One of the main key enablers for a successful realization of the Physical Internet (PI) scenario is a modular box that meets all requirements of an interconnected logistical network. To address all these requirements, a holistic approach including all needs of the shipping network is integrated in the methodical development process that leads to the modular box prototypes. This paper describes the methodological engineering process for the first approach to develop a modular and multifunctional load unit to implement a first real PI scenario in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. From the identified research questions, three different layers to point out in detail arise. Following the presentation of the sizing approach, engineering design is the main part. A technical view on loading PI unit loads completes this work. Several methods are applied on these different layers, and final results are presented. By highlighting the significance of technical aspects and introducing a methodological approach, the reader can pick out additional benefit from this work to use in familiar topics from engineering design in logistics.Keywords Physical Internet Á MODULUSHCA Á Modular box for fast-moving consumer goods Á First physical object of the Physical Internet Á Methodological engineering design process Á Realization of the Physical Internet
Manufacturing and service processes are composed of several elements: Technical, financial, logistics, information and human resources. Staff deployment and staffing is an essential problem in the human resource management domain because the structure of employees would be continuously in an optimal relationship to the jobs to be performed. This paper proposes a conceptual model for the analysis of human resource deployment processes. After a systematic literature review, it was found that algorithms are important tools for the design and control of human resource problems since a wide range of models determines an optimization problem. According to that, the main focus of this research is the modelling and analysis of human resource deployment processes of manufacturing companies using Markov-chain mathematics, also taking into account the absorbing phenomena of employees’ promotion. The main contribution of this article includes the model framework of Markov-chain simulation of a human resource deployment problem; the mathematical description of different human resource deployment strategies with subdiagonal and superdiagonal promotion matrices; the computational results of the described model with different datasets and scenarios. In the case of a given human resource strategy, the Markovian human resource deployment process of a company was analyzed. The analyzed model was the HR deployment of assembly line operators in a multinational company, including six levels of promotion. The results of the scenario analysis show that promotion and recruitment rates have a great impact on the future employees’ structure.
This article presents the special conditions and success factors regarding the application of Knowledge-based Engineering (KBE) within technical logistics. The authors introduce the KBx approach, which tries to reduce a system's complexity, thus enabling an efficient development of KBx-applications. Considering the disadvantages regarding geometry manipulation of current KBE systems an interfacebased method (x2Creo) for the application development is shown.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.