IoT's Potential to Measure Performance of MHE in Warehousing

Abstract

KPI is the key tool used by an organization to determine progress towards strategic goals and objectives, and to fortify factors deemed crucial to the success of the organization, and it is used as an indicator of the performance level of employees and department. However, the existing KPI methods being implemented by organizations have many disadvantages and not suitable to all types of operations, and not even able to produce the expected results, along with discouraging employees to consider innovative approaches in their work since the same procedures and metrsics are enforced every year. In some departments, such as the warehouse, the situation is different since the performance is measurable in a number of ways, such as operations, fulfillment and stocking, and each of them depends on the type of equipment used by workers. To this end, this paper focuses on the performance of Material Handling Equipment (MHE) in a warehouse through considering the new technology that enables to increase efficiency of warehousing, and that is Internet of Things (IoT). One of the main characteristics of IoT is the smart sensor, which enables to measure and evaluate a detailed understanding of equipment performance through instrumentation and analytics, and such the tool is very important to improve the warehousing efficiency. In order to understand the importance of IoT in warehousing, a comparative analysis is conducted between the well known and eminent the OEE KPI and the IoT technique to find out how the new technology is able to change the performance of MHE in a warehouse for better, taking into consideration the main metrics and conditions used to measure performance of MHE, and the forklift equipment is selected as an analytical case study. Finally, this paper points out the future directions in the IoT technology in the business environment.