Description

For over 45 years, the GS1 consortium has successfully aimed to improve relationships between businesses, associations, institutions, and consumers by innovating data exchange processes throughout the supply chain. To date, GS1 Italy brings together 35,000 companies in Italy, divided into various sectors, including fast-moving consumer goods, healthcare, banking, public administration, and logistics. Participants include Barilla, Fater, Ferrero, L'Oreal, Ferrero, Coop, Crai, Conad, Eridania, Conserve Italia, DHL, Mondelez, Italtrans, FM Logistics, Number 1, and Stef.

Design of the new digital standard for the Proof of Delivery process - end-to-end Proof Of Delivery. To achieve a shared and consistent goal among all parties involved, the approach taken included various workshop sessions that allowed participants to directly compare their current experiences and develop improvement ideas.

Some numbers:

• 3 Design Sprint sessions conducted

• 9 Workshops held

• 13 Companies involved, including Manufacturers, Logistics, and Big Retail

• 35 Global participants

Project Roadmap

Project roadmap

Approach and Methodology

To design the new digital Proof of Delivery creation flow, the activity was divided into three different Design Sprints. In the first two Sprints, we delved into the current process flows and explored the challenges and opportunities for the two main scenarios: Large Retail and Non-Structured Recipients. The third Design Sprint aimed to converge the results from the previous sessions, attempting to envision a common and effective solution.

For each Sprint, three workshops were conducted with participants representing the three major categories involved (Manufacturers, Logistics, and Big Retail). The first two workshops were dedicated to flow analysis and exploring emerging improvement opportunities, while the last one focused on validating the work produced by a different, smaller group. Initially, a preliminary digitization hypothesis of the Proof of Delivery (POD) flow was created in collaboration with the GS1 group (Image 1), and this was presented to the participants during the first two Sprints. The Service Blueprint was refined numerous times to integrate every component and role within the process (Image 2).

image1 - preliminary POD

image 2 - Service blueprint

Reworking in Studio

Between each workshop session, various analyses and studio reworkings were carried out to converge all the ideas proposed by the participants. During the workshop days, numerous stakeholders from diverse companies participated.

Managing and properly balancing the information received from the participants was crucial to achieving an effective and shared result among all parties involved.

The work that required a higher level of analysis was the assessment of the opportunities identified during the sprints. Given the large number of participants, surveys with closed-ended questions were used to evaluate on multiple levels.

Analysis & Tools applied

• Google Form

• Statistical analysis using parameters such as mode, mean, and median

• Data representation graphs: histograms, Cartesian graphs, hybrid solutions

• Feasibility Map

Map of company's involving in process

Evolution and Outcome

At the end of the first two sprints and subsequently following a phase of in-studio analysis, it was possible to develop an initial high-level model for the digitalization of the Proof of Delivery (POD) process through the design of a platform shared by all parties involved. This new mapping aims to be a hybrid between an architectural draft and a low-fidelity static prototype (Image 6).

Through this mapping, user clusters (Manufacturers, Logistics, Big Retail/Non- Structured Recipients) were able to test their level of interaction within the platform under development. They also became more aware of the consequences and connections between their actions and those of other actors in the field.

Prototyping

As of today, the digitalization project for Proof of Delivery (POD) has not yet concluded. We are currently in the phase of more explicit prototyping of the model submitted for validation, which is the subject of the last sprint. The goal will be to present an interface and interaction idea for the agreed-upon use cases with the client and to provide a high-level data exchange definition that will take place on the platform.

Digital process map