When the internal logistics of a company is in a well working condition, the manufacturing process is more efficient and a more efficient material handling process can be developed. A company with the interest of decreasing internal material handling is Scapa Bedding AB, a middle size bed manufacturer situated in Rydaholm, Sweden. Today, Scapa Bedding AB is facing a problem since there is no documentation regarding the material handling, no maps have been developed that displays the internal transports. This thesis attends the question of how to decrease the material handling within the production areas. To construct a solution for the material handling problem tools such as PDCA and DMAIC were used as a foundation in the development of a model that would be applicable on a company of this size. The purpose of the work is to locate and identify the wasteful activities regarding the material handling, and to streamline the activities to reach a minimum of material handling. By extracting data from observations, discussions and interviews the thesis will provide the reader with a problem background and a constructed model the tackle the problem. The model will provide support to locate inefficiencies within the company and in a later stage to develop improvement alternatives relevant to the case. The chosen improvement alternative will in a cost effective way be a solution to the problem. / När den interna logistiken på ett företag är i ett välfungerande tillstånd kan en mer effektiv produktion och materialhanteringsprocess utvecklas. Ett företag som arbetar för att minska på den interna materialhanteringen är Scapa Bedding AB, en medelstor sängtillverkare belägen i Rydaholm, Sverige. Idag står Scapa Bedding inför ett problem då det saknas dokumentation och rutiner på dess befintliga materialhantering. Detta arbete kommer att hantera frågan om hur materialhanteringen inom produktionsarean kan reduceras. För att utveckla en lösning på materialhanteringsproblemen har verktyg som PDCA och DMAIC använts som en grund i utvecklandet av en modell som kan tillämpas på ett medelstort producerande företag. Syftet med detta arbete är att lokalisera och identifiera aktiviteter som bidrar med slöseri inom materialhanteringen samt att effektivisera dessa aktiviteter för att reducera den totala materialhanteringen. Genom att hämta data från observationer, diskussioner och intervjuer kommer detta arbete att erbjuda läsaren en bakgrund på ett problem och en lösning i form av en modell för att lösa det aktuella problemet. Modellen kommer att erbjuda stöd i sökandet efter ineffektiviteter inom företaget för att i ett senare skede utveckla ett kostnadseffektivt förbättringsalternativ.

The last decade has created an increasing pressure on companies to decrease their impact on the environment and to increase their effectiveness of recycling the company’s resources, especially for the steel industry. Companies have also started to realize the economic aspects of an effective internal reverse logistics. In the past the value of an effective internal reverse logistic was something that companies tend to underestimate and there are few academic studies done in this area.   The purpose of this essay has been to identify key factors to create an effective in plant storage, transport, sorting and handling of returned steel. From these factors a generalized model for creating an effective return steel flow will be developed. The model will then be adjusted to fit a case company, which in this case is Sandvik Materials Technology (SMT) on Sandvik.   The purpose is answered by detailed studies of the literature in the subject combined with interviews and observations on SMT. Through this the key factors have been identified and a model has been developed. The factors that were seen as most crucial were sorting, tied up capital, transport cost and handling cost. These factors have a strong connection between each other and it is important to strike a balance.   By the investigation carried out on SMT it is clear that sorting is the essential factor on the case company, and have the biggest impact on the effectiveness of the returned steel flow. Without functioning sorting there will be a large increase in the quality defect costs. Another factor that was considered important is the number of storage places, where a decrease in the storage places would reduce the tied up capital.

Graduation theses is dealing New logistic concept, which is in these days implemented in concern Volkswagen. Author, employee of Škoda company, describes New logistic concept at all in its five moduls and he is evaluating its principles with the modernest logistic theory. In practical part he analyses factuality of concrete Milkrun establishing in order of New logistic concept principles. Work results with confirmation of funcionality of new principles through concrete exam of Milkrun. It containes also common recomendation for successful realisation the whole concept.

L’intralogistique (ou logistique interne) s’intéresse au traitement et à l’optimisation des flux physiques au sein des entrepôts, centres de distribution et usines. Les systèmes de manutention automatisés sont au cœur de la logistique interne de plusieurs industries comme le commerce en ligne, la messagerie postale, la grande distribution, l’industrie manufacturière, le transport aéroportuaire, etc. Ces équipements composés de lignes de convoyage haute cadence permettent un transport sûr et fiable d’un volume considérable de biens et de marchandises tout en réduisant les coûts.L’automatisation de l’acheminement des flux physiques par les systèmes de manutention repose sur l’identification et le suivi en temps réel des charges transportées. Dans cette thèse, nous explorons une solution de suivi qui emploie un réseau de caméras intelligentes à champs recouvrants. L’objectif final étant de fournir l’information de suivi sur les charges transportées pour le pilotage d’un système de manutention.Le suivi d’objets est un problème fondamental de la vision par ordinateur qui a de nombreuses applications comme la vidéosurveillance, la robotique, les voitures autonomes, etc. Nous avons intégré plusieurs briques de base issues de la vidéosurveillance et traditionnellement appliquées aux scènes de surveillance automobile ou de surveillance des activités humaines pour constituer une chaine de suivi de référence. Cette chaine d’analyse vidéo étalon nous a permis de caractériser des hypothèses propres au convoyage d’objet. Nous proposons dans cette thèse d’incorporer cette connaissance métier dans la chaine de suivi pour en améliorer les performances. Nous avons, notamment pris en compte, dans l’étape de segmentation des images, le fait que les objets doivent pouvoir s’arrêter sans pour autant être intégrés aux modèles d’arrière-plan. Nous avons également exploité la régularité des trajectoires des objets convoyés dans les installations, permettant d’améliorer les modèles prédictifs de la position et de la vitesse des objets, dans les étapes de suivi. Enfin, nous avons intégré des contraintes de stricte monotonie dans l’ordre des colis sur le convoyeur, contraintes qui n’existent pas dans les scènes généralistes, pour ré-identifier les objets dans les situations où ils sont proches des eux les autres.Nous nous sommes par ailleurs attelés à un problème pratique d’optimisation des performances sur l’architecture multi-cœurs couplée aux caméras intelligentes. Dans ce cadre, nous avons a mis en place un apprentissage dynamique de la zone de l’image contenant le convoyeur. Cette zone d’intérêt nous a permis de limiter la mise à jour du modèle de fond à cette seule zone. Nous avons, par la suite, proposé une stratégie de parallélisation qui partitionne de manière adaptative cette région d’intérêt de l’image, afin d’équilibrer au mieux la charge de travail entre les différents cœurs de l’architecture des caméras intelligentes.Nous avons également traité la problématique du suivi sur plusieurs caméras. Nous avons proposé une approche basée sur un système de composition d’évènements. Cette approche nous a permis de fusionner les données de suivi local pour former les trajectoires globales des colis, tout en intégrant des informations issues du processus métier, par exemple la saisie de l’information de destination par des opérateurs sur un terminal avant la dépose des colis. Nous avons validé cette approche sur un système de manutention mis en place dans un centre de tri postal de grande envergure. Le réseau de caméras déployé est composé de 32 caméras qui assurent le suivi de plus de 400.000 colis/jour sur des lignes de dépose. Le taux d’erreur du suivi obtenu est inférieur à 1 colis sur 1000 (0,1%). / Intralogistics (or internal logistics) focuses on the management and optimization of internal production and distribution processes within warehouses, distribution centers, and factories. Automated handling systems play a crucial role in the internal logistics of several industries such as e-commerce, postal messaging, retail, manufacturing, airport transport, etc. These systems are composed by multiple high-speed conveyor lines that provide safe and reliable transportation of a large volume of goods and merchandise while reducing costs.The automation of the conveying process relies on the identification and the real-time tracking of the transported loads. In this thesis, we designed a tracking solution that employs a network of smart cameras with an overlapping field of view. The goal is to provide tracking information to control an automated handling system.Multiple object tracking is a fundamental problem of computer vision that has many applications such as video surveillance, robotics, autonomous cars, etc. We integrated several building blocks traditionally applied to traffic surveillance or human activities monitoring to constitute a tracking pipeline. We used this baseline tracking pipeline to characterize contextual scene information proper to the conveying scenario. We integrated this contextual information to the tracking pipeline to enhance the performance. In particular, we took into account the state of moving objects that become stationary in the background subtraction step to prevent their absorption to the background model. We have also exploited the regularity of objects trajectory to enhance the motion model associated with the tracked objects. Finally, we integrated the precedence ordering constraint among the conveyed object to reidentify them when they are close to each other.We have also tackled practical problems related to the optimization the execution of the proposed tracking problem in the multi-core architectures of smart cameras. In particular, we proposed a dynamic learning process that extracts the region of the image that corresponds to the conveyor lines. We reduced the number of the processed pixel by restricting the processing to this region of interest. We also proposed a parallelization strategy that adaptively partitions this region of interest of the image, in order to balance the workload between the different cores of the smart cameras.Finally, we proposed a multiple cameras tracking algorithms based on event composition. This approach fuses the local tracking generated by the smart cameras to form global object trajectories and information from third party systems such as the destination of the object entered by operators on a terminal. We validated the proposed approach for the control of a sorting system deployed in a postal distribution warehouse. A network of cameras composed of 32 cameras tracks more than 400.000 parcel/day in injections lines. The tracking error rate is less than 1 parcel in a 1000 (0.1%).

Bakgrund: Under de senaste decennierna har behovet gällande effektivare logistikhantering inom alla branscher ökat. Detta härstammar bland annat från förändrade ekonomiska förutsättningar, geopolitiska omvälvningar och utvidgade globala försörjningskedjor. Den interna logistiken har en central roll för att effektivisera interna logistikaktiviteter som till stor del avser ett företags lager, färdigvarulager och godshantering. En bidragande faktor som avgör svårighetsgraden för dessa aktiviteter är produktens fysiska utformning, då tyngre och större föremål kräver mer resurser, såsom planering och hantering. Dock med dagens föränderliga marknad och dess tillhörande osäkerhet, blir påfrestningarna för företag och deras logistik- och lagerplanering mer påtagliga. Syftet: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hanteringen av tungt och otympligt gods i färdigvarulagret för att tidseffektivisera lageraktiviteterna som påverkar utlastningskapaciteten. Metod: Det har utförts en fallstudie på ett företag beläget i Gävle kommun, som i denna studie kallas för Företag X. För att kunna undersöka kring det valda ämnet har även ett till företag varit aktuell till denna fallstudie, även det företaget är beläget i Gävle kommun och kallas i denna studie för Företag Y. Genom observationer på Företag Y, intervjuer med personal från Företag Y, samt skriftlig och fysisk kontakt med personal på Företag X har empiriska data samlats in. En kvalitativ deduktiv ansats har använts för att besvara studiens syfte och frågeställning. Empiri: Från produktionen på Företag X till utlastningen på Företag Y är det många medverkande aktörer som alla har en påverkan på utlastningskapaciteten. Det sker även tre olika betydande aktiviteter innan kund får sina produkter, dessa är inlagring, preppning och direktlast/förlast. I dagsläget är det avtalat att Företag Y ska hantera utlastningen av 13 lastbilar per dag åt Företag X. Dock finns det en ojämn spridning kring antalet lastbilar som ankommer per dag samt deras ankomsttider. Slutsats: Studien påvisar att lageraktiviteterna som påverkar utlastningskapaciteten kunna tidseffektiviseras om slottidsbokningssystem, ett mer utvecklat lagerhanteringssystem samt rutiner kring inlagringen infördes, även att all tillgänglig resurs utnyttjades. / Background: In recent decades, more efficient logistics management has been increasingly required in all industries. This comes from, among other things, changed economic conditions, geopolitical upheavals and extended global supply chains. Internal logistics has a central role when the internal logistics activities are going to get more effective. Those internal logistics activities are mainly about a company's warehouse, finished goods warehouse and goods handling. A contributing factor that determines the degree of difficulty of these activities is the physical design of the product, as heavier and larger objects require more resources, such as planning and handling. However, with today's changing market and its associated uncertainty, the stresses on companies and their logistics and inventory planning are becoming more apparent. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the handling of heavy and unwieldy goods in the finished goods warehouse in order to make the warehouse activities that affect the loading capacity time-efficient.  Method: During this study we have implemented a case study on a company located in Gävle, that is referred to in this study as Company X. In order to investigate the chosen topic, another company has also been relevant to this case study, that company is also located in Gävle and is referred to in this study as Company Y. Through observations at Company Y, interviews with personnel from Company Y, as well as written and physical contact with personnel at Company X, the empirical data has been collected. A qualitative deductive approach has been used to answer the purpose and question of the study. Empiricism: From the production at Company X to the utilization at Company Y there are many participating actors who all have an impact on the loading capacity. There are also three different significant activities before the customer receives their products, which is storage, prepping and directloading/preloading. Currently is has been agreed that Company Y will handle the loading of 13 trucks per day for Comapny X. However, there is an uneven spread regarding the number of trucks that arrive per day and their arrival times.  Conclusion: The study shows that the warehouse activities that affect the loading capacity can be time-efficient if a slot time booking system, a more developed warehouse management system and routines regarding the storage were introduced, also that all available resources were utilized.