vouch their thoughts, greater contribution and fervor towards change is seen and reliable commitment will be worked all through the change stage (Marcus, 2016).
STRATEGY FOR THREE YEAR IMPLEMENTATION
Strategy is the most important phase during the phase of transformation. There is no particular strategy that is to be applied in generic (Gibbert). Building a methodology for Kmart is restrictive to it and at Innovation Development Center, the group distinguished key angles for any rising innovation to be executed, for example, its motivation, scope, costs included, dangers and changes that are to be done in the current plan of action. Strategy is selective to organizations so at Kmart contingent upon the current plan of action, existing estimations of the organization, system for the change usage is recognized. This system incorporates, responsibility regarding activities to every individual from the group and sorting out quarterly gatherings alongside follow up smaller than expected falls to check advance of execution and arrangement with the arrangement. This while, administration at Kmart made a situation to ensure that representatives associated with this change would not feel this change as outsider to the association. To make it effective, the arrangement for change is separated into a three-year strategy design. The goal is to reach the tasks before every year and make sure every task corporate is successful. ACT process is taken after for propelling the change of checkout free innovation an Objective. It starts with dispatch stage at that point moves to course which includes high commitment at that point to Execution stage and after that to Restore stage. If the strategy is not being followed will lead to an un-balanced stage of transformation where the employee is not aligned and would fail in the process of implementation of new technology.
YEAR-1
YEAR 1 QUARTER 1 QUARTER 2 QUARTER 3 QUARTER 4
Planned Task Planning and Budgeting of the product Requirement gathering and Analysis Designing, development and
installation Testing at one store
Description  Risk analysis is done
 Planning of the product and market analysis
 Budgeting and calculating ROI  Analyzing the gap between AS-IS and TO-BE
 Deciding if product is built within or outsourced
 Designing the specifications of the mobile app
 Development of app and chip for the cart and embedding it
 Installation at one KMART store for testing
 Designing of RFID chips.
 Seting up RFID locations.  Regression testing and check how it responds
 Change requests to development team based on the test results
 Test RFID chips
 Testing cameras for customer tracking.
Checkpoint Final budget and level of risk to be confirmed Decision about outsourcing or development within is taken and customer adaption is analyzed Development of the product, installation is to be completed Testing and enhancements to be done and final product is to be successful at one Target store
ACT Launch Train the employees Execution End of Execution and begin of Renew phase
YEAR 2
YEAR 2 QUARTER 1 QUARTER 2 QUARTER 3 QUARTER 4
Planned Task Start of Renew phase Changes, if required in the process or in the product Installation of product at 50% of the stores Successful implementation in 50% of KMART stores and training
Description  Start of Renew phase with more streamlined process as of Year 1
 Meeting Quarterly check point at KMart
 Check for early success  Mid-way success check and making changes in the process in agile way if required.
 Maintaining consistent focus.
 Launching the carts in 50% of the stores
 Maintaining the energy for the change  Training to the Kmart employee about the technology
 Contacting regularly with the employees and update them and make sure everything is good.
Checkpoint Regularly check with the alignment if the tasks on the right path. Re-development of the product with enhancements suggested throughout based on the customers. Feedback from customers and individual commitment to action to all the employees to make sure they are in alignment with the transformation Successful implementation of enhanced product in half of Kmart stores across the country
ACT Renew phase where the same of first year process but in simpler streamlined fashion is repeated Renew phase with goal to execute in more stores Any changes if required to make actual process in alignment with planned process End of second year Renew phase
YEAR 3
YEAR 3 QUARTER 1 QUARTER 2 QUARTER 3 QUARTER 4
Planned Task Regular check for outliers Changes, if required in the process or in the product or issues. Installation and update of product in all stores Successful implementation in all Kmart stores and training all the employees.
Description  Quarterly check point
 Check for success and make changes by considering feedback from the customers  Keeping up the focus and energy for the change with quarterly meetings
 Making sure employees stay focused and responsive if changes are required as this is more crucial period after launch
 Launching the carts in all of the stores
 Maintaining the focus for the transformation
 Installing RFID chips in all the stores
 Updating the inventory  Training the employee about new technology
Checkpoint By the end of first quarter, focus and alignment check and repeat the same as of second year for rest of the stores Re-development of the product with enhancements suggested throughout (same as second year) by customers Launch the final enhanced product in all Kmart stores Successful implementation of enhanced product in all of kmart stores across the country and training to ground staff
ACT Renew phase for year 3 Renew phase with goal to execute in all stores Final launch in all stores End of third year Renew phase