Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 7.62
February 22, 2021
The last-mile problem Despite tremendous advances in route optimization over the past few decades, there remains an important gap between theoretical route planning and real-life route execution: in real-life operations, the quality of a route is not exclusively defined by its theoretical length, duration, or cost. Experienced delivery drivers have tacit knowledge about the complex operational environment in which they serve customers on a daily basis. To allow for safer, more efficient, and sustainable last-mile delivery, it is critical to leveraging this tacit information for improved route planning. The last-mile objective The primary goal of the Last Mile Routing Research…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 1.18
February 19, 2021
…has put on their internal operations, customer service, and delivery partners. “Both manufacturers and retailers, faced with ecommerce volumes that no one anticipated until 2025, are trying to meet this outsized demand with networks that were not prepared to handle this much volume this soon for such an extended period.” So then, the questions on many minds are these: How can existing supply chains rapidly mature to the same five-year future level? And how can a business rise to the current challenges with only the resources at hand? Like most supply chain decisions, the answers to these questions are found…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 3.13
January 12, 2021
Last mile of the race Something once so innovative as two-day delivery has led to next-day delivery, which is quickly becoming obsolete as consumers demand same-day delivery. This trend has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as more consumers become comfortable with online ordering of perishable items and groceries. One of the significant changes in supply chain strategies we are seeing as a result of this is the rise of fulfillment centers that bring fulfillment closer to the consumer. Fulfillment centers Typically, one of the dominant components in a company’s supply chain was the large warehouse or distribution center that…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.78
January 07, 2021
…impact on your company’s bottom line.” Session 4: E-commerce Last-mile fulfillment: Solving an ever-complex puzzle COVID-19 accelerated the move to e-commerce for everything from groceries to classic cars, challenging existing B2B and B2C supply chain models. Amid this disruption, a flurry of innovation has thrived, including ship-from-store, curbside pickup, and hyper-local fulfillment, all of which have gone from fringe to mainstream. Concurrently, new last-mile delivery models are shaking up the balance of power in package delivery. Alan Amling, a fellow at University of Tennessee and CEO at Thrive and Advance, LLC, uses this time to explore the emerging last-mile landscape—from…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 1.27
January 05, 2021
A report issued late last year by San Francisco-based real estate investment trust company Prologis examined some challenges the logistics real estate sector has been up against, in the form of a shortage of skilled labor and well-located logistics space. The report, entitled “Automation and Logistics Real Estate #2: How Automation Can Help Navigate Urgent Supply Chain Challenges,” is the second in a series issued by Prologis. The first report, “Automation and Logistics Real Estate #1: The State of Automation in Supply Chains,” was issued last November. In addition to the shortage of skilled labor and well-located logistics space, the…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.35
November 20, 2020
…to respond to quickly changing consumer habits.” And while final-mile logistics have been a perpetual challenge for many, COVID exacerbated those woes by forcing people to stay at home to work, shop and live. “Last mile has always been a challenge, but now when you include increased demand for grocery online business and home delivery, those challenges are even more acute,” Krebs says. In addition, the competition between logistics organizations and e-commerce giants concerning delivery services continues to intensify. “In response to some of these pressures, we’ve seen logistics organizations look to alternative technologies such as passive RFID and vision…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.24
November 16, 2020
…incontinence supplies and adult diapers, sold online for home delivery but also with a growing channel shipping to institutions. Either way, orders are stored at the case level rather than the unit level and mostly picked in cases, with a small percentage of item-level picks. Given the products handled, the cases are large and bulky. And, given the urgent need for the supplies, NorthShore Care Supply’s policy is to ship the same day orders are received. Fulfillment speed is critical to make parcel carrier cutoff times. Before building the new facility, associates picked cases to three-tier carts they pushed through…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.29
October 09, 2020
…freight mobility platform designed to present prospects data on delivery quantity, distance pushed, and related emissions and assist choose probably the most environment-friendly routes. “There may be each a number of pleasure and a number of uncertainties about autonomous trucking, however, the reality stays: this is, without doubt, one of the largest enterprise alternatives within the historical past of mankind,” stated Einride CEO Robert Falck in a press release, who added that the corporate expects to see the autonomous transport trade increase exponentially within the coming years, particularly within the wake of a world pandemic. Self-Driving Vehicles: What Will Happen…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 1.22
September 30, 2020
…America, about varous topics, including the COVID-19 pandemic, final mile logistics, and Peak Season, among others. MacDonald was appointed to his current role in May and has been in the supply chain sector for more than 30 years. MacDonald joined DHL Supply Chain in 2006 and, for the last decade prior to May, served as VP, Retail, DHL Supply Chain North America. Logistics Management (LM): How would you characterize the last six months, or so, going back to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic? What is different between now and then, in terms of some of the logistics takeaways? Rick…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.29
September 16, 2020
…under one centrally located roof that would enable efficient last-mile delivery and cut lead times for smaller and more frequent store deliveries, resulting in less back stock in the stores. “When we decided to centralize all of our products into one warehouse, the main driver was to become more efficient and minimize our store stock,” Eriksson says. All of those factors pointed toward automation, as did the tight labor market in Norway and Sweden. In addition to design questions, the retailer needed a central location to serve all of its growing markets. “We did a center of gravity analysis, and…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.26
September 15, 2020
…in medical facilities, on huge campuses, at airports, for last-mile deliveries and for other purposes and places. The demand for the autonomous shuttles is constantly high, so we are about to see ecosystems emerge and regulations change around the globe. New human-machine interfaces are expected to emerge as well. There are voice assistants on the market already, and they’ll become more sophisticated. The industry is experimenting with all kinds of displays, sensor panels, rearview mirrors, cameras [and] heads-up systems. The drivers and time will decide which of them become a future standard.” “Intelligent transportation networks are highly interconnected due to…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 0.24
September 11, 2020
…incontinence supplies and adult diapers, sold online for home delivery but also with a growing channel shipping to institutions. Either way, orders are stored at the case level rather than the unit level and mostly picked in cases, with a small percentage of item-level picks. Given the products handled, the cases are large and bulky. And, given the urgent need for the supplies, NorthShore Care Supply’s policy is to ship the same day orders are received. Fulfillment speed is critical to make parcel carrier cutoff times. Before building the new facility, associates picked cases to three-tier carts they pushed through…
