Warehouses of the Future. Robots and the Human Factor

René de Koster 
Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
 

Abstract:

The new generation of warehouses is gradually becoming robotized. Managers can select from many different competitive robotic techniques to store and retrieve loads and to fulfil the customer orders. In this talk, different popular order picking systems involving robots will be discussed, where people work closely together with robots to pick and pack the orders in warehouses. Depending on time, the focus will be on systems with shuttles, movable racks and cobotic pick systems. Using a mix of deterministic and stochastic quantitative modelling and empirical research methods, different research questions can be answered, like 1) How to measure the performance of such systems? 2) How to use these insights to create good-quality designs? 3) How do human factors influence performance? and 4) How can we increase the well-being of workers in these systems?

René (M.) B.M. de Koster is Em. Professor of Logistics and Operations Management in the Technology and Operations Management Department at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam. He holds a PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology. He is the 2018 honorary Francqui Professor at Hasselt University, Belgium. His research interests are warehousing, material handling, terminal operations, and behavioral operations. He is the founder of the Material Handling Forum (http://www.rsm.nl/mhf) and is author / editor of 8 books and over 300 papers in books and academic journals. He has been in the editorial boards of several journals, including Transportation Science, Service Science, Operations Research, TR-E, Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, and International Journal of Production Research.

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