The development of an electronic lighting device used in stores known as pick to light, as well as robotic vehicles in the picking process—or the preparation of orders inside a high density distribution center— are examples of technologies that reduce time needed for storage tasks. Through them, it is also possible to identify the exact amount of items to be collected by workers in a warehouse. These are some of the most recent innovations at EAFIT Warehousing, a lab that works on Logistics 4.0 research.
The global industry is experiencing one of the most convergent moments in history. This is caused by the impact generated by advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, the internet of things (IoT) and data sciences, among other tools within the production processes in companies, particularly in supply chains. This is an example of advancement within the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution.
A group of EAFIT scientists form part of an interdisciplinary team of engineers of various areas, belonging to the Grupo de Investigación de Gestión de Producción y Logística (Production and Logistics Management Research Group): in the Department of Production Engineering. They study this academic area that intends to transform the local industry by improving competitiveness and the production capacity of companies, particularly those whose quality storage and transport are critical to their processes.
“Storage is very important, companies have to spend a lot on this. It is a crosscutting operation for all the companies, whether they are involved in manufacturing or service production, when they require warehouses. Specifically in Colombia, the cost of such logistics is critical for these companies in relation to the sales price,” states José Alejandro Montoya Echeverri, PhD in informatics and production engineer, who is one of the coordinators at EAFIT Warehousing.
These technologies are integrated in the logistics 4.0 lab located in building 15-305 on EAFIT’s campus, which serves as a small scale distribution center for experimenting with these scientific advances. The lab is fitted with baskets and parts that act as market units; it also has an automated system that allows operations to be managed and connects the various technologies of the lab, while at the same time providing real time indicators of the logistics operations performed inside the store.
The researchers explain that through the use of optimization algorithms and artificial intelligence, the Warehousing Lab Management System helps to make increasingly more intelligent decisions to improve picking operations. They also state that compared to other similar tools for storing tasks, this development has different features and can manage up to four operations simultaneously inside the center for experimental distribution that operates at EAFIT.
“We are talking about three integrated and functional technologies. The objective of the lab is to compare their performance against manual picking processes. We intend to learn how the operations at smaller scale work inside a distribution center”, points out the expert on quality and productivity systems Juan Gregorio Arrieta Posada, lab coordinator and researcher of the Department of Production Engineering.
Interdisciplinary Work
In this cyber-physical and automated environment, whose implementation started in 2017 in the University, the autonomous vehicles developed by the researchers use different types of technologies: the electronic compass, a tool created by system engineer Edwin Fernando Giraldo Aristizábal, autonomously leads the car fitted with a basket and a digital tablet, towards precise storage points in the distribution center.
On the other hand, the pick to light system using a light signal indicates the location of the basket in the store where the products should be picked. Through a numeric display it shows the quantity of the order to be taken from each position. Other inventions under development are the radiofrequency bracelets used for the automatic capture of merchandise movements which complement this series of innovations in logistics 4.0.
“All these projects allow us to collect big amounts of real time information to be able to do data analysis. Finally, everything is translated in order to improve the processes.” says Laura Osorio, production engineer and research assistant at the Warehousing, where she developed her project as part of her postgraduate studies in Management of Operations and Logistics.
According to the researcher, in 2018 the National Department of Planning (DNP) published the National Survey of Logistics to analyze the performance of the processes of the logistics chain. The entity concluded that the average of the logistics cost for companies in Colombia is 13.5 percent of sales, represented in part by the storing costs.
“These logistics costs represent a very big percentage of the total sales of a company. 46.5 percent of that 13.5 percent is for storage. Our main interest is focused on the impact it generates. The lab was created as a bridge between the industry and academics in order to work on this specific activity”, says the researcher of picking processes.
Edwin Giraldo, mechanical engineer and creator of the light autonomous vehicle; specialist in automation Hugo Alberto Murillo Hoyos, who is developing the pick to light system; physical engineer Davinson Castaño Cano, expert in automated processes; and Juan Pablo Mesa, who as a student of a doctoral program leads the design of a robust autonomous vehicle for load support, are some of the researchers taking part of the advancements in logistics 4.0.
“One of our tasks is to show the industrial field the benefits of the system and also demonstrate that the University is prepared to show its functioning in real time in a scale lab in which it is possible to make the decision of taking technology into their processes. This is the trend now within the 4.0 industry and we think that the Colombian industry has to respond and use these systems”, comments Martín Alonso Tamayo Vélez, head of the undergraduate program in Production Engineering at Universidad EAFIT (http://www.eafit.edu.co/programas-academicos/pregrados/ingenieria-produccion/Paginas/inicio.aspx).
Contact
Alejandro Gómez Valencia
EAFIT Information and Press Divition
Telephone: 574 2619500 ext. 9931
E-mail: jgomez97@eafit.edu.co