Abstract
In recent years, last-mile delivery has become an increasingly important area in the global supply chain. Practically, there has been an increasing worldwide interest in developing the last-mile delivery robots/vehicles to increase the efficiency of the whole supply chain. Theoretically, several researchers have suggested that using autonomous robots brings more efficiency for delivery. However, almost no current studies consider a specific last-mile delivery activity – transport from supermarkets after loading to pick-up stations before unloading. The goal of this study is to investigate whether and how autonomous vehicles/robots can address the issue of cost and time efficiency. Specifically, this research aims at identifying the time and cost structures of using autonomous vehicles for the delivery along the chosen route – a single way from the Sainsbury’s supermarket to the Amazon pick-up station at Coventry. Furthermore, the research aims to find whether using autonomous vehicles is more efficient in time and/or cost than using vans with drivers for this route.
Highlights
In recent years, last-mile delivery has become an increasingly important area in the global supply chain
The goal of this study is to investigate whether and how autonomous vehicles/robots can address the issue of cost and time efficiency
While for time consumed per delivery (TM), because tMi and νM are subject to distributions [νM ~ N(57.14, 25.122), tMi~N(1.04, 0.522)], the distribution of TM can be obtained through Minitab software
Summary
Last-mile delivery has become an increasingly important area in the global supply chain. This was made possible by the development of e-commerce. Besides e-commerce, Industry 4.0 plays a vital role in the boom of last-mile delivery. Industry 4.0, a German concept of smart production and logistics, aims at comprising energy and resource efficiency, increased productivity, shorten of innovation, and time-to-market cycles. Recent developments in the last-mile delivery industry have heightened the need for higher efficiency. Thanks to the development of Industry 4.0, the low-efficiency problem of the last-mile delivery can be dealt with innovative ideas (Ranieri et al, 2018). Central to the creative solutions for improving both time and cost efficiency is the concept of using autonomous vehicles/robots
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