• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.39-50
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• 2020

Purpose: This paper aimed to study the current locations of post offices to analyze service coverage area for parcel delivery in the Eastern Economics Corridor (EEC), which must be considered in the last mile to extend delivery service for e-commerce growth. Thailand Post was the case study in this paper. Research design, data and methodology: To involve solving the delivery service area under the last mile condition, the authors proposed a network analysis to determine service radius by employing a Geographic Information System (GIS). Furthermore, this paper applied Dijkstra's algorithm as a network analysis tool from GIS for analyzing the last mile service coverage area in a new economics zone. At the same time, the authors suggested an approach as a solution to locate last mile delivery center in EEC. Results: The results of the study pointed out that Thailand Post should consider more last mile delivery centers in EEC to support its express service in urban areas as well as improve the efficiency of service coverage for parcel delivery and create more advantages against competitors. Conclusions: This paper proposes a network analysis to extend the last mile service for parcel delivery by following Dijkstra's algorithm from GIS and a solution approach to add more last mile delivery centers. The results of the research will contribute to boosting customer satisfaction for last mile delivery service and enabling easy accessibility to a service center in EEC.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.25-35
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• 2018

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to partition a last-mile delivery network into zones and to determine locations of last mile delivery centers (LMDCs) in Bangkok, Thailand. Research design, data, and methodology - As online shopping has become popular, parcel companies need to improve their delivery services as fast as possible. A network partition has been applied to evaluate suitable service areas by using METIS algorithm to solve this scenario and a facility location problem is used to address LMDC in a partitioned area. Research design, data, and methodology - Clustering and mixed integer programming algorithms are applied to partition the network and to locate facilities in the network. Results - Network partition improves last mile delivery service. METIS algorithm divided the area into 25 partitions by minimizing the inter-network links. To serve short-haul deliveries, this paper located 96 LMDCs in compact partitioning to satisfy customer demands. Conclusions -The computational results from the case study showed that the proposed two-phase algorithm with network partitioning and facility location can efficiently design a last-mile delivery network. It improves parcel delivery services when sending parcels to customers and reduces the overall delivery time. It is expected that the proposed two-phase approach can help parcel delivery companies minimize investment while providing faster delivery services.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.160-167
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• 2023

This study focuses on the development of a Last-Mile delivery service using unmanned vehicles to deliver goods directly to the end consumer utilizing drones to perform autonomous delivery missions and an image-based precision landing algorithm for handoff to a robot in an intermediate facility. As the logistics market continues to grow rapidly, parcel volumes increase exponentially each year. However, due to low delivery fees, the workload of delivery personnel is increasing, resulting in a decrease in the quality of delivery services. To address this issue, the research team conducted a study on a Last-Mile delivery service using unmanned vehicles and conducted research on the necessary technologies for drone-based goods transportation in this paper. The flight scenario begins with the drone carrying the goods from a pickup location to the rooftop of a building where the final delivery destination is located. There is a handoff facility on the rooftop of the building, and a marker on the roof must be accurately landed upon. The mission is complete once the goods are delivered and the drone returns to its original location. The research team developed a mission planning algorithm to perform the above scenario automatically and constructed an algorithm to recognize the marker through a camera sensor and achieve a precision landing. The performance of the developed system has been verified through multiple trial operations within ETRI.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.71-85
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• 2024

Due to the impact of COVID-19 in 2020, online growth is increasing more rapidly, and the need for MFCs has become important to strengthen the Last Mile service, especially in Gangnam and Seocho, where population density is high. This study analyzed MFC operation case studies using Arc GIS (Geographic Information System), and in the case of Seoul, delivery to four MFC bases is not possible within 30 minutes, and for delivery within 30 minutes, it is necessary to secure MFC bases in areas with many consumers. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that two to three MFC operating bases are needed for each region based on Seoul Metropolitan Government and at least one base for each administrative district depending on the delivery service after ordering.

• The Journal of Bigdata
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.159-173
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• 2019

Last-Mile delivery optimization plays a key role in the urban supply chain operation, which is the most expensive and time-consuming and most complicated part of the whole delivery process. The urban consolidation center (UCC) is regarded as a significant asset for supporting customer demand in the last-mile delivery service. It is the key benefit of UCC to improve the load balance of vehicles and to reduce the total traveling distance by finding the better route with the well-organized multi-leg vehicle journey in the urban area. This paper presents the model using multiple scenario analysis integrated with mathematical optimization techniques using Geographic Information System (GIS). The model aims to find the best solution for the distribution network consisted of DC and UCC, which is applied to the case of Ulaanbaatar Mongolia. The proposed methodology integrates two sub-models, location-allocation model and vehicle routing problem. The multiple scenarios devised by selecting locations of UCC are compared considering the general performance and delivery patterns together. It has been adopted to make better decisions the quantitative metrics such as the economic value of capital cost, operating cost, and balance of using available resources. The result of this research may help the manager or public authorities who should design the distribution network for the last mile delivery service optimization using UCC within the urban area.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.329-337
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• 2023

For safe last-mile autonomous robot delivery services in complex environments, rapid and accurate collision prediction and detection is vital. This study proposes a suitable neural network model that relies on multiple navigation sensors. A light detection and ranging technique is used to measure the relative distances to potential collision obstacles along the robot's path of motion, and an accelerometer is used to detect impacts. The proposed method tightly couples relative distance and acceleration time-series data in a complementary fashion to minimize errors. A long short-term memory, fully connected layer, and SoftMax function are integrated to train and classify the rapidly changing collision countermeasure state during robot motion. Simulation results show that the proposed method effectively performs collision prediction and detection for various obstacles.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.67-78
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• 2021

The number of domestic e-commerce transactions has been breaking its own record by an annual average growth rate of over 20% based on volume for the past 5 years. Due to the rapid increase in e-commerce market, retail companies that have difficulty meeting consumers in person are in fierce competition to take the lead in the last mile service, which is the only point of contact with customers. Especially in the delivery area, where competition is most intense, the role of the fulfillment center is very important for service differentiation. It must be capable of fast product preparation ordered by consumers in accordance with the delivery service level. This study focuses on the order picking system for rapid order processing in the fulfillment center as an alternative for companies to gain competitive advantage in the e-commerce market. A mixed integer programming model was developed and implemented to optimize the stock replenishment in order picking facilities. The effectiveness was scientifically and objectively verified by simulation using the actual operation process and data.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.85-94
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• 2022

Recently, consumers who prefer contactless consumption are increasing due to pandemic trends such as Corona 19. This is the driving force for developing the last mile-based logistics ecosystem centered on the online e-commerce market. Lastmile led to the continued development of the logistics industry, but increased the amount of cargo in urban area, and caused social problems such as overcrowding of logistics. The courier service in the logistics base area utilizes the process of visiting the delivery site directly because the courier must precede the loading work of the cargo in the truck for the delivery of the ordered product. Currently, it's carried out as automated logistics equipment such as conveyor belt in unloading or classification stage, but the automation system isn't applied, so the work efficiency is decreasing and the intensity of the courier worker's labor is increased. In particular, small-scale courier workers belonging to the sub-terminal unload at night at underdeveloped facilities outside the city center. Therefore, the productivity of the work is lowered and the risk of safety accidents is exposed, so robot-based loading technology is needed. In this paper, we have derived the top-level concept and requirements of robot-based loading system to increase the flexibility of logistics processing and to ensure the safety of courier drivers. We defined algorithms and motion concepts to increase the cargo loading efficiency of logistics sub-terminals through the requirements of end effector technology, which is important among concepts. Finally, the control technique was proposed to determine and position the load for design input development of the automatic conveyor system.