@inproceedings{ChenBremerGuoetal., author = {Chen, Mei-Hui and Bremer, Peik and Guo, Shin-Ming and Lin, Po-Jen and Tsai, Kune-muh}, title = {Material stacking problem detection with Mask R-CNN for Storage safety}, publisher = {International Symposium on Logistics "Managing Supply Chains during Geopolitical Turbulence", Enschede, 9.-12- Juli}, pages = {6}, abstract = {Purpose of this paper: Image processing technology has gained much improvement in recent years. In smart warehousing, most focus is on warehouse operations to improve efficiency and save human labors. However, in put-away, re-warehousing or picking process, after being handled by forklifts or laborers, the stacking of inventory items may change its shape and balance due to deviation, compression, tilting, etc., which may jeopardize the safety of stored goods and even people working in the warehouse. If there is a system that could monitor the stacking of inventory items all the time and could alarm managers should the stacking tilts or deforms to a certain level, inventory safety could be vastly improved. This study is on smart warehouse safety problems emphasizing at goods stacking to avoid the possibility of falling or collapse through image processing via Mask R-CNN. Our experiment is limited to items that form a rectangular block on a pallet, such as wooden bars, cartons or any box-shaped items. Design/methodology/approach STS: Mask R-CNN is a deep learning software and can be used in a wide range of applications. In this study, we used Mask R-CNN to detect the images of stacked items to see if the stacking is stable. We took photos from a warehouse and divided them into three classes - training, validation and production. VGG Image Annotator (VIA) was used for object annotation. To detect the tilt degree of stacked items, we derived formulation from book- stacking problems and retrieved dot coordinates of square frames encompassing objects in an image from the result of Mask R-CNN for calculation. Findings: Because there is a limited number of photos for training, validation and production, we applied image enhancement techniques such as flipping, affinity, multiplication, etc. to increase the total number of images to avoid over-fitting during the training process. The trained Mask R-CNN network demonstrated its capability in framing objects and after retrieving the dot coordinates of the frames, it could compute the degree of tilt as a reference for block stacking alarm. Value: The paper presents a relatively rare study of applying deep learning techniques on images as applied to material stacking safety problems. It contributes to a special smart warehousing domain. The same technique can be applied to inventory counting and help improve labor-saving in counting and in locating items in a warehouse. Research limitations/implications: Due to the limited number of images and restricted angles of taking the images, Mask R- CNN may not be so capable in framing objects of special angles of images. More images with diverse angles of them should be obtained for training to improve the capability of the trained network. Practical implications: Successful implementation of the technology developed in this study in a warehouse monitoring system can help industries in smart detection of improper stacking to assist human in improving the accuracy of safety judgement and can also save labors in reviewing images or records of a warehouse.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BremerWalkerTsai, author = {Bremer, Peik and Walker, Peter and Tsai, Kune-Muh}, title = {How do European companies judge the impact of ECFA for their business in Taiwan?}, series = {Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Logistics (ISL 2011) - Rebuilding Supply Chains for a Globalised World, Berlin}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 16th International Symposium on Logistics (ISL 2011) - Rebuilding Supply Chains for a Globalised World, Berlin}, pages = {21 -- 29}, abstract = {Taiwan has developed over the last two decades from a low-wages mass producer to a high-tech service economy. It has shown a sustainable economic growth during the last 8 years (excluding the crisis year of 2009) Due to its advanced health and education system and other factors it seems to be well prepared for the future. This is also shown in the current World Economic Forum Global Competiveness Report that calculates a Global Competitiveness Index by considering 12 different factors, such as Infrastructure, Higher Education and Innovation. Taiwan is listed in 13th place out of a total of 139 global economies. This equates to rank 3 among Asian countries (only Singapore and Hong Kong are ranked better)[1]. After having signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan (Republic of China, ROC) and China (People's Republic of China, PRC) on 29th June 2010, R.O.C.'s economic and its political future is being currently reassessed by many foreign observers. The agreement, which has been in force since the first of January, 2011, opens new prospects for Taiwan to develop further Free Trade Agreements. China will definitely be one of the three biggest growth markets of the world's economic future in the upcoming decade. Therefore, a possible future status of Taiwan is to take the role as an "Asian Economic and Cultural Hub" for companies to gain a foothold into the Chinese or the entire Asian market. Taiwan already provides competitive attributes such as infrastructure, political and social stability as well as sophisticated business networks and cultural tolerance among other strengths, which characterizes it as an expanding potential partner and a possible link to Chinese Market.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BremerHsuTsaietal., author = {Bremer, Peik and Hsu, Yuan-Chin and Tsai, Kune-muh and Huang, Echo}, title = {Measuring Supply Chain Adaptability: A Case Study in Solar PV Industry}, series = {Proceedings of the 20th International Symposium on Logistics "Reflections on Supply Chain Research and Practice" (ISL 2015), Bologna, Italy}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 20th International Symposium on Logistics "Reflections on Supply Chain Research and Practice" (ISL 2015), Bologna, Italy}, pages = {502 -- 508}, abstract = {While the world is struggling with shortage of fossil fuels energy and seeking for alternatives to it over the past several years, experts and investors have already identified renewable energy as alternative energies for fossil fuels and nuclear power. Among different types of energies, solar energy is considered as one of the most environmental friendly source. Not to mention that investment in solar photovoltaic (PV) industry had become a boom especially after the 21st century. However, due to the volatile of demand and changing patterns in manufacturing and distribution between several countries, the industry started to collapse. For this reason, many of PV related companies eventually have gone bankruptcy. Several methods, such as efficiency, responsiveness and agility, which are used to measure competitive factors for a company, have already been widely applied. Nevertheless adaptability is still a new and largely unexplored area. As a result, our research aims to develop a mechanism to measure supply chain adaptability under radical environment by building up case studies and extracting potential elements for metrics of solar PV industry. Qualitative research is conducted as our methodology, which combined with company reports, industry statistics, literature review and six semi-structured interviews with solar energy related companies in Germany. In our case studies, six companies specialize in different aspects of solar PV supply chain and demonstrate different emphasis regarding the adaptability of supply chain. Based on our result, company could assess their individual contributions and evaluate what abilities they are insufficient for preventing the risks involved when encountering volatile changes in the market.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{ChenHuangBremeretal., author = {Chen, Mei-hui and Huang, Wen-kang and Bremer, Peik and Tsai, Kune-muh}, title = {Implementing Meta-heuristics for AS/RS Picking Scheduling in Support of Production Lines}, series = {Proceedings of the 21st International Symposium on Logistics "Sustainable Transport and Supply Chain Innovation", Kaohsiung, Taiwan}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 21st International Symposium on Logistics "Sustainable Transport and Supply Chain Innovation", Kaohsiung, Taiwan}, pages = {441 -- 446}, abstract = {Most research in the past mainly considers AS/RS in distribution environment. In this study, we consider AS/RS in the support of an assembly line having multiple cells. For the coordination between the assembly line and the AS/RS, we implemented metaheuristics with Tabu algorithm to solve the sequencing of tasks having picking and put-away operations in support of a Toyota manufacturing system where production lines are composed of cells to assemble simultaneously a variety of products such as auto parts, electronic devices, etc. In this paper, three Tabu heuristic algorithms were devised with variations in search and exchange. The first algorithm (TI) is a regular Tabu search with special initial solution strategy; the second algorithm (TID) combines TI with divide and conquer search strategy; the third algorithm (TIE) is TI with special exchange strategy. We experimented on an AS/RS - production system having 40 assembly cells and an AS/RS with capacity of 1600 baskets for holding materials for assembly. By making 30 runs for each of the above three algorithms, we found that that TIE performs the best, followed by TID and then TI. It also demonstrates that Tabu search can help the operation of AS/RS by reducing 5-30\% of shop floor assembly time while TIE can obtain a sequence solution in the best possible time by saving 54.9\% of the computation time over TI.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BremerChenChenetal., author = {Bremer, Peik and Chen, Mei-hui and Chen, Jung-hung and Tsai, Kune-muh}, title = {A Case Study on De-Risking Plans for Stronger Supply Chain Resilience}, series = {Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Logistics "Designing Responsible and Innovative Global Supply Chains" (ISL 2014), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 19th International Symposium on Logistics "Designing Responsible and Innovative Global Supply Chains" (ISL 2014), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)}, pages = {80 -- 85}, abstract = {Recent risk incidents, such as 911 attacks, financial crisis, catastrophic disasters like earthquakes and floods, etc. have added challenges and susceptibility for business operations. In encountering more frequent and unpredictable risks than before, many companies adopt risk management systems and redesign their supply chain (SC) structures for stronger SC resilience as well as quicker recovery speed. In this paper, we present a case study of a large semiconductor packaging and testing company in Taiwan, AKH, in confronting risk incidents and the plans they implemented to strengthen the SC resilience to assure more reliable supply of their products and services to the customers worldwide. AKH executed several de-risking plans, which can be divided into four Rs - resourcefulness, redundancy, robustness and rapidity. Many of the de-risking plans rely on the E-Hub system the company implemented a few years ago for SC information visibility. After carrying out the de-risking plans, AKH found that the suppliers and customers as well as the company have to furnish additional kinds of information to the E-Hub system in order to improve the SC resilience and assess the impacts of risk incidents. The results show improved SC resilience for the case company in encountering risk incidents and much faster recovery speed once an incident occu}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BremerGrasmikTsai, author = {Bremer, Peik and Grasmik, Katrin and Tsai, Kune-muh}, title = {Organizational Success Factors of Lead Plant/Sister Plant Relationships in Global Production Networks}, series = {Proceedings of the 23rd International Symposium on Logistics - Big Data Enabled Supply Chain Innovations, Bali, Indonesia}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 23rd International Symposium on Logistics - Big Data Enabled Supply Chain Innovations, Bali, Indonesia}, pages = {148 -- 156}, abstract = {Purpose of this paper: In a global production network, a lead plant can be defined as the global hub of knowledge with respect to the design and manufacturing of a specific product. The purpose of this paper is to identify the organizational success factors in the relationship between a lead plant and its sister plants in a company's global production network (GPN). Design/methodology/approach: Eight cases, all centered at the automotive division of a multinational company and featuring lead plant/sister plant relationships for different products, were researched. Cases were selected for providing various contexts in terms of the age/maturity of the GPN and its forecasted development with respect to production volume. A literature review and initial interviews suggested to focus the research on four areas related to the knowledge flows in the network: (1) level of expertise in the lead plant, (2) knowledge transfer to sister plants, (3) organization of day-to-day operations and staff involved on either side, and (4) the perception of the relationship on either side. Information for the cases was obtained by in-depth interviews with those responsible for the relationship in both lead plant and sister plant. Findings: Two focal issues of a firm's internal GPN have been identified in the research: (1) How the lead plant shapes the role assigned to it and (2) How knowledge is transferred within the GPN. The factual role of the lead plant depends on how sister plants not only take technical support and accept strategical guidance but also actively support the lead plants role by sharing their own knowledge. It is important for the lead plant that the business unit allows enough room to maneuver. The cases suggest that the life cycle of the GPN is a key influencing factor. The lead plant's role should be established in the GPN's formation phase. Even though the lead plant might initially prioritize technical support, it should not neglect strategic guidance early on because this function is hard to establish in an already mature GPN. Also, the mechanisms and standards of knowledge transfer must be established early in the GPN's life cycle as in later stages both entrenched behavioral patterns and cost pressure might stand in the way. Value: Much research has been conducted on the different roles plants can assume in GPNs (cf. Ferdows, 1997; Vereecke et al., 2006; Feldmann and Olhager, 2013). This paper adds insight into how lead plants should organize and maintain their relationships with both business unit and sister plants in the GPN and shows the strong influence of GPN maturity}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{TsaiChenBremeretal., author = {Tsai, Kune-muh and Chen, Mei-hui and Bremer, Peik and Chen, Ting-Yu}, title = {Implementing Association Rules for Rack Replenishment in Kiva Systems}, series = {Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on Logistics - Supply Chain Networks vs Platforms: Innovations, Challenges and Opportunities, W{\"u}rzburg}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on Logistics - Supply Chain Networks vs Platforms: Innovations, Challenges and Opportunities, W{\"u}rzburg}, pages = {555 -- 559}, abstract = {Purpose: Kiva robots system is considered as the 8th generation of warehousing picking system by Amazon. The system utilizes Automated Guided Vehicles to pick up and carry racks to picking stations to realize goods-to-man picking operations and can save 2/3 of manpower in picking operations. One of the ways for efficient operations of the system is to have right assortment of goods on racks to reduce the number of rack move completing customer orders. This research looks into correlations of customer orders to study the goods allocation plan on racks that could effectively reduce the number of rack moves for shorter order completion time and less manpower used in picking operations. Design/methodology/approach: This study aims at finding goods allocation plans considering correlations of customer orders for efficient picking operations. In calculating the correlation between and among orders, we used a priori association rules to compute the support and confidence of order items. We generate three batches of 10,000 orders with VBA, each referring to an EC company. We later implemented ABC classification and association rules to conduct different levels of order analysis. Considering put-to-light picking systems as in the Kiva systems, the correlations of order items and customer orders were computed with R programming software. The performance measure is the number of times to move racks to complete the customer orders. Different replenishment strategies for goods allocation on racks using product correlation values and order quantity ratios were implemented with simulation to find the optimal replenishment strategy. Findings: We analyzed nine replenishment strategies and found that the best strategy among the nine could reduce the number of rack moves by 77.9\% when compared to a randomly allocated strategy. Value/Originality: Despite the growing application of Kiva systems in warehousing operations, there is only few studies look into operational improvement problems. This paper lies its originality in using association rules for rack replenishment strategy for efficient picking operations. The result show tremendous improvement in performance measures, which demonstrates the value of the paper.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{TsaiChangBremer, author = {Tsai, Kune-muh and Chang, Heng-Tsu and Bremer, Peik}, title = {How the Fashion Industry Reduces Time-to-Market from a Supply Chain Perspective - A Case Study on ZARA and adidas CORE}, series = {Proceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Logistics - Building Resilience for Supply Chains, Seoul}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Logistics - Building Resilience for Supply Chains, Seoul}, pages = {47 -- 47}, abstract = {Purpose of the paper: Getting products to market in a shorter time enables a fashion brand to savor the trend in vogue and can start preparing new products later than its competitors. Shorter time-to- market could help reduce product inventory risk because not only might the design fit the market better, product replenishment can be fulfilled in a shorter time. ZARA is one of the apparel fashion brands best able to reduce finished product inventory and respond quickly to market demand; adidas CORE is a reasonably-priced fashion sports shoes targeting at younger consumers and seeking to capture market share through a responsive market strategy. Because apparel and shoes have different product structures and production processes, the supply chain design and management engaged are different. This study employed a case study method to investigate the bullwhip effect and responsiveness of ZARA and adidas CORE, and also examine the use of postponement strategies and concurrent engineering to achieve quick response. Design/methodology/approach: We studied fashion industry supply chain and manufacturing strategies, especially those related to design, purchasing, postponement, inventory control, production, logistics etc. that could lead to lead time reduction. ZARA and adidas CORE were used as two cases to verify the theoretical findings through direct observation, interviews and document review. Findings: In order to reduce out of season unsold inventory while also responding to market demand quickly, under this premise, ZARA and adidas CORE both adopted postponement strategies in their supply chains and manufacturing systems. They also adjusted production to ensure that customized processes are delayed at the postponement point until the demand is confirmed. However, due to different production structures of apparel and shoes, their postponement points are also differentiated. In addition, the two brands both use anticipatory business models in conjunction with their postponement strategies to prepare for rapid production. Because shoes require many different types of materials, to shorten development time, adidas embraced the concurrent engineering concept by inviting vendors to participate in the development process. After products have reached the market, in accordance with their sales situation, ZARA may adopt a responsiveness business model for quick response, while adidas CORE maintains a brisk production and shipment pace in order to supply the market without interruption. Value: The case study rationalizes from supply chain perspectives regarding how those fashion brands could make their products to market in a short time. The effectiveness of short lead time can also be confirmed from the metrics in inventory level and profits.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BremerTsai, author = {Bremer, Peik and Tsai, Kune-muh}, title = {Smartness in picker-to-parts order picking: a socio-technical systems theory perspective}, publisher = {International Symposium on Logistics "Managing Supply Chains during Geopolitical Turbulence", Enschede, 9.-12. Juli}, pages = {11}, abstract = {Purpose of this paper: Surveys have shown that most companies still use paper-based lists or RF handhelds to support picker-to-parts order picking. However, more modern approaches such as replacing handhelds with small wearables, Pick-by-Voice, Pick-by-Vision, or even autonomous picking robots are on the rise. This fits into a broader trend commonly referred to as "smart logistics". However, what "smartness" means in this context remains unclear. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of smartness in picker-to- parts order picking by applying socio-technical systems theory. Design/methodology/approach: The methodological approach uses a socio-technical analysis and a combination of two frameworks involving smart capabilities to identify the characteristics of "smart" picker- to-parts order picking. Findings: Typically, smartness is considered a property of the assistive devices used in order picking (such as smart glasses in Pick-by-Vision). Instead, smartness should be judged by the extent to which the picking system is implemented as a socio-technical system with comprehensive, meaningful tasks. Thus, smart picker-to-parts order picking is an alternative concept to the digital Tayloristic approach supported by the prevailing assistive devices. A number of elements are proposed for the design of a smart picking system, including establishing responsible autonomy, reducing cognitive load, improving ergonomics, and human-machine interaction based on contextual adaptation. Value: This paper contributes to the still relatively small body of literature on smart picker-to- parts order picking by clarifying the dimensions of smartness in this field. A clearer understanding of smartness is helpful in avoiding getting trapped in digital Tayloristic work patterns, mediated and controlled by the currently available tools. It also supports creating a more favorable work environment for warehouse personnel. Research limitations/implications: So far, the concept of smartness in picker-to-part order picking is purely conceptual. Practical implications: The evaluation framework can be used to critically assess the technology currently used in warehouses to support picker-to-parts order picking and to guide the development of new systems.}, language = {en} }