MIS

Final Project

IT in Business and Life

Submitted by:

Group 2, Section ‘A’

Ankit LalwaniVenkateshwar JTanehaVermaSantosh DHarshitaPiyushGauravIshaTayalMukundSidharth

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Let us first see

How IT changes our lives

So many new technologies have appeared in the past half century that it’s impossible to list them all. But these 10 high-tech breakthroughs stand out over the last 50 years because they’ve revolutionized the way Americans live. We look back at their beginnings, as well as where they’ve taken us today.

1. The Internet. This one seems like a no-brainer, but the Net’s unique strength is that no two people will agree on why it’s so important. The world’s largest and most unruly library, it’s also a global news channel, social club, research archive, shopping service, town hall, and multimedia kiosk. Add to that the most affordable mass medium ever, and a curse to anyone with a secret to keep. Three-fifths of Americans now use the Net, but it remains to be seen whether the connections to one another will transform us, or prove that we’ll never change.

2. Genetic engineering. Everyone knows Watson and Crick, who unraveled the secret of DNA in 1953. But have you heard of Boyer and Cohen, who constructed the first organism with combined DNA from different species in 1973? They inserted toad genes into a bacterium that then replicated itself over and over, passing the toad’s genetic code down through generations of bacteria. Thirty years later, an estimated 70 percent of processed foods contain genetically modified ingredients, such as soybeans or corn engineered for higher crop yields. Of course, the much bigger potential — good and bad — is in engineering humans. It might prevent birth defects, and diseases later in life. But the side effects could be disastrous and unknown. Is there an ethical way to beta-test human beings?

3. Digital media.“The camera doesn’t lie” went a saying not heard much since the release of Photoshop 1.0 in 1990. Digitized audio, pictures, movies, and text let even an amateur edit reality — or conjure it from scratch — with a keyboard and a mouse. A singer’s bad notes, a model’s blemishes, or an overcast sky in a movie scene can be fixed as easily as a spelling error. Just as important, digital media can be copied over and over nearly for free, stored permanently without fading, and sent around the world in seconds. It rightly worries the movie and music industries, but how do you put the genie back in the bottle if there’s no bottle anymore?

4. Personal computers. Before IBM recast the desktop computer from hobbyist’s gadget to office automation tool in 1983 — followed by Apple’s people-friendly Macintosh a year later — a “minicomputer” was the size of a washing machine and required a special air-conditioned room. But the trained technicians who operated the old mainframes already knew computers were cool: They could use them to play games, keep diaries, and trade messages with friends across the country, while still looking busy. Today, thanks to the PC, we all look busy.

5. Space flight. Americans from 50 years ago would be disappointed to learn we never went further than the Moon — no Mars colony, no 2001 odyssey to Jupiter, no speed-of-light spaceships. Even the Shuttle is in trouble. But the space race against the Russians that dominated the national psyche (and a good chunk of the budget) in the ‘60s and ‘70s pushed the development of hundreds of enabling technologies, including synthetic fibers and integrated computer circuits, necessary to fly men to the Moon and back. And the astronauts brought back a lesson from space: “We saw the earth the size of a quarter, and we realized then that there is only one earth. We are all brothers.”

6. Mobile phones. The idea for cellular phone service dates back at least to 1947, but the first call was made from the sidewalk outside the Manhattan Hilton in 1973 by Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher who rang up his rival at AT&T Bell Labs to test the new phone. Thirty years later, more than half of all Americans own one and cellular networks are beginning to serve Internet access at broadband speeds through thin air.

7. Nuclear power. When the Queen herself threw the switch on the world’s first atomic power plant at Calder Hall outside London in 1956, nuclear reactors were seen as a source of cheap, pollution-free energy. But a partial meltdown in 1979 at the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania soured Americans on nukes as safe power. Nonetheless, the United States today has about 100 active plants that generate 20 percent of the country’s electricity — second only to coal as a source of power — and have been steadily increasing their capacity. Will the next 50 years bring a better alternative?

8. Electronic funds transfer. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco set up a paperless transfer system with the Los Angeles branch in 1972. By the end of the decade, instantaneous transfers of millions of dollars in value between banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions had become common. The real appeal of EFT today is its trickle down to the individual: You get grab cash from your bank account anywhere in the world, and use PayPal to buy and sell stuff on eBay without sending money or checks through the mail.

9. Robots and artificial intelligence. The term “robot” was coined by Czechoslovakian playwright Karel Capek in 1920 — “robota” being a Czech word for tedious labor — but the first real industrial robot was built in 1954 by George Devol. Five years later, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology founded its Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in a quest to mechanically mimic human minds as well as hands. Today, robots assemble products better, faster and often cheaper than manual laborers, while more than 8 million U.S. airline flights a year are scheduled, guided and flown with the superhuman assistance of advanced software. Still, some Americans eye such systems with the cynical view of novelist Kurt Vonnegut, whose 1952 story “Player Piano” warned that the machines might leave people without a purpose — or a job.

10.Organ transplants. In 1954, Dr Joseph Murray removed the kidney from one human patient and implanted it in another. The recipient accepted the kidney as its own rather than rejecting it as a foreign body. It was more than skillful surgery: Murray had chosen a pair of identical twins, Ronald Herrick and his terminally ill brother Richard, in hopes their similar genetic makeup would reduce the likelihood of Richard’s body rejecting Ronald’s liver. Soon afterward, though, other researchers developed drugs that could squelch a transplant recipient’s immune system long enough for the new organ to become incorporated into its new body. Today, some 25,000 Americans a year receive a new heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas or intestine — and a new lease on life.

Google Crisis Response

Google Crisis Response is a team within Google.org that "seeks to make critical information more accessible around natural disasters and humanitarian crises". The team has responded in the past to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, 2010 Pakistan floods, 2010–2011 Queensland floods, February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami among other events, using Google resources and tools such as Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Person Finder, and Google Fusion Tables.

Google Crisis Response organizes emergency alerts and news updates relating to a crisis and publishes the information on its web properties or dedicated landing pages. It also provides opportunities for donation in collaboration with agencies like UNICEF, Save the Children, International Medical Corps, and local relief-providing bodies. Google also builds and provides tools to help crisis responders and affected people communicate and stay informed, such as Google Person Finder, Google Crisis Map, Google Public Alerts,Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Fusion Tables, Google Docs, and Google Sites.

Google Crisis Response organizes emergency alerts and news updates relating to a crisis and publishes the information on its web properties or dedicated landing pages. It also provides opportunities for donation in collaboration with agencies like UNICEF, Save the Children, International Medical Corps, and local relief-providing bodies. Google also builds and provides tools to help crisis responders and affected people communicate and stay informed, such as Google Person Finder, Google Crisis Map, Google Public Alerts,Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Fusion Tables, Google Docs, and Google Sites.

Tools Google Person FinderGoogle Person Finder helps in locating missing persons. It acts as a message board for survivors, families and friends of those affected in a natural disaster by putting in live updates about missing persons. During the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, several Japanese family members were able to locate each other using Google Person Finder.]

Google MapsGoogle Maps supplies critical crisis information to the public through search engines. It is used to provide crisis information such as road closure, areas covered in debris, roads which are passable, and resources such as for

emergency medical stations. Using the My Map feature, KPBS, a broadcast station, created a map which provided real-time updates on the San Diego wildfires in 2007. The map received more than two million views within a couple of days. Google Maps was used to track the path of Hurricane Irenewhich hit the US eastern coast in August 2011. Besides mapping, Google Maps also displayed 3-5 day forecasts for Hurricane Irene, showed evacuation routes, and marked out the coastal areas of the which were in the danger of the impending storm surge. Google EarthGoogle Earth is a virtual globe that allows extensive customization with editing tools to draw shapes, add text, and integrate live feeds for information on earthquakes, cyclones, landslides, and oil spills as they occur. During the 2010 Haiti earthquake, International Medical Corps and Doctors Without Borders used the Google Earth application to track response efforts and visualise cholera case origins. Google Fusion TablesGoogle Fusion Tables is an application which gathers, visualises, and shares data online with response organisations and constituents. It instantly visualises the data ranging from shelter lists to power outages in the form of maps and charts. It also helps in playing a crucial role in crisis decision making by identifying data patterns. During the 2011 riots in London, this application was used in creating maps which showed indices of deprivation and riot locations.Google SitesGoogle Sites facilitates creation and updates of a website with critical response information available from anywhere in the globe at any point of time. Its highlight being that it can be created or updated without the help of web developers or any knowledge of HTML programming making it easier to use. A variety of information can be put up like forms to collect information, videos of the crisis, photos of the devastation, and maps that protect important natural resources and that help in search and rescue operations. Save the Children, an independent organization involved in rescue of children in case of natural calamities, has been regularly using this application.

Past responses:

Uttarakhand flooding, July 15, 2013After heavy flooding in Uttarakhand, Google worked with responders on the ground to launch a crisis map with road information, and the locations of relief camps and medical centers.

Alberta flooding, June 22, 2013As flooding continues to affect Alberta, the Google Crisis Response team has launched a new crisis map with emergency-related information.

Oklahoma tornadoes, May 24, 2013In response to the devastating 2-mile wide tornado that struck the Oklahoma City region, Google’s Crisis Response team launched a crisis map for the event, which includes Red Cross shelters, traffic alerts, storm reports and other information.

Boston bombings, April 15, 2013In response to the bombing of the Boston marathon, Google launched Person Finder to help those affected find and reconnect with friends and loved ones

Jakarta flooding, Jan. 17, 2013The Google Crisis Response team assembled a response page and crisis map to track the flooding in Jakarta, and provide information and emergency resources to those affected.

Typhoon Pablo, Dec. 3, 2012The Google Crisis Response team has assembled a Typhoon Pablo crisis map to help track the storm’s progress and provide updated emergency information.

Hurricane Sandy, Oct. 31, 2012Hurricane Sandy hits New York and moves up the East Coast, causing widespread damage

Philippine floods, Aug. 1, 2012Over 100 die in floods, affecting more than 2.4 million people in 144 municipalities.

Russia floods, July 1, 2012Flash floods caused by torrential rain swept the southern Russian Krasnodar region, killing 144 people

U.S. wildfires, July 1, 2012at least 19 major wildfires burning across the western United States, including one of the largest blazes in the history of New Mexico.

Indonesia earthquake, April 1, 2012Magnitude 6.6 earthquake centered 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of the city of Medan hits Indonesia

Turkey Earthquake, Oct. 23, 2011Magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck eastern Turkey

Thailand Floods, Oct. 13, 2011Thailand’s worst flooding in 50 years

Philippine floods, Oct. 1, 2011Hundreds killed after flooding from Tropical Storm Washi

Hurricane Irene, June 1, 2011Large Atlantic that hurricane hit the eastern United States

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, March 11, 2011Massive earthquake off the coast of Japan caused significant damage and tsunami flooding

Christchurch Earthquake, Feb. 22, 2011Magnitude 6.3 earthquake in New Zealand

Australia Floods, Jan. 12, 2011The worst flooding in 35 years threatened millions of people in Queensland and surrounding areas

Brazil Floods and Landslides, Jan. 11, 2011Rains in the state of Rio de Janeiro caused landslides and flooding

San Bruno Fires, Sept. 10, 2010Raging fires in Northern California destroyed and damaged 150 structures and caused several fatalities

Pakistan Floods, July 26, 2010Heavy monsoon rains caused the worst flooding in Pakistan's history, impacting more than 21 million people

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, July 20, 2010Oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico caused 100,000 barrels of oil to be spilled into the ocean

Chile Earthquake, Feb. 27, 2010Magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck the coast of central Chile

Haiti Earthquake, Jan. 12, 2010Magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck near the capital city of Port Au Prince

Lockheed Wildfire of Santa Cruz, California, Aug. 12, 2009Several wildfires in the mountains of California burned more than 7,000 acres

L’Aquila Earthquake, April 6, 2009Magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck in Italy and resulted in 380 deaths

Red River Floods, March 9, 2009Flooding from the Red River affected Fargo, the most populous city in North Dakota, United States

Hurricane Ike, Sept. 1, 2008Category 2 hurricane struck Galveston, Texas, United States

Hurricane Gustav, Aug. 25, 2008The second most destructive storm of 2008 caused damage and casualties from Haiti to the United States

Sichuan Earthquake, May 12, 2008Magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck the Sichuan Province in China

Cyclone Nargis, May 2, 2008The deadliest cyclone to impact Myanmar in recorded history killed over 140,000 people

California Wildfires, Oct. 23, 2007Devastating wildfires burned more than 375,000 acres of land and evacuated over 350,000 homes

Hurricane Katrina, Aug. 29, 2005One of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the US killed over 1,800 people and caused the evacuation of many homes in the Gulf Regio

Traditional Supply Chains

A supply chain (SC) is also a network of facilities and distribution options that functions to procure materials, transform these materials into intermediate and finished products, and distribute these finished products to customers.

Supply chains exist in both service and manufacturing organisations, although the complexity of the chain may vary greatly from industry to industry and firm to firm. Realistic supply chains have multiple end products with shared components, facilities and capacities. The flow of materials is not always along an arborescent network; various modes of transportation may be considered, and the bill of materials for the end items may be both deep and large.

Traditionally, marketing, distribution, planning, manufacturing, and the purchasing of organisations along the supply chain operate independently. These organisations have their own objectives and they are often conflicting. Marketing's objectives of high customer service and maximum sales dollars conflict with the manufacturing and distribution goals. Many manufacturing operations are designed to maximize throughput and lower costs with little consideration for the impact on inventory levels and distribution capabilities. Purchasing contracts are often negotiated with very little information beyond historical buying patterns. The result of these factors is that there is not a single, integrated plan for the organisation. Clearly, there is a need for a mechanism through which these different functions can be integrated together. Supply chain management is a strategy through which such an integration can be achieved.

Supply chain management is typically viewed to lie between fully vertically integrated firms, where the entire material flow is owned by a single firm, and where each channel member operates independently. (Houlihan 1985) is credited with first coining the term “supply chain,” but it seems that researchers have varying interpretations of exactly what managing a supply chain means. The common thread in any definition is that supply chain management seeks to integrate performance measures over multiple firms or processes, rather than taking the perspective of a single firm or process.

A supply chain is an integrated manufacturing process wherein raw materials are converted into final products, then delivered to customers. At its highest level, a supply chain is comprised of two basic, integrated processes: (1) the Production Planning and Inventory Control Process, and (2) the Distribution and Logistics Process. These processes, illustrated below in figure, provide the basic framework for the conversion and movement of raw materials into final products.

The Production Planning and Inventory Control Process encompasses the manufacturing and storage sub-processes, and their interface(s). More specifically, production planning describes the design and management of the entire manufacturing process (including raw material scheduling and acquisition, manufacturing process design and scheduling, and material handling design and control). Inventory control describes the design and management of the storage policies and procedures for raw materials, work-in-process inventories, and usually, final products.The Distribution and Logistics Process determines how products are retrieved and transported from the warehouse to retailers. These products may be transported to retailers directly, or may first be moved to distribution facilities, which, in turn, transport products to the retailers. This process includes the management of inventory retrieval, transportation, and final product delivery.These processes interact with one another to produce an integrated supply chain. The design and management of these processes determine the extent to which the supply chain works as a unit to meet the required performance objectives.

The supply chain in figure consists of five stages. Generally, multi-stage models for supply chain design and analysis can be divided into four categories, by the modeling approach. In the cases included here, the modeling approach is driven by the nature of the inputs and the objective of the study. The four categories are: (1) deterministic analytical models, in which the variables are known and specified, (2) stochastic analytical models, where at least one of the variables is unknown, and is assumed to follow a particular probability distribution, (3) economic models, and (4) simulation models.

Williams presents seven heuristic algorithms for scheduling production and distribution operations in an assembly supply chain network (i.e., each station has at most one immediate successor, but any number of immediate predecessors). The objective of each heuristic is to determine a minimum-cost production and/or product distribution schedule that satisfies the final product demand. The total cost is a sum of the average inventory holding and fixed (ordering, delivery, or setup) costs. Finally, the performance of each heuristic is compared using a wide range of empirical experiments, and recommendations are made on the bases of solution quality and network structure.

Williams  develops a dynamic programming algorithm for simultaneously determining the production and distribution batch sizes at each node within a

supply chain network. As in Williams ,it is assumed that the production process is an assembly process. The objective of the heuristic is to minimize the average cost per period over an infinite horizon, where the average cost is a function of processing costs and inventory holding costs for each node in the network.

Ishii et al.  develop a deterministic model for determining the base stock levels and lead times associated with the lowest cost solution for an integrated supply chain on a finite horizon. The stock levels and lead times are determined in such a way as to prevent stockout, and to minimize the amount of obsolete (“dead”) inventory at each stock point. Their model utilizes a pull-type ordering system which is driven by, in this case, linear (and known) demand processes.

Cohen and Lee present a deterministic, mixed integer, non-linear mathematical programming model, based on economic order quantity (EOQ) techniques, to develop what the authors refer to as a “global resource deployment” policy. More specifically, the objective function used in their model maximizes the total after-tax profit for the manufacturing facilities and distribution centers (total revenue less total before-tax costs less taxes due). This objective function is subject to a number of constraints, including “managerial constraints” (resource and production constraints) and “logical consistency constraints” (feasibility, availability, demand limits, and variable non-negativity). The outputs resulting from their model include :

• Assignments for finished products and subassemblies to manufacturing plants, vendors to distribution centers, distribution centers to market regions.• Amounts of components, subassemblies, and final products to be shipped among the vendors, manufacturing facilities, and distribution centers.• Amounts of components, subassemblies, and final products to be manufactured at the manufacturing facilities.Moreover, this model develops material requirements and assignments for all products, while maximizing after-tax profits.

Store Locations And New Technology

There are many factors to take into consideration when opening a new warehouse facility. From location and build to storage requirements and labor force availability, making the right choices in regards to both warehousing and distribution methods could make all the difference for your company.  While the below are what we consider the most important, this list is certainly not all-inclusive.

Physical Location

When deciding on which warehouse to use, choosing the one with the best physical location is important. The first question to ask yourself is, which region are you looking to serve? Ensuring your product is stored in a region near your customers is important for prompt deliveries. This also factors into considering cost. Calculating landed transportation costs to facility from manufacturing, and expected transportation costs from facility to end customer, will help decide where you can afford to keep your product.

The location’s proximity to carrier facilities should also be taken into account. Look for an all-encompassing solution that offers both warehousing and transportation to get the most bang for your buck, or ensure your storage facility is as close to your carrier as possible.

Build/Lease Considerations

After you decide which warehouse best fits your needs, you must take into consideration the locations build and lease parameters. Does the warehouse offer rail siding or transloading? Will racked or bulk storage be offered, and what suits your needs best?

Just the same, plan to consider what type of rental contract your warehouse offers. If you’re a seasonal product it might make the most sense to find a location that offers seasonal warehousing. Or, if your product’s demand ebbs and flows, can the location you’ve chosen offer more or less space depending on the time of year? Ensure you’re properly informed of immediate square footage storage offerings in addition to the long-term options available.

Storage Requirements

From hazardous materials, flammable product and food items, many companies manufacture products that have strict storage and firefighting requirements. Is the location you’ve chosen properly suited to handle your unique needs? And how will they handle the different requirements for products that require a chemical/foam system versus a water based system? Always be sure to also take any environmental concerns into consideration, are there any streams, ponds, etc. in close proximity? Asking these questions now will help you avoid disaster later.

Labor Force Availability

Fully understand the labor force available at your new warehouse location. Knowing your labor needs and seeing how they stack up against the facility’s is essential to ensure on-time delivery and future growth. Will the warehouse facility operate 2nd and 3rd shift (24 hour operation)? Are there competing businesses in proximity that will become a barrier to growth by limiting available labor capacity?

By taking the time to consider the above, you can limit frustration and ensure you’ve found the perfect fit for both you and the warehouse you’re selecting.

GOING BEYOND PRICE

While price is a mantra chanted by most real estate brokers—and price is important—the most critical elements for selecting a warehouse location are not price-sensitive. Additional critical characteristics to consider include:

Layout Flow Size Cubic capacity Ability to integrate materials handling equipment Staging Truck access Trailer storage Turning lanes Freeway access General locationCompanies deciding where to locate a warehouse must often turn to outside experts to help them make an effective choice. Perceptions about where to locate are often incorrect, so companies may choose to rely on a broker who knows an individual submarket, and can guide them in the right direction.

A pertinent example is what takes place in the Los Angeles marketplace. Most businesses that plan to operate a warehouse for goods distribution in Southern California assume that it makes sense to locate near the ports. After all, if you minimize drayage costs, then overall costs of processing goods should be lower. But that is not necessarily the case.

In a market such as Los Angeles, the questions that companies should ask themselves—but often don't—include:

How much space do we need?

Where do we need the space?

How many containers per week, month, or year will we ship through this facility?

CONSIDER SUBMARKETS

Businesses looking to locate in the Los Angeles market may find that one submarket works better than another, assuming other location factors don't skew the determination one way or another.

Let's use Company X as an example. It needs 200,000 square feet of warehouse space and wants to locate in the Los Angeles Basin. The company expects to receive 250 40-foot containers per month. Drayage rates in the port area are approximately $132 per container; drayage 50 miles from the port area costs $220 per container.

The company is represented by a national brokerage firm, and is working on an exclusive basis with a lead agent in the market where it wants to locate the warehouse. Because the leading brokerage companies are located in major markets such as Los Angeles, this formula works well.

The lead agent has worked with Company X for years and has its utmost confidence. But because Company X has already stated a preference for a port location, and because major brokerage companies require agents to refer business internally, the lead agent refers the business to a credible agent who works the port area for the company.

The port agent gets a slightly better-than-market deal for Company X—about $7.20 per square foot per year. The client is pleased with the transaction because of the excellent price, and the brokerage team is pleased because they completed a transaction effectively and demonstrated their credibility to the client.

COMPARE TOTAL COSTS

So what is wrong with this picture?

When deciding where to locate a warehouse—outside of labor, utilities, taxes, economic incentives, and other factors that have a minor effect on a transaction—it is imperative for a company to compare the total real estate and drayage costs for various areas at required velocity levels.

In the general Los Angeles market, for example, a Class-A, port-area building leases for about $7.20 per square foot per year, although rents in Southern California are quoted monthly. A similar building in the Ontario, Calif., submarket leases for $4.80 per square foot per year on the same basis.

The container velocity break-even point for a company considering a location in the Los Angeles port area is approximately 455 containers per month at today's pricing.

Consequently, if a company has container velocity greater than 455 containers per month, it clearly needs to be located near the port, and will require a substantially different building design and land area to facilitate that throughput.

Company X could have saved $216,000 a year in combined rent and drayage by locating in the Ontario submarket. Clearly, the company left a large amount of money on the table.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT AGENT

Because of the way many major brokerage firms are structured, lead agents rarely suggest that clients consider another market because that means turning the business over to another agent. For this reason, companies looking for a warehouse location should not automatically assume that using a major brokerage firm—though they offer a cadre of well-trained agents—is the best solution.

Ultimately, a company must be sure the agent it selects has the right knowledge—not only of the real estate market, but also of the company's business, how its supply chain functions, and how this impacts its warehouse location choices.

When looking for a real estate agent for a warehouse transaction, companies should consider the three P's: performance, profitability, and partnership.

Agents should function as if they are part of the client's internal team, and act as an actual partner in the process and outcome. The agent's approach should be consultative in nature.

Many companies bargain hunt when choosing a warehouse location. But, given the risk and increased exposure from a bad warehousing site decision, such as capacity and environmental problems, if you source your DC solely based on price, you could get less—a lot less—than you pay for.

Here's the question to ask when choosing a warehouse location: are you in the business of getting the cheapest square-foot cost, or moving your products to customers most efficiently and cost-effectively?

NEW TECHNOLOGY

We share insights about the best new technologies for warehouses including a small piece picking operation. What technology changes or enhancements are working for other companies now.

Pick To Light

Pick To Light has great advantages and is easy to train and easy to set up. Expense comes from the lights, installation and the software to control the orders and pick.  

Voice - is another great option but many believe Pick To Light is better in case of flow situations. For a full case environment, Voice is considered better.

Voice technology uses speech recognition and speech synthesis to allow workers to communicate with the Warehouse Management System (WMS).  Warehouse operatives use a wireless, wearable computer with a headset and microphone to receive instructions by voice, and verbally confirm their actions back to the system. The wearable computer, or voice terminal, communicates with the Warehouse Management Software via a radio frequency (RF) local area network (LAN).

Waveless picking - This is a relatively recent concept that comes from some automation providers that believe traditional wave picking often does not optimize automation/sortation system performance. In these waveless systems, part of Warehouse Control Systems from a few select vendors, orders are more continually released, rather than in large waves, to more consistently feed the sortation system than wave processing often does. That benefit, however, may come at the price of some loss of efficiency from small batches of orders to pick at a location.

Multi-shuttle based pick modules - Multishuttle is a flexible automated storage and retrieval (AS/RS) staging solution. This new system is designed for

applications that require dynamic, high-rate product sequencing to support order assembly, goods to the person picking, and pick face replenishment. The key attributes of a Multishuttle include high rate capacity, an ability to accommodate load sequencing requirements, and adaptability to existing building layouts.

Augmented reality picking -  if workers in order picking systems are equipped with a head-mounted display, Augmented Reality can improve the information visualization.

Ultrasound pick confirmation technology Snapshots of EVERY outbound order’s contents. 

Mobile Motion Capture of Ergonomics Data

User Modified Packaged WMS Products

LED lighting - intelligent LED lighting allows a warehouse director to treat light as a managed resource rather than just as an expense. The ability to control light levels in different areas, track occupancy & traffic patterns and minimize maintenance while saving ~90% on energy costs is now very achievable.

As you review the list, your choice has cons as well as pros. 

For instance, a Kiva System has the merit to be easily expandable, allowing it to grow with your Company, and it save human labor time by moving the goods to your pickers, instead of having your pickers moving to your inventory.  But it also has lots of demerits, as it is expensive to start with, is making poor utilization of building volume (it is a surface system that uses only the first 6ft of the warehouse height, nothing above, and it is moving small racks full of inventory that don't need to be moved except for one or two lines of products par rack) and it creates a lot of traffic on your floor.  Amazon has some warehouses with thousands of Kiva vehicles moving all together on the floor. 

Many technologies are available to suit your needs but to make a selection based on what others use can cause a serious mis-match.  Some technologies out there pretend to be based on the philosophy of the Toyota Production System but in fact are not.  Watch for those technologies that move inventory without adding any value to it. Those technologies are missing the point. 

Many of the technologies cost millions to put in place and need a serious assessment.  Unless you define your needs in detail, or have a specialist help

you do it, any technology in the world can either kill your business (A big investment without a good ROI) or double your profits. 

Mobile Computer Carts with Power:

Another new technology with a quick ROI is mobile carts with a power pack such as NB SERIES Mid-Size MOBILE POWERED Computer Carts.

The Patented NB Series Mobile Powered Workstation by Newcastle Systems was developed to provide true mobility ANYWHERE in a facility.

NB Series workstations eliminate unnecessary foot travel and paperwork.  Instead of walking back and forth from a deskbound computer to printers and other devices used in tasks such as inventory management, process control, on-demand label printing, product testing, order picking, cross-docking, weighing, scanning, etc., all necessary equipment can be brought to where the work is taking place.  An operator can have real-time access to WMS, ERP, and automated data collection.

NEW SUPPLY CHAIN

The new supply chain models are based on pull distribution which is based on accurate customer demands and proper feedback methods. There is high scope to receive review and feedback from customers and change the product type/design accordingly.

Main features of New Supply Chain Models are:

Strong network across the whole supply chain leads to cost savings and higher profitability

Long term growth and strategies are aligned with the company vision and mission

Strong connection between the supplier and procurement manager Constantly monitored the existing practice at regular intervals to

improve performance and efficiency. Reduction of inventory waste through effective supply chain

management process All the individual system are integrated with each other properly

The new supply chain is characterised by:

1) Enhanced risk management capabilities in the control tower. Minutes after a major catastrophe or impactful but less severe event occurs, a company should be able to draw a perimeter around an event epicenter and answer the following questions: What suppliers are included inside the perimeter? What components do I source from them? What products do they go in? Which customers will be impacted? What is my revenue at risk?

2) Quick corrective actions designed to rebalance supply and demand as profitably and quickly as is possible. These corrective actions will be based on prebuilt playbooks, supply and demand simulation, and the use of social network collaboration.

The technologies needed to support this include:

1. Granular track and trace based upon a many-to-many, public cloud architecture that is built with common network master data. Further, far more types of sensor data will be used to provide visibility and there will be less reliance on EDI.

2. A new generation of more powerful supply chain applications.3. New methods of handling Big Data, real time analytics, and better

technologies for visualizing data.

Every day, supply chains manage a flow of freight, goods and products, at each step generating massive amounts of information. As more and more companies embrace the Internet of Things (IoT) data sets only grow larger. Millions of items are now issuing real-time reports—from their size and weight to their location and status. The potential to extract value from existing data is huge and has yet to be fully explored. Finding ways to harness the power of data is redefining the supply chain — helping the manufacturing sector by designing new business models, updating operational processes and controlling costs. Powered by Big Data and the IoT, supply chain management software is poised to help businesses translate data-driven intelligence into a business advantage.According to a new report from Gartner, software designed to aid companies manage, plan and operate complex supply chains is rapidly growing. Sales jumped nearly 11 percent in 2014 to $9.9 billion, a substantial climb from 7.5 percent growth one year earlier. Strong performances from top players led the way, but it was specialized performers who saw massive growth.San Francisco-based risk-management provider saw revenue increase 70 percent last year, thanks in part to software that standardizes the collection of supplier data. Focused on retail and telecommunications clients, software designed to aid in forecasting and inventory management helped Boston’s ToolsGroup Inc. grow more than 30 percent. Top 10 vendors including Oracle and JDA Software Group maintained their status as “Leaders,” but saw sales in

the supply chain management sector either decline or remain flat. The Gartner report notes, “Niche vendors maintained dominance within individual submarkets through new capabilities and focus on customer intimacy.”

Recent research from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa highlights the perfect storm of forces, which have given rise to the current push for a more intelligent supply chain. Without growing supply chain data, cheaper data storage, faster processing power, anywhere, anytime connectivity, better analytical tools, and advanced visualization to show and present huge volumes of data visually, the future of supply chain management would look a lot different. Big Data requires analysis. Without it, the value of the IoT remains untapped. According to the paper’s author, Hans Ittmann, analytics is essential. Ittmann believes the supply chain is at the beginning of recognizing the value of data and analytics, shifting away from “gut-feel” decision making to accurate, data-driven insight.Some have already begun to embrace the shift on a wider scale. Big Data and IoT could be considered part of the “fourth industrial revolution.” Following steam, electricity and assembly line production, Internet-enabled technology is the most powerful disruptor and data its most valuable currency. Intelligent supply chain management is at the core of its new “Made in China 2025” vision of the future. Moving away from heavy industry, the government noted the need of the nation’s manufacturing industry to become increasingly integrated with the Internet. In the United States, the Supply Chain Innovation Initiative supports similar goals — including automation, cloud computing, Big Data and analytics.The age of data is already here. Supply chains are quickly evolving with innovations like Big Data, IoT and the cloud playing a much larger role. Actionable data is at the heart of IoT. Without it, data is just information. Supply chain management software is crucial to the expansion of the next-generation supply chain. Supply chains are industry-specific. Software makers able to craft tools that can address the particular needs of their clients will come out on top.

Fundamentals to Maximize the Use of Warehouse Technology:

1. Make sure the Warehouse is Aligned to What the Business Wants: Align the operations of your warehouse with the business goals you set in mind when you decided to implement new processes and warehouse technology. Even if you

have pressure coming in from your customer base to speed things up, you should still keep your business objectives in mind as well. Find a good balance of action and strategy to ensure you meet both ends of the spectrum for optimum results.

2. Training: Employees must be trained on procedures, including interaction with the warehouse technology you are implementing such WMS, ERP, or TMS . The excellent manager spends quality time with each team member to coach and encourage him or her. The WMS provides individual performance data to inform the manager as to who needs what specific training. The manager needs to then continually improve using this data.

3. Employee Motivation: Employee motivation can begin as simply as posting charts of comparative performance to encourage competition. After some data have been collected from the WMS, standards should be established for each warehouse task. Employees who exceed standards can be rewarded informally with perks or specific prizes. Ultimately, a formal gain sharing program can entice an appreciable increase in productivity. Productivity increases of 30% have been reported.

4. Physical Plant: An excellent warehouse includes adequate dock capacity, ample staging areas, appropriate storage (pallet rack, shelving, flow rack etc.), and suitable equipment (carts, pallet jacks, fork lifts, order picking trucks, etc.). In general, a single level warehouse is preferable, but conveyors and other mechanization can make a multi-level facility nearly as efficient. The excellent warehouse manager plays a proactive role in planning physical improvements.

5. Automation technology: This includes vertical and horizontal carousels, conveyors, automatic stacker cranes, automatic pallet wrappers and many other mechanization. The forward thinking warehouse manager will periodically evaluate potential automation projects. The guiding principle here is whether any proposed automation investment in the various warehouse technology available, provides an acceptable financial return.