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Design and Development of Robotic Work Cells for Warehouse Automation by Youssef Aroub

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Design and Development of Robotic Work Cells for Warehouse Automation by Youssef Aroub Container Removal and Replacement Automation: Design and Development of Robotic Work Cells for Warehouse Automation by Youssef Aroub Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, University of Manitoba, 2013 Submitted to the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Department of Mechanical Engineering in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degrees of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING IN CONJUCTION WITH THE LEADERS FOR GLOBAL OPERATIONS PROGRAM AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY JUNE 2019 ©2019 Youssef Aroub. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature of Author: ___________________________________________________________________ MIT Sloan School of Management MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering May 10, 2019 Certified by: __________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Stephen Graves, Thesis Supervisor Abraham J. Siegel Professor of Management Science MIT Sloan School of Management Certified by: __________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Kamal Youcef-Toumi, Thesis Supervisor Professor of Mechanical Engineering MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering Accepted by: __________________________________________________________________________ Nicolas Hadjiconstantinou, Chair Mechanical Engineering Graduate Program Committee MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering Accepted by: __________________________________________________________________________ Maura Herson Assistant Dean, MBA Program MIT Sloan School of Management This page has been intentionally left blank 2 Container Removal and Replacement Automation: Design and Development of Robotic Work Cells for Warehouse Automation by Youssef Aroub Submitted to MIT Sloan School of Management on May 10, 2019 in Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degrees of Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering Abstract Amazon has grown at a rapid pace. In 2018, Amazon retail sales amounted to $141.92B, up 19.7% from the previous year. The number of units shipped through its Prime program alone grew by 20% from 5 billion the previous year while third party sellers grew by 27.2%. This growth has repercussions on hiring needs and capital investments. Between 2017 and 2018, fulfillment expenses increased by 34.7% from 25.2B to 34B. In 2018, the Amazon workforce grew by 14.4% to 647,500 employees and the company added more than 8 million square feet to its fulfillment network, a 7% increase from its 2017 footprint. Significant productivity and efficiency gains are required to sustain this increase in throughput, product catalogue, supply chain complexity, and decrease in shipping lead times. The design and safe deployment of advanced technologies such as robotics is crucial in enabling future growth and creating better customer outcomes. The Inbound Cross Docks (IXDs) are a critical area for automation. At IXDs, products are received, sorted, and shipped to FCs akin to a hub-and-spoke system. A trade-off inherent to the IXD process is that it increases both the number of touches per unit and the end-to-end process time to get units on the shelves. Automation can reduce touches, lead time, and concessions while increasing throughput and labor efficiencies. This thesis proposes a robotic work cell to automate the removal of full containers from a sorting machine and the replenishment of empty containers in which products will be sorted in IXDs. Using a DMADV approach, the current process operational envelope was measured. A series of controlled experiments tested the effects of automation on process jams and outcomes, as well as methods to lower their occurrence. Concept layouts were completed from robotics physics and FlexSim operational simulations. A test robotic work cell was designed to test functionalities such as the detection and problem solving of containers, the goal being to de-risk and conclusively proof multiple functionalities in support of the full implementation. The solution proposed is a robot on rail with a single end-effector and a COGNEX vision system to check for overfull containers. If positive, containers would be routed to shaking conveyance, which has been shown to fix 77% of overfull containers. Finally, problem solving intervention would still be required to troubleshoot edge cases. A financial analysis conducted for the deployment of the proposed solution has shown a potential 3-year NPV of $18.1MM USD with a payback period of 2.12 years in 10 IXDs. From this project, a general framework for deployment of automation projects was created from interviews that could be of benefit to companies seeking to develop capabilities in warehouse automation. Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Stephen Graves Title: Abraham J. Siegel Professor of Management Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Kamal Youcef-Toumi Title: Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering 3 This page has been intentionally left blank 4 Acknowledgements I am forever indebted to my advisors, Dr. Stephen Graves and Dr. Kamal Youcef-Toumi. I would like to thank Dr. Graves for his consistent high-quality feedback on both the problem faced and solutions proposed; several of the breakthroughs find their genesis in his questions and remarks. I would like to thank Dr. Kamal Youcef-Toumi on his foresight and expert advice on robotics, often pre-empting possible issues before their occurrence. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my managers at Amazon, Willow Primack, Jacqueline Underberg, and Roland Menassa, who always provided advice, support, resources, and funds for this project to move ahead. I would like to express my deepest appreciation for the team that supported me during my internship including Emily Dunne and Mohammad Mosa, their combination of robotics expertise, statistical knowhow, and keen eye have made a tremendously positive impact on this thesis. I would like to acknowledge the Leaders for Global Operations program for its support of this work. I would also like to acknowledge my classmates who have made the past two years a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Finally, I owe much of my accomplishments to my family’s love, support, and patience. Thank you to my mother, Saadia, for always making my education a priority and for instilling in me the values of lifelong learning, hard work, and resilience and to my brother, Fay, for supporting me along the way. Without them, I would not have the privilege to author the words that follow. 5 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................................... 5 Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................................................. 6 List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Note on Amazon.com Proprietary Information ........................................................................................................ 9 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 10 1.1. Amazon.com ........................................................................................................................................................ 10 1.2. Project Motivation ............................................................................................................................................ 12 1.3. Problem Statement ............................................................................................................................................ 14 1.4. Project Hypothesis ............................................................................................................................................ 15 1.5. Project Approach ............................................................................................................................................... 16 1.5. Thesis Overview ................................................................................................................................................ 17 2. Background .............................................................................................................................................................. 19 2.1. Automation Trends ........................................................................................................................................... 19 2.2. Warehouse Automation at Amazon.com ..................................................................................................... 21 2.3. Amazon’s Inbound Supply Chain .................................................................................................................. 22 2.3.1. Inbound Cross-Dock Operations .............................................................................................................
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