The increasing trend toward digitalization in logistics poses a significant managerial challenge, particularly by fundamentally changing the traditional, manual workplaces in intralogistics. Although ...intralogistics processes have, in some cases, already been automated or are supported by smart technologies, humans remain an inevitable part of future intralogistics but with changing work characteristics. This study aims to examine the influences of the transition toward Intralogistics 4.0 on work characteristics of intralogistics employees. First, a systematic literature review on work characteristics and job satisfaction in a broader Logistics 4.0 context was conducted. Thereafter, a qualitative, explorative methodology was employed to examine the perception of work characteristics that impact job outcomes such as job satisfaction, motivation, and performance at different Intralogistics 4.0 maturity levels. The results of semi‐structured interviews conducted across seven companies demonstrated the significant, heterogeneous changes of work characteristics related to the type of technology applied in Intralogistics 4.0. Our findings indicate that the development toward Intralogistics 4.0‐implemented workplaces does not have a simple or predefined impact on humans; instead, the individual design is relevant and can improve the workplaces with more opportunities for satisfying and motivating jobs.
The automation of warehouse processes, the increased complexity due to e-commerce and the development towards paperless warehousing are one of the severe challenges the logistics industry is ...currently facing. Due to changing markets new service opportunities have opened up, thus to stay competitive innovative services are vital. Various service products are offered by intralogistics system providers to assist customers but the lack of understanding the services and the costs involved, causes customers to refuse acceptance of the services. Therefore, content of new services needs to be trained and awareness for service innovations need to be built which offers the opportunity to increase customer satisfaction and further develop customer relationships. The demand for practice-oriented training and education of customers is key to master upcoming challenges of warehousing facilities. This paper intents to develop a learning factory for services that promise 1) customers a better operation of their warehouses by correct use of services; 2) innovation opportunities for the service provider; and 3) further research opportunities between industry and academia. For this reason, in the first phase existing learning factories and services of an intralogistics company have been analyzed. Based on that service-learning factory concepts have been developed. In a third phase, a concept was chosen, further detailed and training contents were created. Based on this concept a prototype was built at the LEAD Factory of Graz University of Technology and tested.
Artificial intelligence (AI) carries great potential for data-based process improvements in intralogistics of manufacturing companies. This paper provides a comprehensive catalog of ten AI use cases ...structured along the most relevant intralogistics processes. The catalog has been elaborated during several workshops in the research project IMAGINE and results from a systematic process analysis using e.g. OMEGA and material flow methods. Furthermore, all identified AI use cases are assessed regarding their effort-benefit ratio based on a survey with domain experts and AI experts of three involved manufacturing companies and two research institutes. Both the use case catalog and the assessment show promising AI applications in intralogistics and thus support decision-makers in the strategic planning and implementation of AI.
Industry 4.0 has led to changes that have reduced the labor force and creat-ed production environments where machines that bring together information technology and industry communicate with each ...other. Logistics 4.0, which emerged with Industry 4.0, paved the way for improvement in logistics process-es. Using information technologies in logistics reduces the labor force costs of enterprises by leading all stages of activities to digitalization. It can be possible to increase customer satisfaction and product quality by reducing human fail-ures with digitalization. This study was performed by planning intralogistics us-ing Logistics 4.0 technological tools, and also the problem of a manufacturing company was elaborated as a case study. This study was carried out by quanti-tative data analysis in the case study and a large-scale production company in Turkey providing the intralogistics of the materials from the supplier in the en-trance warehouse with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technologies. This paper presents the research, development, and application of logistics 4.0 in the intralogistics process from the entrance warehouse to the production lines. The aim of the case study was provided to information about the tech-nologies available within the scope of Logistics 4.0 and contribute to the litera-ture and industry with solution suggestions depending on the result of the appli-cation study within the logistics operations. As a result, depending on the case study, it was determined that Logistics 4.0 improved intralogistics operations costs by 13.37%.
Knowledge-based Engineering (KBE) is a methodology to efficiently handle complex and iterative processes as well as simple recurring tasks in CAD-based product design. Even though Knowledge-based ...Engineering’s roots go back as far as the late 20th century, potential of attractive research is still given. As geometry handling in native full Knowledge-based Engineering approaches can still be a challenging and time-consuming task, approaches for utilizing the parametric modeling capabilities of high-level CAD packages were developed. With the rise of web-based technologies, bringing these utilizing approaches to the Web, seems to be the next step in the technological development of Knowledge-based Engineering applications. Even though KBE has found its way to the Web already in many different sectors, planning of large systems based on existing machinery and subsystems, is still at least one open field left. This article connects to a newly developed KBE methodology, tailored for the use within intralogistic system planning, but widely usable in other systems and proposes a software architecture to utilize CAD’s capabilities regarding geometry creation and manipulation by the parametric modelling method in a web-based environment. The architecture is especially designed for implementations of the Knowledge-based Engineering method described within the research context in the field of intralogistics system planning.
•Overview of performance measurement indicators in production intralogistics.•A conceptual approach to IoT-enabled CPS for performance monitoring in production intralogistics.•Development of ...demonstrator instance of the CPS concept for performance monitoring in intralogistics.•Discussion on IoT, CPS, and context awareness for intralogistics.
The realization of a higher business value in manufacturing requires optimized internal logistics systems in terms of operational performance, uptime and sustainability. This paper deals with the introduction of Internet of Things (IoT) to unlock new capabilities for enhancing the performance of intralogistics. Specifically, it introduces a design perspective for IoT-driven analytics in intralogistics, within a Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) approach. Such an approach enables the creation of data process chains linked to performance measurement for intralogistics, a prerequisite for optimizing logistics operations within production environments. An overview of key performance indicators for this domain is offered, followed by an outline of recent research on IoT and CPS and the role of context information management for IoT-enabled data process chains. The conceptual model is illustrated through a representative use case of a CPS demonstrator for performance monitoring in intralogistics. The application implements a simple data process chain, starting from the acquisition and processing of data from a conveyor testbed, followed by the determination and visualization of appropriate performance monitoring information on a dashboard.
Current disrupting trends in manufacturing like mobile robot-based intralogistics and digital twins require precise indoor positioning. 5G-based positioning has the potential to be more ...cost-efficient than other positioning systems due to shared hardware for positioning and communication. But first it has to achieve high positioning accuracy and stability. No positioning technique has yet been established as standard in the industry in combination with 5G because traditional positioning approaches can deliver unstable results when multi-path fading, reflections, or missing line-of-sight effects occur. Identifying promising techniques is still an open research topic. It is established in the literature that deep learning-based approaches can mitigate these effects better than traditional ones by learning unique fingerprints that correspond to precise positions. However, fully-connected neural networks tend to overtrain on these fingerprints which again leads to unstable positioning due to a lack of generalization. This can be explained by the inability of fully connected neural networks to learn structural interrelationships in high dimensional data. This is because their input data is flattened, which means the structure is removed. Convolutional neural networks are being widely used with image data and can learn structural interrelationships. This paper presents a technique that uses convolutional neural networks in combination with a channel-smoothing approach to position mobile robots in the research factory ARENA 2036. The results presented in this paper indicate an indoor positioning accuracy similar to other industrial positioning systems, with improved stability compared to a fully-connected approach.
DONES is planned to operate on a continuous basis with only two beam stop periods per year for maintenance. The planned operational availability is 70 %, which calls for a carefully analyzed ...preventive maintenance. The purpose of the research is to propose a realistic and comprehensive logistics and maintenance plan. All the maintenance activities are included in a Maintenance Matrix based on the Plant Breakdown Structure of the project. This is the basis for the creation of a maintenance plan that will lead to a Work Schedule. Special mention within this matrix will be given to those Maintenance operations that must be included in order to comply with regulation. The need of replacement of components impose some requirements on the dimensions of architectural features of the main building such as doors, airlocks, corridors and shipping bays. To enable these replacements, the flow of materials has been developed and analyzed by an intralogistics simulation with AnyLogic. The results of this simulation lead to modifications on either the building or the components such that the replacements are feasible. The periodic replacement of an activated component has been analyzed using FMEA methodology resulting in proposals for the plant equipment designers as well as the remote handling equipment designers. Virtual reality simulations are used for a staged approach to the maintenance operation. The simulation of the HEBT scraper helped to define in detail each step or the maintenance operation. This tool has proven to be very useful to prompt changes in both the plant equipment design and the remote handling equipment. Also, the procedure of the operation itself can be refined and optimized. The conclusion of the research activities is the contribution to the definition of the building, plant equipment and achievement of the target availability.
The intralogistic activities of the logistics operators are defined in the grouping of all the processes linked to the reception,storage and distribution of raw materials and final products. ...Therefore, the study of intralogistic processes as an activity ispart of the value chain of a company and, through its management, the result of the operation and an adequate level ofcustomer service will depend on it. The project proposes to evaluate the feasibility of the use of technologies of the industry4.0 in the intralogistic activities that allow the integration of processes of automation and control for the continuousimprovement of the decision making in the processes of storage, load and unload of the logistic operators of the departmentof the Atlantic - Colombia for the improvement of the enterprise efficiency.Therefore, a review of the literature is carried out framed in three categories: intralogistics, Industry and Technology 4.0,and the application of an instrument to measure the absorption of technologies 4.0 in the company under study, which wasvalidated as a result the importance of Simulation, Automation and load sensing, Collaborative Robotics, Big Data poweredby M2M (Machine to Machine communication) and Predictive maintenance - predictive analysis and M2M communicationas a solution to the needs that are represented in the environment of the Logistics Operators of the Department of Atlántico- Colombia, based on the challenges and projections imposed by the dynamics of the international market and especially thefree trade agreements that the New Granada nation has signed and framed in recent years with the intention of making itseconomy and especially the organizations of its different regions more efficient.
The progression of the industry, alongside the continuous enhancement of operational efficiency and the reduction of production costs, is paving the way for novel solutions in the realm of storage ...and transportation systems. The incorporation of new technologies and solutions, such as mobile robots, has culminated in the establishment of Smart Warehouses. It facilitates the reduction of non-value adding activities for companies. One of the methods of improving the efficiency of such systems is the more effective use of autonomous mobile robots. The article presents an inventive concept of an autonomous mobile robot capable of undertaking transport tasks both on the shop floor and within high-bay warehouses. The new concept of the drive mechanism enables it to navigate on surfaces and move along rail guides. By using an elevator, the robot can be lifted to higher levels within the warehouse. The well-conceived structural solution of the robot allows the elevator's placement anywhere within the warehouse, eliminating the need for constructing a pit. The use of a mobile robot with the proposed structure will enable the execution of transport tasks without necessitating reloading. Such an approach has the potential to increase efficiency and reduce the costs of storage processes.
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