NU12#9: Car CCTV and your Smart Phone

NU12#9: Car CCTV Camera with Auto or Live feed to your Smart Phone

By Gio Mendoza

We usually have CCTV cameras around populated areas but we have to admit not all areas have CCTVs and it usually not focused on our property, like our car for instance. There are times when you have no choice but to park in places that are not very secure or far from where you will be. What if we have a CCTV with mini or micro cameras built in or installed in our car to view our car on all four sides? This differs from the car CCTV that's currently available in the market that records your journey like that on police cars. This CCTV cameras and system can be hidden or mounted on the car periphery or inside the car but the view is focused on the car's periphery or one  camera focused on each side. It can be powered by 24-hour use rechargeable battery, goes to auto-charging mode whenever the car is in use. It can record upto a month's video before overwriting old ones. There can also be an option where you can actually get automatic and live feed to your smart phone whenever you wish to or an auto alert mode which can be available to automatically alert you when somebody goes near or puts pressure or even touches your car.  This can be done thru motion sensors, which activates your CCTV wifi system like a 3G stick modem that automatically and immediately gives you a live feed of your car periphery to your smart phone. Tapping on the alarm button on your smart phone can activate your alert or security system to deter any perpetrator just in case your alarm does not turn on especially when somebody just nick or dent your doors and intends to go unnoticed but you will be watching and recording everything. 3.5

NU12#10: Automatic Carwash at Alabang Zapote Rd

NU12#10: Automatic Carwash at Alabang Zapote Rd.

By Gio Mendoza

I often pass thru Alabang Zapote Road from my home on my way to work. There are several gasoline stations that one can stop by, refuel, use the restroom or get snacks while waiting for the perennial traffic to subside. The changing weather which bring more rains even in non-rainy seasons also causes cars to get filthy, mostly on the outside of course. If you are running late for an important meeting or date, and you want to make a good impression by not driving your filthy car that makes you look shabby, one could wish of a fast car wash service which can be done in 10 Minutes or so. In Dubai, many gas stations have this facility. I think it is such a good business opportunity to have one along Alabang Zapote road where a lot of cars that pass thru there each day. This could also be a good value addition to the gas stations in terms of service and revenues. It can also be replicated in other major thoroughfares, inside the gasolines stations located along the road.< labor is cheap in RP;  high cap ex needed for automatic car wash;  job gen is a priority in the PHL>  3

NU12#12: Drive Thru Turo-Turo by Gio Mendoza

NU12#12: Drive Thru Turo-Turo

By Gio Mendoza

Filipinos, whether they are commuting or driving cars, will still have a good appetite for ready to eat real pinoy meals. Some simply don't have time to park their cars or there's no place to park when they just want to get their meals and drive off. Some are just so fed up of fast food menus. So what about a drive-thru turo-turo? It would give you the usual great selection of pinoy meals, cooked for the day and you just drive and order and you get your lunch and dinner with less hassle. Instead of pictures, the food itself would be shown to the customer on wheels, an acrylic barrier and adjustable table, on rollers, will allow the table to extend near the driver so he can see what are the choices and the acrylic barrier will shield the food from car emissions so as to keep proper hygiene. When you have already pointed at what your chosen meal, you just drive ahead to next window to pay and then finally get your take out food on the next window. This business concept offers convenience with better or "healthier" meals for people on the move! 3.5

NU12#11: Convenient Store Shopping by SMS by Gio Mendoza

NU12#11: Convenient Store Shopping by SMS

By Gio Mendoza 

There are a lot more high rise residences sprouting all over the metropolis in recent years, especially with the call center boom. When you stay or live in one these condos, no matter how convenient to go to the next block are just on the condo lobby to visit a convenient store to pick up a few snacks or drinks, will not be easy sometimes when you are glued to the TV watching your favorite movie or scene which you don't want to miss or when you are watching sports and you realized you have ran out of drinks or chips to munch. Well, if convenient stores downstairs have the a runner boy or delivery service, how convenient would it be! It gives such convenience store the competitive edge over 7-11s and Mini-stops that does not have such service. This is an opportunity and new add-on value added service that a convenient store can have to such consumers. The store owner can even have most of his goods stored in his own condo unit, keeping just a small stall, and sell most thru text messaging. This cuts down your high monthly rent for a bigger store space. One can eliminate also the stall totally and go selling thru text messaging totally. This is like applying the "Amazon" model but focused only on a specific geographical target market like in condos and using SMS only. 4

NU12#10 by Gio Mendoza - Mall Navigator apps

NU12#10: Mall Navigator Thru Your Smartphone

By Gio Mendoza

Malls just keep on getting bigger and bigger as the years go by. If you are not a frequent shopper, it takes a lot of time to locate a shop. Even with digital maps in malls, it is still not that easy and convenient to locate the shop you just want to go to or memorize the path suggested by the touch screen digital map you just used near the entrance. A smart phone app which can give you accurate information of where you are and which shop you are going can be very helpful instead, specially if you are in a hurry. Most malls have wi-fi, or smartphones can be on data plan so one can easily connect or access the free service thru this app, and once the app is launched from your smartphone for the mall you have chosen, it will pinpoint your location and you can track your movement if you are near or if you are in the right direction real time. It also gives you the shortest way to get to your destination shop. During super sale and holidays, malls are really jam packed with shoppers and this app can come in handy, it saves you the headache and you can navigate thru the crowd with less effort for any malls in Manila.  3.5  <tama, magaling>

NU12#7: New Perimeter Wall Design to Minimize Public Urination

New Perimeter Wall Design to Minimize Public Urination

By Gio Mendoza

When I take a walk several meters outside our village in Las Pinas, in which a vacant lot lies beside the main road that passenger buses are laying by waiting for passengers, it always pisses me off to smell human piss since drivers and conductors have made the perimeter wall as a huge urinal. Even if there are warning signs prohibiting such acts but these guys can get away with it since it would not do them harm if they do so and the more they become lazy going to the toilet from the nearby mall.

A new wall design featuring GI sheet shaped in a concave manner or parabolic instead of the usual rippled GI sheet. The multiple parabolic or curved shaped will make the urine of the the offender to make a "U-turn" and hit him with his own urine while he is doing it. This pisses the pisser and may discourage him to stop the nasty habit. This new GI curve shape design can also reinforce the wall structure like the usual ripples, with the usual frame support as the latter. This may still not total cut the habit to absolute zero but it would cut the practice as one attempts it. Once the offender experiences it, it would discourage him to repeat the act. 4

NU12#6: New Paradigm in Airconditioning by Gio Mendoza

New Method of Air-Conditioning for Hot & Humid Climate

By Gio Mendoza 

Air conditioning is often times construed as "cooling". It's not. Air conditioning is controlling also humidity, air cleanliness or quality and flow of air into a room or space. The typical air conditioner or what we call "aircon" has indeed a filter to clean the air, a fan to move the air, a compressor and cooling coil to bring the temperature down, sort of cool the air. Cooling the air this way can also lower the moisture that the air contains, we call it humidity, to make it less damp and therefore a bit dry for comfort. That's why you see water dripping at the back of your aircon. However, in Philippines, humidity is more of a problem than temperature and there are many humid days that the aircon can't cope up. You see evidence of mold growth in your house walls and fabric or wooden fixtures that smells like fungus. That's humidity's bad effects.

 Now, a new paradigm which makes use of desiccants or adsorbents ( e.g. Silica Gel, Metal Silicate) to absorb moisture in air..making it dry. It gets more than half the work done by a typical basic aircon. Considering the Philippine environment and the almost year-round rains that is drenching the country, we need a more humidity-centric solution instead of relying on the old ways that may not work well in the changing climate oft he future. This new air-conditioning method can also make use of solar heat to move the refrigerant instead of or aside from the compressor to assist it in the process. Cooling using solar heat may not be enough if the cooling coil has to remove humidity all by itself, it needs an active compression system and solar power alone may not yield the ideal result especially in humid days. Therefore this tandem of desiccant system and aircon ( whether solar-assisted or not) will be the more efficient way of achieving comfort cooling or maintaining indoor conditions no matter what the outside weather is. Solar power also can assist the regeneration of the desiccant, i.e. it will be used to heat up the desiccant so it could remove the moisture adsorbed by it and throw it to outside. Cooling dry air is much easier than wet air, this paradigm is slowly changing the way buildings systems are selected and designed. 4

NU12#5: E-Grocery App by Gio Mendoza

E-Grocery App

By: Gio Mendoza

Almost everybody is going online nowadays, online shopping, online check-in. With the emergence of smartphones, there are many "apps" that adds value by saving time and good for the environment as well with less paper or less travel is required. An app can be created to access and make your grocery thru your smartphone. You just select what you want to buy and you can also pay for it thru your credit card or for apple just keying in your passcode. You can have a choice of either pick-up or delivery. For pick up, you will just show your e-receipt or code and they will hand over your grocery bag. For delivery, you can choice time if evening or morning, you will just pay an extra charge. Now, you can do your grocery virtually and spend your time more productively rather than in queues or in the grocery floor.  4

NU12#4: What pisses me off at the office: ERP Problem by Gio Mendoza

Perennial ERP Central Server Problem

By Gio Mendoza 

A year have passed since our head office in Delhi, India have decided to centralize all customer databases from different Asian offices including our Philippine office. A central server was put into place in Delhi and we started to go live with our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. On a daily basis, we will have to access our weblink online in order to enter customer data to the central server thru a user interface or UI, i.e. each customer inquiry we get or acquire has to be directly entered into our ERP database thru this UI via the weblink. The central server and software generates an inquiry number for the company and a quotation number, called an "EQ number". This EQ number will be used as reference number for each price quotation we prepare and send to Philippine customers. However, this business process encountered repeated problems such as not being able to access the central server at times prior to 11am and frequent stalling during data entry sessions. Data entry is also very slow, server response takes a lot of time. This results to a long queue of inquiries awaiting for an EQ number which we have to deal with almost every week. It's a bottleneck and a source of frustration to the marketing personnel here. Though the ERP software vendor and service provider is one of the big players in its industry globally, the system still lacks the speed and responsiveness we need. We also came to know that the server is switched on only by 11am Indian time ( 8:30am Philippine time) and gets switched off after normal office hours. So we have to wait for them everyday to switch it on, and customers will have to wait as well. That's not really good service.

In order to improve this internal business process, I am proposing to install a thin server in our local office which will go online as soon as our office opens and no need to wait for the head office's central server to go online. The central server will automatically link with the thin server once it comes online to acquire all new data entries made on the thin server. Since the thin server is located in our local office, the speed of generating the EQ number is a lot faster with speedy access thru LAN. If any problem will occur with the thin server, we can troubleshoot it right away since it is physically with us. Data entered will also be secure since the central server can only access the thin server to take data from it. If the central server is also down, we will not be handicapped by it since the thin server is still operational, serving like a back up. Though some investment has to be made to install a thin server, the benefit of satisfied customers, efficiency and higher productivity by eliminating this bottleneck will be definitely worth it.  4  brilliant

NU 12# 3: Product Improvement- Run time counter on Dehumidifier

Improvements on Dehumidifier: Runtime Counter

By Gio Mendoza

We have been manufacturing Dehumidifiers ( or Air Dryer) as a flagship product since 1964. As part of total customer satisfaction and maximizing equipment life, we also have to provide after sales service, maintenance and service technical support even after the one year warranty lapses. The wear and tear of the equipment depends on how long it is operated which does not necessarily coincide with the period of time from when it was purchased. Just like our cars, it could be three years since we bought it but we have not reached 70,000 KMS of usage. Similar to our cars, a runtime counter would be useful as improvement to our product. The runtime counter will be counting the running hours of the equipment whenever the power is switched on until it is switched off. This will help our technical support personnel, maintenance and service teams to better forecast the next spare parts requirement of our customers by knowing their rate of usage. We can also manage spare parts stock and inventory better with it. It will also aid us in our failure analysis, whenever there is a major equipment breakdown, as we can record at what particular period in the life of the equipment the problem occurred and what parts gets broken. This runtime counter can also be partnered with a software which we can develop and install in our current controls or as an upgrade which allows the control panel to connect to a network or online via LAN. This partner software can enable us to monitor the period of operation and usage of our equipment and we would not need to call or visit the customer to get the info. With such software, we can also alert our customers about any required replacement of parts ahead of time which will also allow them to budget for it and plan the next servicing schedule on the equipment. 3.5

NU 12#1 Crocery Cart with pedals by Gio Mendoza

NU12#1: Grocery Carts with Pedals

Giovanni P. Mendoza

Some working professionals usually does not have time during the day to do their groceries, weekends are also sometimes packed with our plans and besides you hate the grocery queue on weekends. So at times, we come to the supermarket after work on a week day; that's after enduring heavy traffic, maybe standing on the bus or has to go for  long walk to the supermarket after having an exhausting day at work. So you get an exhausted "shopper" who still wants to go get some supplies, who is for sure so tired to push the cart around, walk from isle to isle and might as well sit but still get his goods. Well, not a perfect solution but a grocery cart with pedals, which you can ride and operate like a bicycle would definitely come in handy. This not only allows you to shop "sitting down" but also hasten your travel from isle to isle. it would have the same speed and force required in pushing a cart as usual but this has a comfortable chair. This would also be good for senior citizens. Who knows, doing grocery can actually be more fun with this!  4