The Project Proposal
The main purpose of designing the Amazon Dash Cart is to digitalize the whole shopping procedure. On one hand, the scope of the work contains the visualization of shopping information when consumers put various kinds of groceries into or remove them from their carts, which enables people to gain dynamic understanding about how much exactly they need to pay if they chose to check out now. On the other hand, the work also aims at providing an alternative payment choice for consumers to skip the checkout line and save time. The Dash Cart is the combination of the computer vision algorithms and the sensor fusion to identify the items. However, although the Dash Cart is equipped with the advanced information technology system, it does not have a very complicated structure due to its two simple functions as automatic identification of goods and electronic payment. Therefore, the project could maintain a highly consistent product standard no matter how significant the market change is.
From this perspective, a waterfall project management framework is an appropriate approach to plan, execute and manage the project in order to achieve success with all the initiatives as mentioned above. In details, the engineer should plan the outlook and design of the Dash Cart according to the majority of consumers’ shopping habits, so that the technology could provide convenience for most of people. Also, decisions made by the top management team should also contain the link between the Dash Cart and the inventory information to ensure that every good is accurately identified when it is put into or removed from the cart. In general, the Waterfall project management ensures that the design, development, manufacturing and adjustments of the Dash Cart are consistent because every stage will not be implemented until the previous one is completed. Since the product is treated as an integral part of Amazon’s brand image, it needs to comply with various standards and serves the value creating point designed by the top management team. That is, both of consumers and supermarkets could gain benefits from achieving these goals. From the perspective of consumers, they would find it extremely convenient to do shopping in Amazon because it would not waste time in waiting for the checkout and they could budget for every shopping more accurately because the screen would dynamically show the total payment. From the perspective of Amazon’s supermarket, the brand now could hire fewer employee to maintain the same operating efficiency, because a significant part of consumers choose to pay the bill via the electronic payment system. Under this circumstance, Amazon could save some of salaries expenses and expect higher levels of profitability in the long run.