Realization of Industry 4.0 applications in stock management systems: Digitalization of a part picking method for assembly lines in an automotive company

The competitive and dynamic market conditions brought by the globalization necessitate digital transformation and technology investments for many sectors, especially the manufacturing, logistics and service sectors. Today's logistics understanding of businesses requires maximum efficient supply chains that include complex delivery strategies such as stock-free and just-in-time. All these principles, which are valid for logistics operations, are also valid for internal logistics systems that provide material and information flow within the enterprise. Internal logistics systems are an important element and bottleneck of supply chains. The supply of parts to assembly areas is one of the most challenging and complex processes in automotive industries with mixed model assembly lines. The diversity and variability of customer demands greatly increased the amount and variety of moving parts in production facilities. Therefore, the design of the parts feeding system to the lines very closely affects the performance, efficiency and quality of the production system. Part or order picking operations are one of the most labor and time-consuming processes in intralogistics systems. In recent years, researchers have developed various technology-assisted parts picking techniques that help increase the efficiency of part kitting systems, with the effect of the digital transformation wind brought by Industry 4.0 and Logistics 4.0 wind. In this study, the importance of the parts kitting system in intralogistics applications was defined, and then the comparison of manual part kitting systems with other technology assisted part kitting systems was made. In this way, it is thought that the research and design of technology-assisted parts kitting systems will help to select the technology that is focused on efficiency criteria and suitable for the sectors.