Em 6120: Input, Outputs and Process of a Standard Gas Station

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- Input: Ordering Cold beverages and Grocery in bulk (in bundles)

All the inventory items need to be ordered on a regular basis in order to give a high quality service to the customers. Items such as the cold beverages and other groceries are ordered in bundles. The input would thus be ordering them. Once ordered, they have to be unpacked and after unpacking, they are set up in their respective places (cold beverages are kept in sets in the refrigerators so that if a customer picks one, the others behind the set slide to the front position). After setting all the groceries, the customer can come and picks the items.

- Input: Buying Cigarettes from a retail store such as Sam's Club, Costco, and United etc.

In a gas station, cigarettes are generally not ordered in the same way as the groceries and cold beverages are ordered. They are ordered from a retail store such as Sam’s Club, for example. After ordering all the required brands, they are arranged on separate racks. These racks are generally placed behind the counter. After ordering the cigarettes and having them placed in their respective racks, the customer can ask the employee at the counter to give the required brand and/or size that he/she wants. It should be noted that cigarettes are arranged on racks behind the billing machines in such a way that customers are not allowed to pick them by themselves; they instead have to tell the person at the counter the cigarette that he/she wants and the employee working at the counter picks it for the customer.

- Input: Taking “Gas Prices” into account

Everyone knows that gas prices fluctuate regularly. It is the responsibility of the gas station to track the changes in the gas prices and display the updated prices so that people who happen to pass by the gas station will know by observing the displayed prices. The input for the gas station’s owner in this case would, thus, be to take the factor of “gas prices” into account and the process would be monitoring the fluctuations in the standardized gas prices that happen in the state. The final output would be the display of the prices so that it will be very much visible to people who travel across the gas station through cars.

- Input: Subscribing with a Security Systems Agency

It is highly necessary that a gas station is secured in order to avoid chances of robbery. In order to make the gas station secured, it should subscribe itself with a security agency. After doing this, it should install all its security systems in its proper places (installing video cameras in and around the store, installing motion sensors after the operating hours are over). Once all these are done, the gas station is secured for both the employees and the customers.

- Input: Ordering an ATM

Every gas station has at least one ATM outside its store so that customers who come to the gas station find it as a convenient place to use. Sometimes, people come to gas station exclusively to use the ATM since they assume that each and every gas station will have an ATM. It is therefore necessary to install an ATM and maintain it regularly (checking whether it is functioning properly or not, filling it with cash on a periodical basis, etc.). Doing this will make the ATM at the gas station reliable to use.

- Input: Ordering gas from the oil company

This is the main purpose of any gas station – to provide gas to the customers. For doing this, it first needs to subscribe itself with an oil company, as described above in the second point. Once, it has subscribed, it needs to order gas regularly from the company. The company sends a tanker truck to the gas station and refills all the pumps that are being operated there. This process needs to be done on a periodical basis without fail so that all the pumps present at the gas station are filled with gas thereby providing more flexibility to the customers in terms of gas service.

- Input: Ordering a coffee machine and accessories, and setting it up in the gas station

Generally, each and every gas station has a coffee machine available and hence this factor should also be taken into account. It is necessary to order at least one coffee machine for a gas station. “Coffee machine’s accessories” include items such as paper cups, straws, sugar, half & half, etc. that also need to be ordered and kept besides the machine so that the customer can help himself in filling a cup of coffee and finally make its required payment. In addition, it is necessary to conduct the process of regularly checking whether there is a sufficient amount of coffee in the machine and if not, refilling it again. Doing this will make the process smooth and the final output is that the coffee will always be available for the customers.

- Input: Planning for grocery items to be kept near the billing machine for sale

Not all the grocery items in a gas station store are kept in racks or refrigerators; some of them are kept near the billing machine. Examples of such items include chocolates, gums, candies, etc. It is necessary that such items attract the eye of a customer so that he/she can select them just before he is about to bill. The input would thus be deciding first what items need to be kept near the billing machine (some of these items are also found on racks, but the ones on racks are bigger sized versions of the same product). Once planned and decided, the next process is to arrange them in some particular and a systematic way near the billing machine so that they attract the customer’s attention (this is in fact a marketing strategy that is followed by many retail stores). The final output of the process will be that out of all the customers who complete the billing process, we can expect some, if not most, to pick an item near the billing machine.

- Input: Installing a lottery machine

Every gas station in the state has a lottery machine that is managed by Michigan Lottery. It is thus important to set up a lottery machine system since according to our knowledge and experience, among all the customers who come to shop at the gas station, about 30 percent use the Michigan Lottery. The input would thus be making the option of installing the lottery machine mandatory. Once this is done, Michigan Lottery will come to the station and install it by following the required procedures; the monitoring process of this machine (and other processes involved with this machine)