(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-06)
Babalou, Sevda; Bao, Wencang; Montreuil, Benoit; McGinnis, Leon F.; Buckley, Shannon; Barenji, Ali
This paper employs modularity and mobility (M2) for designing recently introduced hyperconnected logistics hubs (HLH) for the Physical Internet, where parcels are encapsulated in modular tote-sized containers arriving in mobile racks, and these totes are consolidated by switching totes in shuffling cells to mobile racks with other totes with shared next destinations. The paper introduces the M2 framework and its modular standard-sized cells, racks and tote containers. Building on the overall HLH concept, the proposed M2 hub design is a major step forward with its on-the-fly transformability through operations to adapt to the dynamically changing sizes, mixes, characteristics, and flow of modular containers entering the hub and being consolidated and shipped within a short dwell time target. The paper uses a detailed case study to demonstrate the induced adaptability, adjustability, agility, efficiency, resilience, and scalability, and then it reports on an exploratory simulation experiment contrasting the performance of M2designs