This study evaluates the impact of operational philosophy on the efficiency of omni-channel warehouses. Suppliers want to integrate an online order channel in existing infrastructure, while efficient integration of omni-channel operations is challenging due to the difference in nature of e-commerce orders and store orders. Integration of operations is necessary for cost efficient omni-channel implementation, however little scholarly works exist exploring operational implications in the omni-channel context. The impact of operational philosophy is analysed through a discrete events simulation of the alternative operation designs. Through a sensitivity analysis on order arrival pattern and order type skewness, the performance of the design alternatives are compared. The considered operation designs have been found in literature. For realistic input values a case is considered of a distribution warehouse from a Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) supplier. From the results it is apparent that in an omni-channel warehouse, a dedicated zone is required to handle expected web order throughput efficiently, although such an operations design requires lots of space, which is often constrained. Space is constraint due to supplier seeking to integrate the online channel into existing operations, which turns out not to be durable. Therefore, it is concluded that for future throughput non of the considered operational philosophies is adequate.

Compliant mechanisms have found their way in more and more applications in recent years, particularly in the aerospace and microsystems sectors. The benefits of compliant mechanisms stretch far, and can be exploited for large scale applications as well. Little research has been performed on the use of compliant mechanisms in large scale structures, where large deflections are in play. This while the interest in foldable structures is increasing, take for example the foldable container concept and origami inspired structures. The required hinges can be made compliant, such a hinge is called a flexure. The aim of this research is to give insight in the design of flexures for large scale applications and large deflections, to aid researchers when designing large foldable structures. The research question that is answered in this report is: how can flexure design be optimized for foldable structures? To answer the research question a PseudoRigid Body Model (PRBM) is made in Python, along with a multiobjective optimization. Compliant mechanisms can offer increased performance, however, the design of compliant mechanisms is more complicated than rigid body mechanisms. Therefore, an intuitive method for designing compliant mechanisms is required. The FiniteElement Method is considered for this purpose, but is too complex and not suited for initial design stages. Therefore, a PRBM is selected for the design analysis, as it is less complex and well suited for large deflection members and ideal for initial design stages. A PRBM with two revolute joints is used, because it provides a higher accuracy than a model with one revolute joint and it simplifies the iterative process of a model with three revolute joints, while maintaining a similar level of accuracy. The load case that is evaluated in this research is a moment end load. A sensitivity analysis is performed for the flexure behaviour regarding the flexure’s Young’s modulus, length, width, thickness and end moment load. This analysis shows that the flexure length and moment load, linearly influence the flexure deflection, i.e. twice the length, gives twice the deflection. Furthermore, the flexure deflection is reverse linearly dependant on the Young’s modulus and width, i.e. twice the width, gives a twice as small deflection. The flexure is most sensitive to a change in thickness. For a thickness increase of factor 𝑛, the deflection decreases by a factor 𝑛3. Furthermore, the design of the flexure is evaluated for three material types, being aluminium, rubber and a Nickel–Titanium Shape Memory Alloy (SMA). The material changes the behaviour of the flexure because of the material’s Young’s modulus and yield strength, which prescribes the allowed load. Therefore, it is shown that the measure of flexibility, 𝐹 = 𝜎𝑦 𝐸 , is a good indicator for suitable flexure materials. When taking the results from the sensitivity analysis and implementing the importance of the flexure material’s yield strength, a design constant can be deduced for viable and intuitive flexure design. This constant considers all the variables influencing the flexure design and assumes maximum allowable load on the flexure. With this constant researchers can quickly identify feasible flexure designs and the result of parameter changes are made more intuitive. The multiobjective optimization for the flexure design is performed with Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II. The optimization can find the Paretooptimal solutions for the objectives of shape error, stress and volume, while varying the flexure thickness. The evaluated configurations are for a single flexure and for flexures implemented in a large scale compliant mechanism. For the single flexure target shape, a clear Paretofront is found, depicting the required tradeoff between the objective functions. Furthermore, the optimization visualizes the super elastic properties of the SMA and its effect on the deflection when actuated optimally. The results for the use of SMA flexures in a compliant mechanisms are shown as well. It shows that with the right boundary conditions the superelasticity properties of the SMA can be exploited for optimal compliant structure design. From this it can be concluded that this optimization can be used for design of complicated foldable structures, while taking into account the accuracy of the compliant mechanism’s motion. For future research it is proposed to visualize the behaviour of a flexure with a different crosssection than a rectangular beamlike crosssection. Furthermore, more research is required into the practicality of flexures for large scale applications, since the out of plane stiffness can become too low, risking the planar motion of flexures. Other directions that require more research, are the influence of micro slip and unloading effects on the flexure behaviour.   

In recent years blockchain technology has become a popular topic for research in multiple fields of discipline. For the transport sector especially, the technology is seen as disruptive. Because the research field is young and the research on the topic is developing fast, state-of-the-art knowledge is exclusive to a select group of academics. This review aims to provide an overview of the current state of blockchain technology applications in the transportation domain. Previous reviews on blockchain and transportation have already mapped the contributions for supply chain and logistics. Studies within the transportation domain on connected systems and vehicles have not been comprehensively reviewed, while the relevance on these kind of systems is growing. The focus of this review is on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), which integrates the connected transportation systems and vehicles. The demand for ITS is growing and the relevance of supporting blockchain solutions as well. The increasing amount of connected vehicles introduce security and privacy concerns. Connected vehicles share sensitive information on which other users base their behaviour, so correctness of information is very important. Next to that, the risk arises of losing complete control over the vehicle through attacks due to the remote accessibility possibilities of the vehicle. Blockchain offers a solution for these concerns by enabling a decentralized and secure way of sharing information. These features make secure and trustworthy communication between vehicles, roadside units and platoons possible, aswell as secure over-the-air software updates. Privacy concerns can be mitigated via the use of pseudonyms, partitions or fresh data keys. With its decentralized characteristic, blockchain technology creates a transparent and traceable way of storing and sharing data. For ITS applications this means efficient insurance processes and liability attribution. Furthermore, the traceability feature of blockchain can be used in fraud detection for rolling wrecks and odometer fraud. Also, ITS can benefit from blockchain technology by integrating smart contracts. Processes where a third party is involved can be replaced by a smart contract, making it possible to implement vehicle-to-machine payments. This makes transactions fast, cheaper and secure. Processes like tolling payments or vehicle maintenance can then be automated. The security and privacy features of blockchain technology offer a solution for the implementation of Mobility-as-a-Service principles, which enables vehicle sharing. Furthermore, blockchain is an asset for transportation solutions in smart cities. In smart cities, blockchain technology can ensure data integrity and encourage organizations to share data enabling transparent city management. Within smart cities, blockchain can facilitate the data sharing between vehicles and infrastructure, as well as energy trading via vehicle-to-grid principles. Another way in which ITS can benefit from blockchain technology, is through the use of incentive mechanisms. Blockchain is well suited for incentive systems because it can automate direct interaction between actors. With automated payments, people can be incentivized to share reliable traffic data or to participate in efficient energy distribution for the grid. Also, safe driving behaviour and environmental friendly transportation can be rewarded. Before real life systems can benefit from the advantages of blockchain technology a lot of challenges have to be overcome. For ITS, all applications exist only in theoretical form. Challenges that have to be faced are the high energy consumption, latency and throughput constraints, and governance issues. Although the benefits of blockchain technology are multifold, the challenges have proven to be to hard to overcome up until now.