Fiori App
Tea Buying Experience-
TATA Global Beverages
UX Researcher / Designer | Team work - 2 members | 2018 - 2019 Project
Consumption of Chai in India
Tea is India's most popular drink. It’s more than just a cup of tea to start the day - the thick sweet drink is an integral part of the rhythm of life.
India consumes
837,000 tonnes
of tea every year
Who?
Who are the big players in the market?
Below are the big players in the market for tea purchasing :
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Tata Global Beverages
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Gujarat Tea Processors & Packers
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Hindustan Unilever Limited
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Many others...
Business Challenge
Currently, TGB is using a home grown application called TDIPS which is used to manage their tea sourcing planning and tea sourcing execution. This home grown application is quite old and TGBL is facing challenges in terms of performance, scalability and lack of visibility across locations. TGB needs a better application to improve their business by gaining the productivity.
About TGB
TGB is the world’s second largest tea company with its brand presence in more than 40 countries across the world. TGBL focusses on branded natural beverages tea, coffee and water. It has a long history and experience in the beverages market, and a heritage of innovation and development. The Company has evolved from a predominantly domestic Indian tea farming entity to a marketing and brand-focused global organization
Business Goal
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A single global solution
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Centralised buying experience
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Make the application scalable
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No hard coding
HOW?
How do they purchase tea?
Tea Buying Process
DT Workshop and Interviews
Design Thinking workshop has been conducted with the Business Stakeholders and interviews were conducted with the end-users.
12 users were interviewed.
Persona - Buyer, Taster, Planner
Information Architecture
Master Data & Tea Buying Process
Data model was made for 978 tables those involved complex interactions.
Master data has been re-grouped and the no. of tables were reduced from 310 to 126.
Overall IA has been redesigned to access various process, Auction, Private & Forward.
Quotes
User's Feedback
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Reduce the no. steps / screens during the conversion from private to forward
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Manual update of batch file info because of the data mismatch (especially in south India)
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Fetching the data takes lot of time during various processes. (go lot, purchase entry, etc.)
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Appropriate error messages are not shown at many places within the app.
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My comments need to be entered automatically
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Automatic process is required at many places within the application. (tasting remarks, buying order, post sale work, etc.)
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Forecasting is not available in TDIPS
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Serious network issues that display ‘lost connection’ messages quite often
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Private Buying: Vendor serial number, FSSAI master are being captured manually. It can be automated.
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Private Buying: Bidding: Lot number can be automated
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Generate the auto-bill for any buying type
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Auto-allocation is preferable vs. manual allocation
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Vendor bill no. should be automated
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Price master should be maintained
" Too many manual inputs need to be done for e-auction catalog..."
" Sometimes, the garden name is entered in small variations. Truncated sometimes, due to broker/vendor system limitations. In this case, the system doesn't allow us to upload the file. "
Key Process of Tea Buying
Planning
The no. of components to be purchased at a specific price range
Tasting
Buying
Buying the required quantity through e-auction portal, private & forward modules
Billing
Various billing process based on
the buying module
Allocation
Allocate to the appropriate plant based on the demand
Testing the tea quality through tasting
Design Recommendations
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The processes should drive the information architecture of the overall application.
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Information grouping is necessary for auction, private & forward modules, master data, reports, etc.
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Uploading the catalog, bills, valuation, offers, etc. takes a lot of time. These processes can be automated to reduce the effort.
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Current performance issues such as ‘searching a specific lot, scrolling through the table that has numerous records, etc.’ should be addressed.
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B.O entry and tracker needs to be maintained at a global level. And, a separate interface is recommended for SBT team for decision making.
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Garden codes with an information from the e-auction portal need to be maintained in the Garden master and same need to be used in catalog to avoid duplication and erroneous information.
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Existing logic in auto-count needs to be improved in order to provide better recommendations to buyers during the tea-buying process.
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To maintain the consistency, experience of using the application should be same across various processes.
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UI controls such as buttons, font, alignments, overall look & feel need to be consistent across the application.
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Reduce the no. of tabs and screens wherever applicable within the application. Ex: purchase entry screen, allocation, master data etc. And, include filters and advanced search wherever applicable.
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Introduce expand & collapsed windows for various screens where header info is occupying maximum space in the screen. This helps the user to focus on key information.
Existing Solution
Proposed Solution
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A Fiori app has been designed for simple and easy access
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Overall, Information Architecture has been improved.
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Clearly defined user roles helped them have an access to only the apps that are meant for them.
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Master data is maintained at one location
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Information clutter issue has been addressed
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Consistency is maintained across the application
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Repetitive data has been removed
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Various processes have been automated (upload catalog, allocation, POs, bills, valuations, etc.)
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Logics were improved for Buying order planning, Auto count, etc.
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Upload catalog now made as a step-by-step process to complete the task with four simple steps.
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Data validation happens during this process and highlighted areas display the errors. On mousehover the details of each error appears and helps the users to correct them without downloading them to the excel. After correcting them, user can immedialty convert it to the catalog.
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Improved Catalog Details
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Advanced filters were included
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Tasting screen is simplified with with two sections. Left columns display critical info where as right side ones are the input fields.
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Last sale info appears only when needed.
"The detailed flow is done in Axure. And, can be shown during portoflio discussions"
Biggest Challenges
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Designed for 3 various modules.
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Role specific features
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976 tables need to be tightly integrated with backend SAP
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Data model structure has been changed based on the inputs from UX team.
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Designed a centralized tea buying application.
Team Members
Srilakshmi Peri
UX Researcher & Interaction Designer
Shweta Yadav
Interaction Designer
