logistics

In order picking, the workers lift, lower, push and pull variable loads. This manual handling is a common cause of musculoskeletal disorders. In order to assess the risk of musculoskeletal disorders, risk assessments in order picking are nowadays performed manually. This article presents an approach how to integrate two methods of risk assessment in warehouse management systems so the physical workload in order picking systems can be determined automatically.

Nowadays factories have to withhold an ever rising pressure to succeed. Customer demands become more demanding and goods have to be available within shorter lead times and lower prices. Flexibility, reliability and resilience are key factors for companies. Against this background, there is a need in companies for constant analysis of their business processes. The process perspective that was established in the industry since the 1980s will be addressed in the following by using the “Dortmunder Process Chain Model”. A permanent preparedness for change relies on being able to report about the plant’s status quo at all times. Therefore valuation methods and key figures are needed that represented by production characteristics curves in this paper. After an introduction to these two topics, the combination of both to one process based valuation method will be outlined. The intended methodology will represent a holistic decision model for plant controlling. This approach is being ...

Standardisation of industrial solutions is a crucial factor for the competitiveness of whole industry sectors. Especially young and immature industries, like the offshore wind energy sector, may benefit from standardised processes. Several research and development projects address information flow and the planning in this field. The standardisation of the projects results may improve the performance of the whole supply chain. However, the transfer of research and development results to standardisation processes is a challenging task. Thus, this paper introduces a procedure model for the identification and evaluation of research and development results for standardisation.

Customers, society and politics challenge companies to ensure the sustainability of their value creation. Many stakeholder groups have an eye on the logistics. These groups constantly raise new requirements and regulations affecting companies’ businesses.  This is the reason why it is not sufficient anymore to react on changing requirements. Companies can gain competitive advantages if they anticipate trends in sustainability and react immediately. In this context, this article presents an approach for trend monitoring and a change agent suppor-ting to react effectively and efficiently on trends in sustainability.

Technological progress, stringent competitive conditions and continually changing customer behaviour force the logistics industry to develop innovative solutions to generate long-term competitive advantage. Compared to the development of physical products, a systematic innovations management has not been established in logistics yet. Grounded in the analysis of interviews with experts from industry, this article puts forward requirements with respect to innovation management implementation and suggests the use of specific methods.

Planning, design and continuous improvement of today’s complex corporate structures and technical systems require a sophisticated level of extensive know-ledge of technology, processes and IT. To apply planning and simulation tools effectively and efficiently engineers and plant operators have to rise to the challenge to use their knowledge in a goal-oriented way and to expand it within creative processes. Consequently, knowledge is more than ever a key productivity factor and an important component of corporate capital. Against this background, the article discusses possibilities for systematization and standardization in simulation studies and especially approaches to increase productivity in simulation studies by supplying assistance functions as well as systematic evaluation methodologies.

The importance of sustainable planning and managing of networks by logistics concepts is rising. However, estimating these logistics concepts under sustainability aspects is a problem which many logistics managers have to face. The impact of logistics concepts to the target figures in a sustainable performance measurement system highly depends on the correlation between the variables. In this paper the correlation between the target figures within the functional areas of procurement, production, distribution and service are depicted. Based on these findings a cross-functional causal loop diagram is derived.

The current discussion on sustainability lacks a firm foundation on a clear and unambiguous definition of this pivotal concept. This impedes a concentrated discussion among scientists as well as politicians and managers on a subject-matter concerning the future of mankind. It gives room for hollow commitments of companies claiming publicly to be „green“. The article therefore starts by proposing a clear and unambiguous definition which can fill this gap. Based on this preliminary work the author argues that logistics cannot become sustainable if it remains in a position where it only has to ensure the demands of other departments’ means (especially those of marketing) thus neglecting fundamental interdependencies. Logisticians often claim systems thinking as the dominant perspective of their work. Based on a practical example the author shows that systems thinking can only work as a door opener to sustainability if it is applied to the company as a whole.

The evidence of the ecological sustainability of logistics systems is increasingly expected by customers inside and outside the supply chain. Companies can affect their carbon footprint at different strategic levels: products, structures, processes and technologies. The potential use and evaluation of technologies and their contribution to improve ecological sustainability while taking into account economic conditions are the subject of this paper.

Lot sizing is a substantial factor of economic production. There are various lot sizing approaches considering the same cost factors in different ways. Their results are usually quite similar. A common weakness of all lot sizing approaches is the limited consideration of relevant cost factors. The costs which are neglected usually rise with increasing lot sizes. This leads to illusory exact results because too large lots are calculated generally. This paper compares functions and results of different lot sizing approaches and discusses neglected cost factors.