Study on the Impact of the Use of No-code Application on Internal Logistics Processes in a Company from the ECommerce Industry - Process Analysis

Purpose: The article aims to deliver the possible methodology of implementing no-code applications, and its possible impact on internal processes with an example from a company in the e-commerce industry, these processes. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study was conducted in a logistics company responsible for comprehensive shipment service. The basic research method was a process study aimed at diagnosing problems occurring at various stages of shipment handling, with a particular focus on the process of parcels acceptance in the warehouse. The results of the study were used for a deeper analysis of individual phases of this process and helped to identify areas for improvement. The last stage of the study was to develop a mobile application solution, with the usage of the no-code platform, which could improve the effectiveness of the analyzed process. Findings: The conducted analysis showed that implementing a simple mobile application and designing a new process which uses it, may contribute not only to reduction of the time spent in the process of parcels acceptance in the warehouse but it also helps to totally reduce the number of paper documents generated in this process. Originality/Value: The carried out research shows that, creating mobile applications using no-code platforms seems to be justified for processes improvement. The implementation of such solutions allows for a relatively quick increase in efficiency or the elimination of current limitations in processes that are crucial for the company. Furthermore, the study shows that the implementation of improvements using no-code application is relatively effective in relation to the time and costs necessary to carry it out.

CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY ON LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

Logistics is one of the industries that has undergone strong evolution in recent years. The pandemic, the change of technological flows, the increase of production, the special evolution of e-commerce has determined the profound transformation of logistics. The world is changing, and automation is being found in more and more aspects of everyday life. Every year, specialized software programs and applications are launched, and the cost of equipment is constantly reduced, as new technologies appear. So, the role of the logistics system in the distribution activity must be analyzed in the context of the dynamism that characterizes all aspects of contemporary society.

Delivery pattern planning in retailing with transport and warehouse workload balancing

Goods from warehouses must be scheduled in advance, prepared, routed, and delivered to shops. At least three systems directly interact within such a process: warehouse workforce scheduling, delivery scheduling, and routing system. Ideally, the whole problem with the preceding inventory management (restocking) would be solved in one optimization pass. In order to make the problem simpler, we first decompose the total problem by isolating the delivery scheduling. Then we connect the optimization model to the rest of the system by workload balancing goal that is a surrogate of coordination and criterion for the system robustness. This paper presents the practical application of top-down discrete optimization that streamlines operations and enables better reactivity to changes in circumstances. We search for repetitive weekly delivery patterns that balance the daily warehouse and transportation utilization in the absence of capacity constraints. Delivery patterns are optimized for the quality criteria regarding specific store-warehouse pair types, with a special focus on fresh food delivery that aims at reducing inventory write-offs due to aging. The previous setup included semi-manual scheduling based on templates, historical prototypes, and domain knowledge. We have found that the system augmented with the new automated delivery scheduling system brings an improvement of 3% in the performance measure as well as speed in adjusting to the changes, such was the case with changes in policies during COVID-19 lockdowns.

Warehouse development and town planning policies in the UK

Purpose>This paper offers a review of national and local planning policies towards warehouse development within the UK.Design/methodology/approach>The first sections of the paper provide a description of the simple method of enquiry and sources of information used in the paper, outlines of the main factors driving the demand for warehousing space in the UK, and of the nature, scale and operation of modern warehouses, and a short review into the limited literature published to date, on town planning and on how it has influenced warehouse development. This is followed by an examination of some of the planning issues associated with warehouse development, two mini-case studies of how these issues are perceived and played out, a discussion of some of the issues raised in this examination and the mini-case studies.Findings>Town planning policies were traditionally seen as a restraint on the development of warehousing but while current national and local planning policies make little explicit reference to warehousing, they have often been cited in support of new warehouse development because such policies emphasise the importance of supporting economic growth and fostering the conditions in which businesses can invest and expand.Research limitations/implications>The paper has a number of limitations, not least that its source material is drawn from the Internet, and in that no primary data were collected from warehouse developers, warehouse operators, local planning officers or local authority councillors, and that the geographical coverage was limited.Originality/value>The paper offers an accessible review of the current town planning issues associated with warehouse development in the UK.

Enhancing in-store picking for e-grocery: an empirical-based model

Purpose>This paper identifies, configures and analyses a solution aimed at increasing the efficiency of in-store picking for e-grocers and combining the traditional store-based option with a warehouse-based logic (creating a back area dedicated to the most required online items).Design/methodology/approach>The adopted methodology is a multi-method approach combining analytical modelling and interviews with practitioners. Interviews were performed with managers, whose collaboration allowed the development and application of an empirically-grounded model, aimed to estimate the performances of the proposed picking solution in its different configurations. Various scenarios are modelled and different policies are evaluated.Findings>The proposed solution entails time benefits compared to traditional store-based picking for three main reasons: lower travel time (due to the absence of offline customers), lower retrieval time (tied to the more efficient product allocation in the back) and lower time to manage stock-outs (since there are no missing items in the back). Considering the batching policies, order picking is always outperformed by batch and zone picking, as they allow for the reduction of the average travelled distance per order. Conversely, zone picking is more efficient than batch picking when demand volumes are high.Originality/value>From an academic perspective, this work proposes a picking solution that combines the store-based and warehouse-based logics (traditionally seen as opposite/alternative choices). From a managerial perspective, it may support the definition of the picking process for traditional grocers that are offering – or aim to offer – e-commerce services to their customers.

Fragmented But Widespread Microconflicts: Current Limits and Future Possibilities for Organizing Precarious Workers in the French Logistics Sector

The logistics sector in France is emblematic of contemporary labor processes in the service sector, where working conditions are at the root of a long-term, but silent, health crisis. Although the unionization of French logistics workers has gained some strength since the early 2000s, struggles over wages and working conditions remained segmented and local, and were unable to contain the progressive casualization of the employment or to counter the intensification of work. This article is a reflection on the fragmented and low-intensity conflictuality of the French logistics sector. Drawing on three ethnographic studies and on quantitative data, we analyze labor conflicts in various segments of the warehouse industry during the last decade in France, and identify some of the limits of French trade union strategies toward organizing logistics workers. We show that the massive use of temporary work and the weakness of the efforts made by traditional trade unions federations prevent the emergence of a larger labor movement in the sector. We argue that the fragmentation and the very high turnover that characterizes the French warehouse industry should encourage trade unions to invest more resources, often local and rooted in logistics zones, from outside the workplace.

Warehouse robot market boosted by Covid pandemic and technological innovations

Purpose>This paper aims to provide details of recent commercial and technological developments that are driving robotic warehouse automation.Design/methodology/approach>Following a short introduction, this first provides a commercial background and identifies the factors driving the market growth. It then gives examples of robotics companies, products and applications that exploit innovations in artificial intelligence (AI). It then considers future prospects, and finally, brief conclusions are drawn.Findings>Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva led to a community of new robot manufacturers and the realisation by major e-commerce companies that robotic automation would be required to maintain competitiveness. The Covid pandemic caused a surge in e-commerce and a critical shortage of labour, which further highlighted the need for automation and boosted robotic deployments. Recent advances in AI have resulted in a rapidly growing community of companies producing AI-powered robots which offer advanced capabilities such as mixed product picking, sorting and kitting. These are being deployed by a growing number of e-commerce and logistics companies and are paving the way towards ever-higher levels of warehouse automation. Full automation will soon become a reality.Originality/value>This paper identifies the factors driving the rapidly developing warehouse robot business by considering the companies, products, technology and applications.

Selecting the field hospital location for earthquakes: an application for Ankara Province in Turkey

Purpose>The authors present a location selection model for the field hospital to build after a possible earthquake in Ankara, Turkey using the VIKOR method.Design/methodology/approach>Companies or governments that make location selection decisions to improve their performance in new investment decisions for different service industries. On the other hand, disasters, especially earthquakes, force the governments to evaluate their existing potentialities and develop action plans to improve their middle and long-term preparations. This paper proposes a VIKOR method-based location selection model for the field hospital to build after a possible earthquake. Also, the authors present a methodology using the VIKOR method that how government agencies take action for the field hospital's location selection process via VIKOR methodology.Findings>The modeling and application results show that the field hospital's location selection decision-making process improves considerably using the VIKOR model. This paper shows that the proposed VIKOR-based model can rank alternatives suitability at various criteria targeting to minimize the possible earthquake's impact and obtains a single overall ranking score to select the best alternative.Research limitations/implications>The study does not consider the uncertain nature of the field hospital selection problem. The application part is restricted to the Ankara case. But the proposed model can easily extend for different locations in the world.Originality/value>This paper presents the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework study of the establishment of field hospitals and demonstrates its importance when criteria diversity is restricted.

JD.com: Operations Research Algorithms Drive Intelligent Warehouse Robots to Work

JD.com pioneered same-day delivery as a standard service in China's business-to-consumer e-commerce sector in 2010. To balance the urgent need to meet growing demands while maintaining high-quality logistics services, the company built intelligent warehouses that use analytics to significantly improve warehouse efficiency. The brain of the intelligent warehouse system is the dispatching algorithm for storage rack-moving robots, which makes real-time dispatching decisions among robots, racks, and workstations after solving large-scale integer programs in seconds. The intelligent warehouse technology has helped the company decrease its fulfillment expense ratio to a world-leading level of 6.5%. The construction of intelligent warehouses has led to estimated annual savings of hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2020, JD.com delivered 90% of its first-party-owned retail orders on the same day or on the day after the order was placed. The agility of such intelligent warehouses has allowed JD.com to handle 10 times the normal volume of orders during peak sales seasons and has also helped the company respond quickly to COVID-19 and ensure the rapid recovery of production capabilities.