Design and Setup of a Demo Facility for Wearables in Logistics

Design and Setup of a Demo Facility for Wearables in Logistics Final Thesis Submitted by Marius Freyer In fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Science in Informatics To be awarded by the Fontys Hogeschool Techniek en Logistiek Venlo, January 7, 2019 ii Information page Fontys Hogeschool Techniek en Logistiek Postbus 141, 5900 AC Venlo Final Thesis Name of student Marius Freyer Student number 2447800 Course Business Informatics Period September 2018 - February 2019 Company Fontys Hogeschool Techniek and Logistiek Address Tegelseweg 255 Post code / City 5912 BG Venlo State The Netherlands Company coach Stefan Sobek Email [email protected] University coach Thijs Dorssers Email [email protected] Examinator: Pieter van den Hombergh Non-disclosure agreement: No Number of words: 8403 iii Abstract Wearables are a rather new technology that can be used to enhance logistics processes. Es- pecially small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in the logistics industry often refuse to adopt new technologies due to uncertainty and costs. To overcome this issue the LOGwear project was founded by the Euregio and different other partners. LOGwear aims for provid- ing SMEs with knowledge and first-hand experience with wearables in logistics processes without investing a huge amount of money upfront. While the LOGwear project already has a so-called ”Knowledge Base” where SMEs can find a lot of information about different wearables and how they can improve logistics processes, first-hand experience is only provided for a small number of companies that were chosen for pilots. Do also give other companies a chance to test wearables in a realistic environment or even their own company, a demo facility is created and described in this report. This report systematically analyzes the requirements for building this Demo Facility. Based on these requirements a hardware platform for the demo facility is created and research regarding suitable existing software is done. As no suitable software could be found during the research, the design and implementation process of a custom-built software solution is described in the report. This process includes designing an architecture of a NodeJS-based backend that provides a REST API and a frontend based on Angular. The implementation of this architecture using Typescript is then described in the report with focus on the backend. As the result a hardware and software platform is available for simulating one logistics process (order picking) with wearables. The platform is ready to be extended for future use with more processes and wearables. iv Statement of Authorship I, the undersigned, hereby certify that I have compiled and written the attached document and the underlying work without assistance from anyone except the specifically assigned academic supervisors and examinors. This work is solely my own, and I am solely responsi- ble for the content, organization, and making of this document. I hereby acknowledge that I have read the instructions for preparation and submission of documents provided by my course/my academic institution, and I understand that this document will not be accepted for evaluation or for the award of academic credits if it is determined that it has not been prepared in compliance with those instructions and this statement of authenticity. I further certify that I did not commit plagiarism, did neither take over nor paraphrase (digital or printed, translated or original) material (e.g. ideas, data, pieces of text, figures, diagrams, tables, recordings, videos, code, ...) produced by others without correct and complete citation and correct and complete reference of the source(s). I understand that this document and the underlying work will not be accepted for evaluation or for the award of academic credits if it is determined that it embodies plagiarism. Name: Marius Freyer Student number: 2447800 Place / Date: Venlo, January 7, 2019 Signature: v Contents Information page ii Abstract iii Statement of Authorship iv List of figures vii List of tables viii Abbreviations ix Glossary x 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The LOGwear project . .1 1.2 Problem Description . .1 1.3 Document structure . .2 2 Project Description 3 2.1 Assignment . .3 2.2 Project scope . .3 2.3 Project phases and deliverables . .3 2.4 Project management . .4 2.5 Quality assurance . .5 2.6 Stakeholder . .5 2.7 Time planning . .6 2.8 Risk analysis . .6 3 Analysis 9 3.1 Usage scenarios . .9 3.2 Wearables Requirements . .9 3.3 Software Requirements Specification . 10 3.4 Use Cases . 12 3.5 Mockups . 13 3.6 Logistics processes . 14 4 Research 16 4.1 Research setup . 16 4.2 Research result . 16 vi 5 Design 18 5.1 Hardware Selection . 18 5.2 Architecture and Technology . 20 5.3 RESTful API design . 21 5.4 Basic software design . 23 5.5 Simulation logic . 27 5.6 Deployment . 29 6 Implementation 31 6.1 Basic Software Design . 31 6.2 Simulation . 36 6.3 Deployment . 39 6.4 Connecting the Demo Facility and Wearables . 42 7 Conclusion 43 A Use Cases 47 B Software Requirements Specifications 51 C Mockups 63 D Logistics Processes 68 E Software Design 69 F Research on Warehouse Management Systems 70 vii List of Figures 1 Time planning (Gantt) . .6 2 Mockup: Create process activities . 14 3 Process: Order Picking . 15 4 Hardware setup 1 ................................... 19 5 High-level Software Architecture . 20 6 Class Diagram: Repository pattern . 24 7 Sequence Diagram: Request sequence with controllers/services separation . 25 8 Class Diagram: Model relations . 26 9 Simulation logic . 28 10 Container structure . 29 11 Example resource controller method . 32 12 Example service method . 32 13 Code sample: GenericResourceController . 33 14 Code sample: GenericResourceService . 34 15 ProcessActivity model . 34 16 ProcessActivityController . 35 17 ProcessActivityService . 35 18 ”startSimulation”-method . 37 19 ”createSimulationActivities”-method . 38 20 ”doActivity”-method . 39 21 Dockerfile of the backend . 40 22 Dockerfile of the frontend . 40 23 Docker Compose file . 41 24 Screenshot: Frontend running on mobile device . 42 25 Use Case Diagram . 47 26 Mockup: Create Environment . 63 27 Mockup: Create Process . 64 28 Mockup: Edit Process/Create Process Activities . 65 29 Mockup: List Processes . 66 30 Mockup: Simulation View . 67 31 Process: Order Picking . 68 32 Process: Putaway . 68 33 Class Diagram: Software design . 69 viii List of Tables 1 Activities and Deliverables . .4 2 Risk analysis . .7 3 Risk Visualisation . .8 4 Wearables of the LOGwear project . 10 5 Use Case: Create process activity . 13 6 Research result . 16 7 Wearables of the LOGwear project . 19 8 Use Case: Create environment . 47 9 Use Case: List processes . 48 10 Use Case: Create process . 48 11 Use Case: Create process activity . 49 12 Use Case: Start simulation . 49 13 Use Case: Do a Simulation . 50 14 Research candidates (longlist) . 76 15 Research candidates (shortlist) . 76 16 Research result . 82 ix Abbreviations CRUD Create, Read, Delete, Remove operations. MVP Minimum Viable Product. SME Small and medium-sized enterprises. SRS Software Requirements Specification. WMS Warehouse Management System. x Glossary Angular Angular is a Typescript-based frontend framework. Container A self-contained unit of an application containing all dependencies in a prede- fined environment. Docker A technology for container virtualization. Express A framework for NodeJS for creating REST APIs. iMac Pro An all-in-one PC manufactured by Apple featuring workstation-grade hardware. JSON Is a compact an easy to read data format for exchanging data between applications. MacBook Pro A Notebook manufactured by Apple. Minimum Viable Product A minimum working version of a product that is developed. MongoDB MongoDB is a document-based NoSQL database. NodeJS A technology based on Google Chrome’s JavaScript engine that allows running JavaScript on serverside. Order Picking A logistics process for making products available for shipping. Putaway A logistics process of stowing good after they are received. REST API A REST.

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