solving issues in Vegetable distribution from growers to small retailers in Urban Centers(Pune)
PROJECT DETAILS
The project was done as a part of IISc Service Design thinking course under the guidance of Prof. Achutha Rao. The goal was to learn and apply service design principles
PROBLEM
Device a more effective and efficient service system to address the issues in the current vegetable distribution system. Identify the pitfalls, consider the aspirations of all stakeholders, and gather insights or opportunities.
PROCESS
Double Diamond
DISCOVER
DEFINE
DEVELOP
DELIVER
Research Stakeholder Interview Insights
Current Eco-system User Persona Customer Journey Map
Proposed Design Brief Proposed Service Flow Prototype (Lo-fi)
Research : I researched on various topics like: Urban Vegetable Supply Chain, APMC, Food supply chain management in Indian Agriculture
Stakeholder Interviews : Following is the questionnaire for the interview
Common for All:
How is the current system?
What type of issues do you face?
Do you try to solve these issues yourself?
How do you solve them?
Are there any unfair practices?
Wholesalers:
Do you preorder from growers?
Are you aware about the quantity of food required by customers?
How do you decide the prices of vegetables?
How much amount of food is wasted every day?
What is the percent of involvement of government in the supply chain?
Do you buy from agents/ auctioneers or farmers?
Traditional Retailers, Hawkers, Cart Vendors
Do you know the quantity of vegetable you require every day?
How do you forecast it?
Amount of vegetable wasted in a day?
Is the quality of vegetable hampered?
What time of the day is the sales maximum?
Apart from established markets do you purchase from anywhere else?
What is the procurement process?
Hawkers / Cart Vendors
How much do you travel in a day?
Growers
How to decide on the selling prices of your produce?
Do you know customer requirement?
Insights :
High Quantity of food is wasted - Supply demand mismatch, Vegetables must reach the users at the minimum possible time otherwise it becomes waste due to its perishable nature, Poor storage infrastructure
Farmer has no clear realizations about remunerative prices - Farmers have limited or no connectivity to the end users or wholesalers
Unfair market practices - Agent form cartels to create monopsony
Exhausting procurement practices for Retailers
Physically and mentally exhausting process of selling - Hawkers need to walk long distances to sell few kilograms of vegetables, Need to sell by calling out names of vegetables
Uncertainty of sales - Causes difficulty in purchase from wholesalers for the following day
Current Eco-system
User Personas
Dagaji
Vegetable Retailer AGE : 59
Goals
Frustrations
To make trusted purchases
Get fair prices of produce
To be able to spend more time with family
Inefficient Mandi system
Market price instability
Wholesalers defrauding
Agent Monopsony
High wastage of food
Time-consuming trading process
Kunal
Vegetable Wholesaler AGE : 32
Goals
Frustrations
To make quick and efficient delivery
Get a market license for selling the produce
Minimize food wastage
Late delivery of vegetables in the marketplace
High wastage of food
High transportation cost
Lack of cold chain infrastructure
Poor road infrastructure
Sunil
Vegetable Grower AGE : 34
Goals
Frustrations
Increase in productivity
Earn minimum support price greater than the cost of production
Gain better insights to decide on the selling price of the produce
Smaller value realization
Rising indebtedness due to repeated crop failures
Wholesalers or business defrauding
Absence of liquid capital
Absence of capital to afford bulk transport of vegetables
Shashi
Customer AGE : 31
Goals
Frustrations
Get groceries home delivered
Get perishable/daily items auto-delivered at specific intervals of time
To maintain a healthy lifestyle
Travel to get desired vegetables
Often overpriced vegetables
Customer Journey Map
Proposed Design Brief: An Application that seamlessly connects all the stakeholders resulting in a smooth supply chain. This self-service multi-user platform proposes to deliver a better service and improved experience by emphasizing on the power of feedback or reviews which in turn would foster more confident purchases and provide a more trusted ecosystem. This platform would work on the mechanism of requesting orders by viewing vendors or wholesalers on maps and taking further decisions based on availability, convenience, prices, proximity, and ratings.
A Customer login on this platform would enable the customer to view a map of retailers based on the proximity, rating, availability & prices. Customers can either pre-order and get the delivery the next day early morning by creating an order cart in the application and placing the order. For quick delivery, the customer may go for real-time order processing where he can place the order with a retailer or a cart vendor depending on the above-mentioned parameters. Customers can also choose to physically visit the retailer or the cart vendor to save on delivery charges.
A Retailer login would show all the customer requests and an option to accept or reject. For pre-orders retailer can accept the order and choose the wholesaler from whom he wants to purchase by viewing the wholesaler map. He can then deliver his purchase early in the morning, post-purchasing the stock from the wholesalers. Here, the retailer includes cart vendors, hawkers as well as traditional retailers/traders. Real-time orders can also be accepted by the retailers and delivery can be made based on the retailer's convenience, availability of stock, proximity, and rating.
A Wholesalers login would show the retailer requests at midnight, then the wholesalers can buy from growers or agents from APMC.
A Growers login would show the average prices of items sold by the retailers, growers can also view the future prices based on prediction which will help them revise the prices for higher profits.
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