Hi Emad,

Without knowing anything else, I assume that the objective would be to allow shoppers to continue their purchases, i.e. minimize revenue loss due to the malfunction of the barcode scanners.

Hence, a meaningful follow-up question would be: “How indispensable are barcode scanners to make the billing? Is it possible to enter barcodes manually instead of scanning”?

Then a structure could look as follows:

1. Customers pay now
   1. Manual input of barcode (through number pad)
      • Thoughts: This would take longer than scanning, but could be a viable option. If we want to make sure not to lose revenues (customers leaving due to long queues), we might think about opening more counters, so we would need to activate “emergency cashiers” who would be available immediately. This of course would create more costs – which is irrelevant if your objective is to minimize revenue loss.
   2. Manual input of barcode not possible
      1. Purchase shall happen in this store
         • Repair bar code scanners
         • Rent new bar code scanners
         • Buy new bar code scanners
         • Work with accounting books, i.e. everything has to be written down manually
      2. Purchases can be outsourced to other stores
         • Establish a transport service to the next Carrefour store
2. Customers pay later
   • Let cashiers write down what customers purchased, their address etc., validate using customers’ identity cards, let customers sign (“written contract”) and make them pay later

Note how MECE that structure is. The objective of the exercise is that you have a structured thought process for which it helps to set up a MECE structure. This does not claim to be exhaustive but is a first starting point. Try to enrich it with further of your own ideas.

To get the most out of the exercise, I suggest you present your own thoughts first next time.

Hope this helps :)

Best regards

(edited)