Trending December 2023 # Top 11 Checkout Free Stores And Solution Providers In ’23 # Suggested January 2024 # Top 15 Popular

You are reading the article Top 11 Checkout Free Stores And Solution Providers In ’23 updated in December 2023 on the website Achiashop.com. We hope that the information we have shared is helpful to you. If you find the content interesting and meaningful, please share it with your friends and continue to follow and support us for the latest updates. Suggested January 2024 Top 11 Checkout Free Stores And Solution Providers In ’23

It is predicted that long checkout lines costs $37.7 million

1. Amazon Go

Online retailer Amazon opened its beta version of the cashier-less store on December 5 in 2023, in Seattle. The 1800-square-foot retail store was only for employees. Then the store became open to the public on January 22, 2023. As of 2023, 27 Amazon Go stores are located in 4 different states: Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Seattle.

Amazon uses computer vision and deep learning algorithms. Amazon calls this technology “Just Walk Out” and uses approaches used in autonomous driving vehicles. Amazon uses various cameras and sensors to see what customers are putting into their shopping bags. 

Customers scan a QR code when they enter the store through an app connected to their chúng tôi account. After shopping, customers can leave the store. Amazon automatically charges the customers’ Amazon account, and the receipt is sent to the app.

It took quite some effort to improve the system. During the pilot, Amazon employees have been trying to fool the system through challenges like wearing Pikachu costumes while shopping.

Funnily, the Go stores, which are meant to reduce queues, were causing queues during their initial launch as people lined up to see how they work:

2. Sam’s Club

Sam’s club is a Walmart owned grocery store in Dallas. The store opened in 2023. The store relies on Walmart’s solution for an autonomous checkout system, the Scan & Go program. Walmart introduced this program in select stores between 2012 and 2014. 

The app allows customers to scan the products with their smartphones and pay by scanning a barcode for their total purchase. Compared to other systems, this is the easiest to deploy system. 

The app utilizes machine learning and purchase data to generate a shopping list for users. It automatically updates the list once items are purchased. 

Customers can search for an item and navigate in the store to find the item.

As of June 2023, Walmart is testing new self-checkout kiosks at a store in Fayetteville, Ark.

In this checkout experience, Walmart combined a self-checkout system with human guidance where a host is always available to make the checkout frictionless.

3. 7-Eleven

7-eleven stores in Dallas introduced a Scan and pay self-checkout program in 2023. The system of the app is similar to Walmart’s Scan and Go app. These both require mobile phones. In both systems, customers should manually scan items. 

In order to use the 7-Eleven app, the customers should install the app and register for the 7 Rewards loyalty program. 

Customers shop by scanning the barcodes of the items to this app.  

They put their items in plastic bags at the scan & pay station. 

The customers pay via Apple or Google Pay as well as a debit or credit card at the scan and pay station. 

Finally, they receive a QR code to confirm their leave from the store. 

4. Standard Cognition stores

The standard cognition company uses computer vision technology to track people and products in real-time in the store. Deep learning and image recognition techniques enable Standard Cognition to recognize items. Brandon Ogle, co-founder, and an engineer, said that the system is correct 98 percent of the time. 

It has light-touch installation, with cameras only on the store ceiling

It accepts credit, cash  and IC cards

It doesn’t require any shelf sensors and works with any store design

These technologies are installed in different retailer stores along with the standard store, the company store, in San Francisco and Tokyo. Standard cognition is a competitor of Amazon Go in the USA. However, it is the first company bringing AI empowered checkout systems to Japan. 

Standard cognition emphasizes their policy on privacy protection. The store does not monitor the customer with their face. It rather identifies the customer with a unique color. This identification is not lost when the customer moves around or the number of customers increases. That is in line with federal laws in many states in the USA since these states ban facial recognition technology.  

5. Wheelys 247 store

Wheelys had a concept like Uber for retail. They provided different mobile sales vehicles and experimented with mobile stores that enabled self-checkout.

They had developed a store called Moby

The Swedish company was testing the 24-hour mobile grocery store in Shangai. The store was also planned to be a self-driving vehicle. However, self-driving technology has not been implemented yet. The company was claiming that Amazon Go copied their idea before they stopped operations.

6. Shufersal Stores

Shufersal is Israel’s largest supermarket chain.

The technology they decided on is developed by Trigo Vision.

The shopping process works as:

Shoppers enter the store by scanning a membership card.

When they grab and place the products in their baskets, their final bill will be sent to their card.

They will be able to pay via their pre-loaded payment information in the store’s membership system.

If they do not want to add any payment information to the membership card, then they will need to use a multi-tender payment kiosk. 

7. Aldi Stores

Aldi is a German owned discount supermarket chain with over 10,000 stores in 20 countries.

The company is famous for fast checkout lines. Nonetheless, the company allocated a budget to develop an autonomous checkout system. They tested the Aldi checkout free store in London. In this system, customers scan a smartphone app to enter. They keep shopping while technology tracks the items they choose and charge them. Then, once customers pay through their card, they can leave the store. 

White-label solution providers

These companies develop systems and implement them in a whitelabel manner in 3rd party stores. They do not have their own stores. In addition to these, companies like Amazon Go both operate their own stores and also provide their technology to retail companies.

8. AI Retailer Systems

AI retailer systems was officially established a year ago, in September 2023 in Zurich.

Customers enter the store with a payment medium they decide. It can be a credit card, debit card or mobile payment.

While customers shop, the virtual card will be updating automatically to add or remove the item.

Finally, depending on the payment method, payment will be confirmed.

In addition to checkout-free systems, the company provides remote assistance with the remote surveillance operator. The operator detects a non-shopping behavior including emergencies.

The system also allows for an effective and consistent in-store analytics. Retailers can view the layout and item placements every day, month and period.

9. Grabango

Grabango was founded in 2023 with a mission to save people’s time.

Grabango also uses small cameras and sensors mounted to the ceiling. They benefit from algorithms powered by AI and computer vision tech. These cameras detect products despite elemental and branding changes.

Grabango has two separate approaches to checkout:

In the first way, customers download and install the Grabango app to “grab-n-go”. They place all items in a bag and walk out. The mobile app charges them accordingly.

The second approach is to grab items and go to a checkout stand. At the stand, the cashier does not need to scan every item. They already know the total items gathered so all customers are asked is to pay via cash, credit, Apple Pay, etc.

By doing so, Grabando both allows customers to checkout with cashier or cashier-less and still manages to reduce waiting lines.

10. Imagr for Smart Card Solutions 

Before Amazon and Standard Cognition launched their solution, Imagr showed SmartCart powered by image recognition technology

They now have some pilot deployments in countries such as Japan.

11. Trigo Vision

Trigo Vision is a Tel Aviv-based autonomous retail store.

The cameras are demanded because they prevent shoplifting and allow inventory updates. Also, the data gathered by the company is insightful for customer behavior.

The company is currently partnering with global grocery chains across globe.

If you believe your business will benefit from these technologies, let us help you find the right vendor:

Hazal Şimşek

Hazal is an industry analyst in AIMultiple. She is experienced in market research, quantitative research and data analytics. She received her master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Carlos III of Madrid and her bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Bilkent University.

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. REQUIRED FIELDS ARE MARKED

*

0 Comments

Comment

You're reading Top 11 Checkout Free Stores And Solution Providers In ’23

Apple Stores In 2023: The Top New Architecture And Innovative Designs

Just over four years ago, Apple began rolling out a new generation of retail stores across the world. The idea was straightforward but challenging: Apple Stores should be spaces conducive to creative experiences — spaces for communities to gather. Over 200 redesigned stores later, Apple has learned how to express its values through architecture. Each new space builds on the last with refined ideas, designs, materials, and fixtures.

This is part two of a three-part series documenting Apple retail in 2023. In this section, we’ll study Apple’s latest architecture and in-store designs.

For in-depth looks at Apple Store initiatives and Today at Apple over the past year, visit parts one and three. For further background, check out last year’s field guide to Apple retail in 2023 or browse Department Map, a glossary designed to help you learn more about Apple Stores.

Between added locations and existing stores that were rebuilt, Apple completed 23 entirely new store spaces in 2023. Many of these projects introduce striking new designs, classic ideas reinterpreted in new ways, and clever solutions to challenging design problems.

You’re probably aware that many of Apple’s recent and most significant store projects are a collaboration with Foster + Partners, the team of architects that worked on Apple Park. But store projects often involve hundreds of other architects, engineers, designers, and suppliers, frequently at a local level. Though not typically mentioned by name, these talented teams play key roles in bringing a store to life. Here are some highlights from the past year.

Apple Carnegie Library

Presented with the opportunity to preserve a cultural gem in Washington, D.C., Apple left no detail to chance. Tim Cook called Apple Carnegie Library Apple’s “most historic, ambitious restoration by far, in the world.”

Beyer Blinder Belle Architects worked with Apple on a preservation strategy, and Evergreene Architectural Arts treated the building’s exterior to stabilize decaying marble details. Care was taken to keep the facade as close to its original appearance as possible.

Sculpted pilasters beyond repair were replicated and will acquire a matching patina over time. The two glowing Apple logos on the south facade were cut into new slabs of marble that have been placed over the originals so as to not damage the building. Original wood windows were reglazed rather than replaced.

In the basement, a restored Guastavino ceiling is the highlight of the Carnegie Gallery, a space to learn about the library’s history. Guastavino tile is a type of ribbed structural tile used in the construction of vaulted ceilings. Upstairs, the store’s new Forum is the first with a video wall trimmed in bronze to match the door hardware and railings present throughout the structure.

Apple had to get creative to implement its store design elements in a way that was respectful of the library’s history. The original stack room uses columns of white Vermont Marble to reference the towering book stacks that once filled the room. Unique fixtures were designed to bring Avenue display shelving out of the walls and into the center of each reading room. The original design of bookcases along the walls was reinterpreted as a clever solution to hide the store’s ventilation system.

Apple Carnegie Library was also the second Apple Store in the world and first in the United States with an Experience Room, a place to try products like HomePod and Apple TV in a more relaxed environment. Each store with an Experience Room is designed with a totally unique layout and style.

Read more: Apple Carnegie Library: An inside look at Apple’s most ambitious store yet

Photo courtesy of Storeteller Apple Xinyi A13

Apple’s New Store Design aesthetic has been rooted in the styling of Apple Park since the beginning, but nothing better expresses the look than a transparent pavilion design. Taiwan’s Apple Xinyi A13 blends ideas from Apple Park Visitor Center with local landscaping and a second level underground.

It’s not often that a customer’s first impression of an Apple Store is from the air, but that’s exactly what happens in Taipei. Visitors to Taipei 101’s Observatory can spot the carbon fiber reinforced roof from 89 floors up, so Apple outlined its logo on top.

Photo courtesy of Tony Chen

Surrounding the pavilion are carved blocks of basalt and camphor trees. The plaza landscaping is inspired by the geography of Taiwan and includes a misting water feature for hot days.

Photos courtesy of Storeteller

The earthquake-resistant pavilion is wrapped by curved panes of glass and features two marble composite sculptural staircases that descend to the Forum below. Xinyi A13 is the first location outside of Apple Park to use the freestanding staircase design.

Read more: Apple Xinyi A13 brings a taste of Apple Park to Taipei

Photo courtesy of Matthew Tsang Apple Bondi

Apple Bondi isn’t brand new — the store first opened in 2010 — but it received a big upgrade in 2023. Apple closed the store in late March for a three-month renovation as part of its store upgrade program to expand the reach of Today at Apple.

When the store reopened, it brought much more than a video wall. A vertical garden of 7,000 plants carpets two sides of the Forum, stretching more than 30 feet from the floor to the skylight above. A custom irrigation system waters the green walls, and plants have been arranged by sunlight priority.

Photo courtesy of Campbell Hor

Bondi’s green walls are the largest ever built inside of an Apple Store, closer in stature to the plaza green wall at Apple Union Square than the green Avenue seating Apple often includes at larger stores. The unique design replaced a set of interior trees which were the first ever used in an Apple Store.

Read more: Bondi Apple Store upgrade features floor-to-ceiling green walls

Photo courtesy of Storeteller Apple Jewel Changi Airport

Apple Jewel Changi Airport is the first Apple Store in an airport and one of only a few enclosed within a shopping center that spans two floors.

The storefronts at Jewel Changi Airport curve in a circle around a central rain vortex. The width of Apple’s space required a custom facade solution. Panes of double-height curved glass wrap the front of the store until they meet composite marble panels cut with a backlit Apple logo. Structural columns are pushed back behind the glass, resulting in a sweeping, unbroken facade.

Photos courtesy of Storeteller

Tucked away outside of the main sales area, Apple brought its famous recessed handrails to the staircase connecting both floors of the store. A similar spiral version of the design is used at Singapore’s first Apple Store, Orchard Road.

Read more: Sweeping glass facade of Apple Jewel Changi Airport unveiled in Singapore

Apple Aventura

Apple Aventura’s transformation from an outgrown indoor mall store to a state of the art gem among the leagues of flagship stores in Chicago and San Francisco is perhaps Apple’s most surprising project of 2023.

Nearly every detail inside and out was created uniquely for Aventura by Foster + Partners and ODP Architecture and Design, starting with the store’s sculpted white concrete roof, a nod to Miami Modernism. Each vault was precast and transported to the site, where the completed roof acts as a sustainable system to harvest rainwater.

Most major Apple Stores are designed with local culture and environment in mind, but Apple Aventura pushes the limits. Eckersley O’Callaghan Engineers designed a triple-height glass facade that passed missile testing to ensure that the store can stand up to Florida’s hurricane season.

The flow of the store follows one sweeping line from an outdoor plaza landscaped with local plants and trees to the indoor Genius Grove, where trees continue and are planted right into the floor. Since 2023’s Apple Scottsdale Fashion Square, Apple has iterated on its design for planting trees indoors with sculpted terrazzo access panels.

Left: Apple Scottsdale Fashion Square (2023) Right: Apple Aventura (2023)

A tiered amphitheater connects the store’s first and second floors to define a Forum composed entirely of terrazzo benches topped with leather seats. Apple Aventura is the first store in the world to include a Forum without wood and leather cubes for seating. Today at Apple-first architecture continues to command more attention and influence over store design.

Read more: The all-new Apple Aventura: A tropical Apple Store inspired by the coast

Photo courtesy of Timothy Apple Rennweg

Apple’s latest store in Zurich wasn’t a historic restoration project, but it is housed in a historic building on Rennweg, an ancient passageway through the city. The storefront was last an Audi e-tron pop-up gallery, giving Apple a blank slate interior to work with.

On the outside, Apple has retained the charm of the narrow red brick and cream stucco spaces it occupies. Inside, customers familiar with Apple Store design will notice an exceptionally uncommon assortment of fixtures and finishes.

Apple Rennweg blends New Store Design elements like Avenue shelving with classic store elements like previous-generation display tables and a tiled ceiling. The space is bright and cheery with a skylight on the second floor, but not large enough for a Forum or video wall, critical elements of the full Today at Apple experience.

Photos courtesy of Lars Augustin

The discrepancies are noteworthy in particular because the store is likely intended to be temporary rather than a long-term replacement to the now-shuttered Apple Bahnhofstrasse nearby. Given the circumstances, it’s admirable how much effort Apple put into creating a store that feels one with the rest of the fleet. Apple is no stranger to temporary stores, but Rennweg might be the most polished yet.

Read more: Apple Rennweg opens to replace Bahnhofstrasse store in Zurich

Photo courtesy of Daiki Shimizu Apple Marunouchi

The gridded structure of Tokyo’s Mitsubishi Building afforded Apple and Foster + Partners the chance to try a new design for Apple Marunouchi at its base.

Inside and out, the store references a structural grid. Outside, the design is expressed through two-story vitrine windows, extruded from the face of the building in cast aluminum. The vitrines create narrow passages between both floors of the store, where custom planters are filled with bamboo that partially obscures the windows and calms the busy street. Apple Marunouchi was the second Apple Store in the world to use bamboo, following 2023’s Apple Cotai Central.

Photo via Foster + Partners

Photo via Apple

Photo courtesy of Yota Suzuki

Read more: Grand opening: Apple Marunouchi arrives at Tokyo Station

Photo courtesy of Jordan Clemons Apple Oxmoor

Like Apple Aventura, Apple Oxmoor transformed from expected to exceptional. The new space reimagined a vacant loading zone by carving a green plaza into the mall. For the first time, an exterior entrance brings natural light into the store and improves customer flow into the mall.

Photo courtesy of Jordan Clemons

Two towering green walls absorb sound on the plaza and contrast against the parking lot that lies beyond. Trees and patio furniture line the store’s approach. Totally new for any Apple store is a facade composed entirely of mirrored stainless steel. The polished panels reflect the sky and greenery, creating an optical illusion that dissolves the store’s facade and makes the plaza feel more open. An Apple logo cut in the center almost appears to float in the sky.

Photo courtesy of Zach Gilmore

Over the past few years, mirrored stainless steel has enjoyed increasing popularity in major store projects. First used on logos and trim, the material later became Apple’s choice to reduce the visual weight of freestanding video walls like those found at Apple Aventura, Apple Michigan Avenue, and several other recent store upgrades.

Read more: New Apple Stores open in Louisville and The Woodlands: green walls, mirrored facade, more

Apple Fifth Avenue

The Apple Fifth Avenue glass cube was already one of New York City’s modern icons, but Apple decided to go a little further when it rebuilt the store underneath. The original cube was a joint effort with architects Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. Foster + Partners was enlisted to help reimagine the new store.

An innovative new plaza design is as much about what you see from underground as above. “Skylenses” act not only as functional sculptures surrounding the cube but light wells for the store below. Each portal is bridged by curved fabric and outlined by an LED ring light that slowly adjusts to the changing color temperature of daylight.

Two new entrances to the store help manage customer flow, while the focal point for visitors remains a grand spiral staircase twisting up to the cube above. The Seele group engineered the geometry of a new mirrored stainless steel drum and cantilevered stair tread design meant to appear effortless and mesmerizing.

The new Apple Fifth Avenue also includes an Experience Room, this time arranged to exclusively showcase HomePod audio quality. It’s the first Apple Store in the world to include two private Boardrooms for business meetings and Today at Apple session hosts. The store also introduced several one-of-a-kind Avenue displays, including a musical AirPods installation and a special storage system of wood trays for Apple Watch bands.

Read more: Inside Apple Fifth Avenue: An all-new space with a familiar face

Read more: A comprehensive guide to the modern furnishings of Apple Store Boardrooms

Photo courtesy of Marco Aboytes Apple Antara

For its second store in Mexico, Apple branched out with a pavilion design surrounded by gardens and trees. The concept feels inspired by Apple Xinyi A13 but is wholly unique with regional plant life and an open-air store layout suited to Mexico City’s climate.

Photos courtesy of Marco Aboytes

Beyond the gardens, the signature feature of Apple Antara is a set of 23-foot sliding glass doors that dissolve the entire facade of the store. It’s the first time doors of this style have been used at an Apple Store since San Francisco’s Union Square in 2023.

Read more: Grand opening: Exploring the gardens of Mexico City’s Apple Antara

Photo courtesy of Daiki Shimizu Apple Fukuoka

From the outside, the new Apple Fukuoka resembles a wider, angled version of South Korea’s first Apple Store, Garosugil. Both stores are rooted in the same ideas, but Fukuoka’s has several features uniquely Japan.

Photo via Apple

Spanning the entire width of the store’s back wall is a diffusing layer known as a shoji screen. The traditional Japanese interior design staple was reinterpreted in a modern context for Apple Fukuoka to allow more light to enter the store. The screen’s design differs from the classic shoji dividers used at Apple Kyoto.

Photo courtesy of Daiki Shimizu

Below the screen is Apple Fukuoka’s second unique design: a mirrored stainless steel passageway with windows that overlook a bamboo garden. Benches alongside the video wall provide a place to sit and observe. The garden view carries into the store’s Boardroom.

Photo via Apple

The new Apple Fukuoka replaced a classic store within walking distance that was the last in the world to feature The Studio, a space similar to the Genius Bar that originally functioned as a creative help desk. The concept was later phased out and reborn as Today at Apple’s Studio Hour session.

Read more: All-new Apple Fukuoka opens with Japanese shoji screen and bamboo garden

Continue with more from this series on Apple Retail in 2023:

If you attend a store opening, spot something interesting, or try a great Today at Apple session, we’d love to see and share your photos. Follow our retail guide for in-depth coverage of the latest Apple Store news.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Rpa In Food Industry: Top 11 Use Cases In 2023

When we think of restaurants or the food industry in general, this is what normally comes into mind: 

On top of the manual kitchen work, the food industry is rife with manual, back-office tasks that should be handled smoothly to allow kitchens to be in full swing.

In this article, we will go over the top 11 use cases of RPA (robotic process automation), a technology that allows for the automation of mundane and repetitive tasks in the food industry. 

Our 11 use cases of RPA in food industry are grouped under three broad, back-office categories: 

Finance 

Administrative 

Inventory management

Finance  1. Daily reports 

RPA in reporting can automate financial reports generation by extracting the financial data from various ERP applications, consolidating them, and saving them in target folders. 

Case study: 

Primanti Bros., a sandwich chain restaurant in Pittsburgh, needed eight regional managers to spend 45 minutes each day to pull the daily sales data of five restaurant locations. Sometimes they had to prepare reports for weekends and holidays, too.  

Primanti Bros. leveraged IBM’s RPA technology to program bots that produce daily sales and labor reports in under 3 minutes, not 45 minutes. Numerically, IBM’s RPA helped Primanti Bros. save: 

2,000 hours annually 

$84K in savings

The benefit of using RPA is that the daily reports are free of manual errors, are done within the specified time-range, and they allow managers to tend to more strategic tasks such as quality assurance of employee/customer satisfaction.

2. Revenue reconciliation 

Revenue reconciliation involves ensuring that the amounts of goods/services sold correspond to the equivalent amount of cash received. 

Revenue reconciliation is important in the food industry because of the large volume of (relatively) low-dominated transactions that happen both online and on-site. If revenue reconciliation is done manually and at scale, it can lead to missing sales revenues and unmatched invoices. 

A use case of RPA in the food industry is its capability to automate reconciliations in real-time. 

Case study: 

Paradise, an Asian restaurant, works with four digital food platforms, such as Uber Eats and Zomato. Across these platforms and in-store, they have over 6,000 daily transactions. Prior to automation, it took them five days to reconcile them.  

Manual, lengthy reconciliation was a bottleneck that channeled into delays in revenue collection and stretching out the Daily Sales Outstanding (DSO) – and it didn’t help matters that the reconciliations took four FTEs to complete.

Paradise leveraged RPA to: 

Extract data from the ERP system (perhaps a POS) that housed all orders’ data in it – the food app through which the sale was made, including the customer’s name, their banking info, the order details, etc. 

Put the orders’ data, and the receivables data, in a single file to auto-match and reconcile them on a daily basis, and not on week’s end. 

Flag exceptions and inform a human in the loop about them.  

Reconcile transactions with 100% accuracy, in under 4 hours, instead of the previous 5 days. 

Improve the restaurant’s cash flow as a result since reconciled/unreconciled transactions were identified instantly and could be followed up on.

3. Procure-to-pay

Restaurants, like any other business, should pay their vendors on-time to get the goods they want. 

Additionally, because restaurants typically deal with perishable items, they must pay their suppliers promptly to ensure that their products are received quickly and used immediately in the cooking process.

RPA bots can be programmed, via screen recording, to follow a series of steps to: 

Open a browser

Navigate to the banking website and log in 

Make a payment to a vendor – by extracting their banking information from the vendors’ sheet, and the invoice amount from the purchase orders. 

Procure to pay automation ensures that money transfers are done as scheduled. This minimizes delivery delays and allows kitchen managers or purchasing managers to focus on their core responsibilities rather than time-wasting, repetitive tasks.

Administrative

RPA can help eliminate menu costs. Restaurants today are leveraging digital QR menus that patrons can access via their mobile phones. 

Through API, they can tie the digital prices to real-time price breakdowns of the dishes’ ingredients. This means that any time an ingredient’s price changes, RPA bots can automatically reflect that item’s change in the overall meal price instantly, accurately, and without human intervention.

For instance, recently, the price of cooking oil has been volatile. Restaurant managers can create a digital “bill of material (BOM)” for each dish, specifying the amount of oil that is used, its price per litre, and its contribution to the overall dish price.

They can then program RPA bots to change the meal price with respect to incremental, approved increases in the price of oil. 

Apicbase (see Figure 1) is a software that does that. Kitchen supervisors, sous-chefs, and chefs can enter the ingredients’ names, costs, and amounts that go into a certain dish. RPA bots will then adjust the final meal price whenever an adjustment is made to one of its ingredients’ prices. 

The benefit of this use case of RPA in the food industry is that managers do not need to spend time manually calculating the percentage points by which each dish’s price will be affected by changes in its ingredients.

Figure 1: Apicbase’s visible dashboard UI. Source: Apicbase

5. Floor management   

Restaurants can leverage restaurant POS systems that: 

This is important because it gives chefs the chance to use their ingredients efficiently to cook up meals that are popular with diners instead of conjuring up new ones that do not seem to be well received.

Another benefit is that RPA bots can be complemented with OCR capabilities to read invoices and extract their data. So managers can, for instance, program the bot to extract the table numbers from all invoices to see which tables have the most/least number of diners. 

Or the internal communication capabilities mean that when the cooks signal on the system that an order is ready to be served, the RPA bot can send an automatic notification to the staff to pick it up quickly while it’s hot, and serve it to a specific table number. 

6. Food hygiene certificates

To meet governmentally-mandated health regulations, restaurants should meet some basic requirements. One of those requirements is that the staff that handles the food and is involved in its sale, should all have food hygiene certificates. 

In the UK, for instance, it is claimed that these certificates need updating every three years. A use case of RPA in the food industry is that restaurant managers can program the RPA bots to send them a notification anytime the food hygiene license of a staff member is close to expiry. 

This gives them time to schedule retraining workshops to be undertaken and completed before the staff’s certificate expires and renders them unauthorized to work in the restaurant. 

It is challenging for managers and employees alike to personally keep track of such deadlines, particularly in kitchens with a high number of people. RPA bots can easily automate alerts, which can save the restaurant money by preventing fines and/or seeing employees’ licenses revoked.

7. Workforce scheduling 

Offices use absence management technology to give employees a chance to input their absences all in one location, so employers can know when certain team members will not be available. Automating absence management also means that payroll calculations are accurate and do not over/under-deduct vacation days. 

Moreover, via integration with employee scheduling software that schedules a business’ activities and workflows with respect to availability and absences, an office runs more smoothly and efficiently. 

Restaurants, like corporate offices, can use software that leverages RPA to automate the workflows with respect to the absence/presence of kitchen cooks, waitresses, and waiters, cleaning staff, purchasing managers, maitre d’, etc.

Especially in the food industry which is highly seasonal, it is important to have a transparent view of your workforce in order to avoid operational disruptions due to staff shortages in rush times. 

RPA bots can follow rules-based frameworks to automatically reshuffle shifts and reassign tasks as absence requests are made in real-time. 

Inventory management  8. Shelf-inventory management

IoT devices in retail, such as digital shelf tags, are used to monitor the real-time quantity of products on the shelves. Each time a product is taken off the shelf, it is recorded and via API, the new quantity number is reflected on the product inventory database. 

Moreover, once the total quantity of a certain product, such as the cans of tuna, falls below a certain threshold, lets say 8, RPA bots send an automatic notification to the staff to remind them that inventory has fallen below the threshold and the reordering of the goods should be restocked.

9. Automated reordering

Upserve, for instance, is a vendor that offers digital inventory management solutions (see Figure 3). Through real-time tracking of the goods that are used in the food preparation process, it allows managers to see their quantity in real-time, and to restock ingredients quickly. So this use case of RPA in the food industry means reorders are made before an item is completely out of stock, in addition to eliminating the need to manually conduct inventory control. 

Figure 3: Kitchen managers can place reorders with one tap. Source: Upserve

10. Produce supply management

RPA-IoT integration is already used in fleet management to send real-time cargo locations to the manufacturers in real-time. That use case can be extended to the food industry – kitchens can monitor their food delivery shipments in real time to adjust their dishes, or their specials, with respect to that.

Supply chain management solutions leverage RPA bots. Those bots can be programmed to send an email or a push notification to the inventory manager when a certain delivery gets on the road, whenever it’s expecting any delays, and/or its latest ETA.

Especially in restaurants, where the quality of ingredients plays a crucial role in the meals’ taste, quality, and safety, RPA bots allow chefs to have an efficient and accurate “First Expired, First Out” strategy. An up-to-date supply chain management system allows chefs to manage and plan their logistics down to the second. 

11. Monitoring of equipment 

Periodic maintenance of equipment in the manufacturing sector, for instance, helps companies get ahead of the downtime that breakdowns cause by preventing them in the first place. 

For instance, IoT devices can monitor the gas levels in the grills, the air filters in the kitchen hoods, or the temperature levels in the walk-in refrigerators and use RPA bots to automatically transfer the data onto a singular dashboard that chefs and kitchen managers can monitor access from anywhere. 

This way, temperature fluctuations can be reversed as soon as they happen. Or if the ventilators’ air filters need changing, the sensors would alert the staff ahead of time before it gets completely clogged up. Similarly, if the grill’s gas needs to be replenished, it can be done before the grill stops working in the middle of a busy night. 

For more on RPA

To learn more about RPA and its use cases in different industries, read:

Download our RPA whitepaper to learn more about the topic:

And if you believe your business would benefit from adopting an RPA solution, head to our RPA vendors’ list to find a data-driven assortment of RPA providers.

We will help you choose the right product for your automation needs:

He primarily writes about RPA and process automation, MSPs, Ordinal Inscriptions, IoT, and to jazz it up a bit, sometimes FinTech.

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. REQUIRED FIELDS ARE MARKED

*

0 Comments

Comment

7 Best Freehosting Providers (2023)

Best Cheap chúng tôi Hosting Server Providers

1) DigitalOcean – Cheapes Node JS Hosting Provider

DigitialOcean is a hosting service with a simple and easy interface that offers control to those who prefer it. They do this through two main options:

Droplets: Essentially, the DigitalOcean Droplets are Linux-based virtual tools. They offer you total control of how you set up your infrastructure. You can use different Droplets CPU offerings and storage optimization.

The App Platform: On the other hand, DigitalOcean’s App Platform does the hard work for you. It fully manages your infrastructure and app runtime so you can get to work on your code faster.

It takes care of the building, scaling, and deploying of the apps. All you need to do is to provide a container image and let the platform do its job.

Features:

Keeps your costs predictable and in check as your scale your apps

Automatic HTTPS

Quickly build and scale apps

Detects and clocks DDoS attacks

Spam and malware detection tools

Expert technical support is available 24/7

Preinstalled stack, including Memcached, Nginx, and Apache

A comprehensive products portfolio to help you manage your app

High-performance computing

Provides CMS support.

Database support, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, and more

Performance and usage tracking

👍 Pros 👎 Cons

Excellent customer care Inadequate documentation

Flexibility and scalability

Very user-friendly

Great product ecosystem

Pricing Plans:

DigitalOcean’s offers a $200 free credit that you can use to purchase various plans. The first plan offers one gigabyte of RAM, 25 GB of disk space, and a terabyte of bandwidth. It also comes with free backup but doesn’t contain a free domain. It starts at around $4.00 for the Droplets virtual machines.

Key Specs:

Uptime: 99.99%.

2) Heroku – Best Beginner friendly Hosting

Features:

Custom domains available

Automated OS patching

Smart containers with orchestration, load balancing, logging, and more

A clean, user-friendly interface with a straightforward dashboard to manage your applications.

Integrates GitHub and powerful add-ons to enhance your workflow.

Simple horizontal and vertical scalability

Supports multiple open-source languages like PHP, Node, Ruby, Java, Scala, and Python

Automated distribution of HTTP traffic to your Node Applications

Easy Compatibility testing

👍 Pros 👎 Cons

Quick to deploy Poor documentation

Simple scalability

Great support

Allows users to focus on innovations instead of configuration

Pricing Plan:

As of Nov 2023, Heroku’s have stopped their Free plans. The cheapest node js hosting Eco and Basic plan starts at $5 a month. It offers around 1 GB of disk space and 510 MB RAM. You’ll also get daily automatic updates, custom domains, and chúng tôi hosting.

Key Specs:

Uptime: 99.95% uptime guaranteed

3) A2 Hosting – Best secure chúng tôi hosting provider

A2 Hosting is a leading provider in the world of fast and secure cloud hosting. They have speedy optimized servers that can handle nine times more traffic than usual. It is also has a developer-friendly platform that includes many options like chúng tôi PHP8.2, and MySQL 8.

Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about hacking or security issues. A2 Hostings offers a wide variety of security features, like HackScan Protection.

Features:

Unlimited email addresses

Offers Shared Hosting and Virtual private server hosting.

Free account migration

Up to 40% faster CPU performance

2x TTFB speeds

20x faster turbo servers

Easy File management

WordPress site management tools

Bandwidth allowance

Free SSL certificate

E-commerce integration

Web framework support

Supports Apache Tomat, Ubuntu Server, PHPNG, IOncube, and Nginx

👍 Pros 👎 Cons

Unlimited bandwidth Domain name isn’t free

Attracta SEO Tools The turbo server is only available with the more expensive plans

Developer-friendly

cPanel Interface

Pricing Plan:

A2 Hosting’s startup plan offers you 100 GB SSD storage, 500 MB RAM, and unlimited data transfer for only $5.99 a month.

Key Specs:

Uptime: 99.95% uptime guaranteed

Platform.sh offers a fast, easy way to build and host applications on the cloud. It gives you automated deployment and stable environments, so you can focus on your apps rather than their underlying infrastructure.

It also offers great flexibility to its users as you can choose the languages and frameworks you’re most comfortable with.

Features:

Built for microservices.

Flexible and works with multiple languages.

Creates instant clone for every Git branch.

Free SSL certificate

Built-in GitHub and Bitbucket integrations

Multi-Cloud, global regions

Automated deployments

Stable environments

Dedicated account manager

Works with various languages and work frames

Adjustable micro-container architecture

Support for POP3 and IMAP email systems

Speedy and stable infrastructure

👍 Pros 👎 Cons

Unmatched flexibility No direct raw SSH access

Great security Steep learning curve

Automated updates

Pricing Plans:

The Professional Plan is essentially the most basic plan of the chúng tôi plans. It offers 5 GB storage and 0.65 GB RAM during the first month.

Key Specs:

Uptime: 99.95% uptime guaranteed

5) EvenNode – Unlimited number of custom domains

EvenNode is dedicated to managing your chúng tôi app, allowing you to deploy and scale your project quickly. It lets you pick your favorite deployment method, whether it’s FTP upload or Git deployment.

One key feature that sets EvenNode apart is that it offers free SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates from Let’s Encrypt for your domains. SSL virtual certificates basically authenticate your website’s identity and enable encrypted connections.

Features:

A free MongoDB database with every plan

Node.js apps benefit from multiple processes

Automatically routes traffic across all running processes.

Uses logs to catch bugs and troubleshoot problems with your project.

Out-of-the-box support for WebSockets

A free SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt

CPU and memory monitoring from web console

An unlimited number of custom domains

Dedicated MongoDB Service

👍 Pros 👎 Cons

FTP access Customer Support is Lacking

Custom domains

Great layout

Pricing Plans:

EvenNode offers users a free trial with 1 GB of storage and 512 MB RAM. The free trial is a great way to start, but sadly, it doesn’t provide the SSL certificate.

Key Specs:

Uptime: 99.95% uptime guaranteed

6) Hostinger – Best Value For Money

Hostinger is one of the world’s fastest-growing VPS providers. Their mission is to make it as easy as possible for anyone to start their Node JS sites or applications.

They offer fully managed servers with powerful Intel Xeon processors that can be set up in less than a minute. Moreover, their data centers are secured and guarded with constant surveillance. It is one of the best web hosting providers that allows users full root access so that they can customize their VPS and build it exactly how they want it to be.

Features:

Easily Run NodeJS applications

Full Root Access

Dedicated IP addreess

Drag-and-drop website builder.

Excellent security with guarded data centers.

Instant scalability (vertical or horizontal)

Low total cost of ownership.

Deploys most popular applications in seconds.

Choose between CentOS, Ubuntu or Debian Operating System.

Supports multiple applications like Cpanel, Docker, Ansible, and ClockHouse

👍 Pros 👎 Cons

Offers NFS support Inconsistent performance

Servers are equipped with the latest Intel Xeon processors

IPV4 & IPV6 Support

Pricing Plans:

Hostinger’s lowest plan is $3.49 per month and offers 20 GB of SSD storage with 1 GB of RAM and 1 TB of bandwidth.

Key Specs:

Uptime: 99.99% uptime guaranteed

FAQ:

Node.js is an open-source platform that you can use to create scalable websites. Many businesses use it because it’s easy to learn and allows for more efficient development. It saves you a lot of time by letting you focus on just one primary programming language—JavaScript.

So, chúng tôi hosting is essentially putting your projects up online for anyone to access them.

When choosing the best chúng tôi server hosting service, you should consider the following aspects:

To start, we look for the programming language the host supports, as well as its hosting environment.

You should pick ones that are developer-friendly and easy enough to use.

They should also have affordable pricing, great customer support, and good uptime.

Most importantly, we look for services that support all versions of Node.js.

Wrapping Up

So there you have it: seven different sites where you can host your chúng tôi projects. Almost all the hosts covered in this guide offer great web services and a generous free tier, and they can help you build a robust website.

Our top recommendation would be Kamatera, DigitalOcean, or A2 Hosting.

Lastly, it all comes down to what kind of experience you need. So, we hope this guide on free chúng tôi hosting services has helped!

Analysis Of Process Mining Market & Best Software In ’23

Process mining is growing in popularity. However, there are numerous vendors in the domain, making it challenging to pick the right one for your business. Each vendor has different feature sets and focuses.

This article provides an overview of the leading process mining vendors by revising all available sources to help you create a shortlist. The four vendors below are mentioned below by all industry analysts, and they also come up at the top when we rank process mining software using objective, transparent criteria. 

IBM

IBM, based in Armonk, New York, joined the process mining market by acquiring my Invenio in April 2023. MyInvenio was founded in 2013 and launched in 2023, now referred to as IBM Process Mining. IBM Process Mining can be purchased alone as a Service, on Premise or as a part of IBM Cloud Packs for Automation.

Features listed on its website include:

process mining and task mining

Digital Twin of an Organization (DTO)

automated root-cause analysis

decision rules mining

conformance checking

machine learning (ML)

automated identification of RPA Candidates

integrations with other IBM tools & platforms (e.g. analytics tools)

flexible deployment within the Cloud Pak for Business Automation (e.g. on-cloud, hybrid, on-premise)

Automatic Bot Generation

Sponsored:

Embracing process mining requires technology, process and mindset changes. Therefore, numerous enterprises get the support of consultants in process mining implementations. IBM combines a tested process mining solution with their technology services organization, creating a unique value proposition. Learn how IBM is positioned to help drive your organization’s efforts around improving key business processes through their methodology, experts, and modular set of integrated software components.

Celonis

The German company Celonis, founded in 2011, has 100+ consulting and implementation partners and more than 1,000 clients from more than 30 countries. The company launched its Intelligent Business Cloud in 2023 as a more scalable process mining solution. The company’s largest customer has 8k Celonis users.

Revenue leader: 

Celonis claims to hold over 60% share of the process mining market with almost 400% year-over-year growth in its client base.

According to Forrester, with more than $100M annual category revenue, Celonis takes the largest share of process mining revenues.

Features listed on its website include:

process discovery

conformance checking

AI-powered process enhancement

simulations

machine learning (ML) for predictive analytics

ML for root cause analysis

Task mining to capture and learn from user interaction

Top industries according to Forrester: Financial Services, life sciences, manufacturing.

QPR Software

QPR Software, based in Finland, was founded in 1991. As one of the earliest vendors in the market, most of QPR Software’s customers are from Europe. The solution claims to support more than 70+ business processes, including order-to-cash, purchase-to-pay, invoicing, marketing, and sales processes.

Experience: With Software AG, QPR Software is one of the oldest solutions in the process mining market with 30 years for process improvement and 10 years specifically for process mining.

Features: QPR software’s website lists features as:

clustering analysis

conformance analytics

case and KPI predictions

automated root-cause identification

Top industries according to Forrester: Banking, insurance, manufacturing, public sector.

Software AG

Software AG, the second-largest software company from Germany, has been building process related solutions since 1969. The company’s process mining product is ARIS Enterprise. The company has more than 300 clients in 70 countries across different continents. For automation-related solutions, Software AG has a partnership with RPA company Kryon to support RPA initiatives with process mining.

Experience: Software AG provides one of the oldest process mining solutions along with QPR Software.

Features listed on its website include:

traditional process discovery tools

conformance checking

automatic root cause analysis.

Top industries according to Forrester: Financial Services, government, IT services

UiPath (formerly ProcessGold)

ProcessGold is based in the Netherlands. The company was founded by people involved in the first commercial process mining offering in 2010. In October 2023, UiPath, the RPA company that raised the most investors’ funds, acquired ProcessGold and entered the process mining market. As a result, UiPath has become the first vendor to bring both process mining and RPA capabilities together. After its acquisition, the company has had a significant improvement in the client base, according to the industry analyst at Everest.

Features: After its acquisition, UiPath can offer:

process discovery

conformance services

RPA implementation

Top industries according to Forrester: Auditing and consultancy, and manufacturing

Common aspects of top process mining offering

Deployment: All top process mining tools claim to support cloud and on-premise deployments

Maturity: All these solutions are used by enterprise clients for years ensuring that the solutions have a certain level of maturity for enterprise clients.

Final thoughts

Based on our research and customer interviews, we see the specific process mining use case as one of the most important criteria in the procurement decision. According to Gartner, Celonis gives more weight to digital transformation, Software AG and UiPath focus more on auditing, and QPR Software and IBM concentrates on discovering automation opportunities. At the end, which vendor to choose will depend on your company’s needs and goals and it would make sense to run a short PoC to identify different tools’ capabilities better.

Process mining trends indicate that there will be more additional capabilities each vendor offers, such as task mining, digital twin of an organization (DTO) and automation integration. We prepared a vendor schema according to these three additional capability and core process mining features (See Figure 1).

The vendors are located based on the information they provide on their websites. However, we tested three process mining vendors’ capabilities through their free trial and marked them as green. Note that this schema only includes vendors that have more than 30 employees. 

Figure 1: Process Mining Vendor Schema

We have also prepared a checklist in Google sheets with recommended weights per criteria so you can have a transparent methodology to assess different vendors. Feel free to get it on your business email:

The sources we relied on

We mostly relied on industry analysts’ assessments and company websites. The industry analysts that we relied on include:

Gartner’s Market Guide for Process Mining

Gartner’s report shares includes market estimate for new product license and maintenance revenue along with trends for process mining types, use cases and leading vendors. In this article, we only focused on insights about the vendors. To find more information about statistics and trends, you can check our in-depth articles:

Forrester

Forrester’s 2023 report of Process Mining Market Overview provides information about vendors in terms of revenue, geographic presence, focused industries, and sample customers. For example, Celonis and Software AG had more than $100M annual revenue. QPR had an amount between $5M and $100M. UiPath (ProcessGold) had less than $5M revenue in a year.

The Everest Group

Figure 2: Everest Group’s Peak Matrix Assessment for Process Mining Products in 2023

Further Reading

If you are interested, you can also read our articles about process mining below:

If you are curious on more details, download our process mining whitepaper:

If you have questions about which process mining vendor to choose for your business, don’t hesitate to contact us:

Hazal Şimşek

Hazal is an industry analyst in AIMultiple. She is experienced in market research, quantitative research and data analytics. She received her master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Carlos III of Madrid and her bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Bilkent University.

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED. REQUIRED FIELDS ARE MARKED

*

0 Comments

Comment

Top 5 Ways To Disable Microsoft Defender In Windows 11

One of the quickest methods to disable the Microsoft Defender service temporarily in Windows 11 is to toggle it off using the Settings App. However, rebooting your system will enable it again. Follow these easy steps to achieve the same.

Press the Windows key and search for the Settings app to open it.

Toggle Off Real-Time Protection from the available options.

That’s it. You’ve temporarily disabled the Microsoft Defender service on your Windows 11 system.

Another effective method to turn off the Windows Defender service on your Windows 11 system is to turn it off using the service app. Follow these steps for an easy fix.

Open the Run Window in your system by simultaneously pressing the Windows key+R.

Type services. msc and hit the enter key.

Inside the Services window, scroll down to locate Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection and Windows Defender Firewall services.

That’s it. You’ve successfully disabled the Microsoft Defender service running on your system.

Before turning off Microsoft Defender with the help of the Group Policy Editor, you need to disable Tamper Protection in your Windows 11 system. Follow these steps to disable tamper protection and then use the group policy editor to disable Windows Defender.

To disable the tamper protection feature on your Windows 11 system, press the Windows key and search for the Tamper Protection feature to disable it.

Scroll down to locate the Tamper Protection section and toggle it off.

Now, press the Windows key+R to open the Run window in your system.

Type gpedit. msc and hit the enter key to open the Group Policy Editor Window.

Inside the Group Policy Editor window, navigate to the following path:

That’s it. You’ve successfully disabled Microsoft Defender on your Windows 11 system.

Another working method to disable the Windows Defender service on your system is to turn it off using the Windows Registry Editor tool. Follow these steps for an easy fix.

Press the Windows key and search for the Registry Editor tool to open it in administrator mode.

Navigate to the following path inside the Registry Editor window:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindows Defender

That’s it. You’ve successfully disabled Windows Defender on your Windows 11 system.

Another effective workaround to disabling the Windows Defender service is to prevent it from starting automatically in your system. Follow these steps to achieve it using this working trick. For this method to work, you need to disable the tamper protection on your system as listed in the second method above.

Open a new tab in your web browser and download Autoruns for Windows.

Search for the WinDefend service and uncheck it from the list to prevent it from starting automatically.

That’s it. You’ve successfully prevented Windows Defender from running automatically inside your Windows 11 system.

So, that’s a wrap for the best ways to disable Microsoft Defender in your Windows 11 system. If this 2-minute read has helped you to fix your existing problems with Microsoft Defender then hit the Like button and share this read among your friends to assist them as well. Stay tuned for more awesome troubleshooting guides.

You can also follow us for instant tech news at Google News or for tips and tricks, smartphones & gadgets reviews, join GadgetsToUse Telegram Group, or for the latest review videos subscribe GadgetsToUse Youtube Channel.

Update the detailed information about Top 11 Checkout Free Stores And Solution Providers In ’23 on the Achiashop.com website. We hope the article's content will meet your needs, and we will regularly update the information to provide you with the fastest and most accurate information. Have a great day!