Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

About: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad is a education organization based out in Ahmedabad, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Emerging markets. The organization has 1828 authors who have published 4011 publications receiving 59269 citations. The organization is also known as: IIMA & IIM Ahmedabad.

Modeling and design of container terminal operations

Abstract: The design of container terminal operations is complex because multiple factors affect operational performance. These factors include numerous choices for handling technology, terminal topology, an...

Dynamic Human-Robot Collaborative Picking Strategies

Abstract: In the last decades, many retailers have started to combine traditional store deliveries with fulfilment of online sales to consumers, from omnichannel warehouses, which are increasingly automated. One popular way of warehouse automation is with Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), that collaborate with human pickers to efficiently pick the orders by reducing the pickers' unproductive walking time. Picker travel time can be reduced even more by zoning the storage system, where robots take care of the travel between these zones. However, the optimal zoning strategy for these robotic systems is not clear: few zones are particularly good for the large store orders, while many zones are particularly good for the small online orders. We therefore study the effect of dynamic zoning strategies, i.e. dynamic switching between a No Zoning (NZ) strategy and a Progressive Zoning (PZ) strategy. We solve the problem in two stages. First, we develop queuing network models to obtain load-dependent pick throughput rates corresponding to a given number of AMRs and a picking strategy with a fixed number of zones. Then, we develop a Markov-decision model to investigate how higher pick performance can be achieved by dynamically switching between these pick strategies. Using data from an omnichannel warehouse that processes various order sizes, we show that a Dynamic Switching (DS) policy can lower operational cost by up to 7 percent. However, these cost savings decrease as the number of robots per picker increases.

Development of analytic network process for the selection of material handling systems in the design of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS)

Abstract: Purpose – Selection of material handling systems (MHS) is an important decision to be taken during the design of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) as it affects the layout of FMS. Many researchers have addressed this issue of MHS selection in the domain of operations management, while a few of them have addressed this issue in the domain of FMS. However, none of them have modelled this problem by incorporating the relationship/dependencies that exist between various factors/attributes/criteria/elements (in short, it will be called “factors” for the sake of simplicity). The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the development of the analytic network process (ANP) for the selection of MHS in the design of FMS for a hypothetical case organisation.Design/methodology/approach – As mentioned above, selection of MHS in design of FMS is a complex decision‐making problem, as it is dependent on many factors. Hence, one of the recently developed multi‐attribute decision‐making (MADM) models – namely the ANP — ...

Online Retailing Paired with Kirana—A Formidable Combination for Emerging Markets

Abstract: In the light of the convenience provided by online and the omnipresent kirana (mom-and-pop equivalent) stores and low penetration of large format retailing, it is proposed that these two would be the dominant formats of retailing in the emerging economies. Four major factors have fuelled the growth of electronic commerce in emerging economies. First and foremost is the rapid penetration of technology, be it the broadband or the smart phones. Second is the fast adoption of the online medium by every major brand as a part of their sales as well as the marketing strategy. Large retailers have also opened stores in the virtual space. The third factor is the convenience and choices consumers derive through online shopping that adds value to time- and effort-strapped customers. This is further facilitated by services like cash-on-delivery, buy-back policies and many more. Finally, the increased real estate prices, higher operational costs and non-availability of good retail spaces have restricted the growth of larger physical stores.