The customer facing leg, i.e. the Last Mile (LM), and field executive (FE) for any logistics company play a pivotal role in establishing a brand among its customers. It is imperative to have a robust and closely controlledLM for longevity of a company in the market.In the following paper, we present various sense-&-respond concepts and technologies that can be used to track and, in-turn, enhance the performance of individual LM resources. Sense-&-respond systems can lead to welldefined action plan enabling an efficient LMservice, thus improving customer experience, curtailing unnecessary costs and improving safety of all stakeholders. The different modular and customizable solutions conceptualized and evaluated below include multiple IOT technologies, like camera based solutions, BLE beacons, GPS, and recorders, that can be employed to have a multi-point sensing in LMdelivery service. We cover aspects, ranging from FE attendance, FE's disposition, track and trace of FEs in turn shipments, and route optimization, customers' and FEs' interaction and a feedback mechanism to allow for continuous improvement of customers' and FEs' experience.
Unitization as a way of moving bulk shipments is known to save on multiple fronts like time, space, costs, manpower and damages in any supply chain. This study talks about the need for evolution of unitization in e-commerce supply chains in emerging markets like India. We also highlight the challenges faced while designing a standardized unit for a wide range of shipments, with non-standard packaging being transported across various facilities and in non-standard vehicles. Secondary level unitization is identified as a key focus area for addressing the challenges and three variations of using roll containers as units are proposed for different scenarios of a versatile end-toend e-commerce supply chain. A detailed view is given on interaction of unitization with various activities in the supply chain and the subsequent benefits derived in key performance metrics of the supply chain. To quantify this impact, estimated improvements are provided based on a theoretical study was conducted in a leading Indian e-commerce supply chain. As suggested earlier, roll containers bring improvements in areas like process throughput, manpower requirement, space efficiency, handling ergonomics and reduction of damages.
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