A Mobile Application for Collecting Task Time Data for Value Stream Mapping of the Final 50 Feet of Urban Goods Delivery Processes

摘要

Delivery options have become very diverse with online shoppers demanding faster delivery options (e.g, 2-day delivery, same daydelivery options) and more personalized services. For this reason, transportation planners, retailers, and delivery companies areseeking ways to better understand how best to deliver goods and services in urban areas while minimizing disruption to traffic,parking, and building operations. This includes understanding vertical and horizontal goods movements within urban areas. The goalof this project is to capture the delivery processes within urban buildings in order to minimize these disruptions. This is achieved usinga systems approach to understanding the flow of activities and workers as they deliver goods within urban buildings. A mobileapplication was designed to collect the start and stop times for each task within the delivery process for 31 carriers as they delivergoods within a 62-story office building. The process flow map helped identify bottlenecks and areas for improvements in the finalsegment of the delivery operations. It also highlighted consistent tasks conducted by all carriers as well as differences with givencarrier type. This information is useful to help decision-makers plan appropriately for the design of future cities that encompass avariety of delivery processes.