Understanding autonomous cooperation and control in logistics

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One of the significant challenges in flexible production and supply chains is ensuring the availability of necessary information anytime and anywhere. The increasing complexity of production structures and processes often makes it impossible to provide real-time information to a central instance for effective control. To address this, establishing autonomous logistics processes is essential for rapid adaptation to changing conditions. This exploration investigates key questions about autonomous cooperating logistics processes: What defines autonomous logistics processes, and how do they differ from conventional methods? What changes will autonomy bring to order processing? A foundational result includes a definition of autonomy tailored for engineering applications, which informed the development of a criteria catalogue for describing autonomous logistics processes. Initial requirements for modeling methods for these processes were also specified. To validate the findings, a production-logistic shop-floor scenario and a practical scenario based on actual business processes at an automobile terminal were created. Simulation studies on autonomously controlled parking area allocation revealed significant opportunities for improvement, highlighting the potential of autonomous logistics in enhancing operational efficiency.