Artificial intelligence (AI) has become more widely used in many organizations, including logistics, such as driver assistance, parcel sorters, and inventory planners. In the times of COVID-19, the delivery drivers have become busier as more parcels are ordered, which affects their health. Due to poor management and outdated technology, the drivers cannot complete their tasks on time. However, if these organisations were to implement AI, the AI assistance would help with parcel sorting and save time on delivery packages. With the implementation of AI, the delivery time and route will also be predicted, easing the work of drivers. The customer and workers might positively accept the introduction of robotics. However, there might be some opposition from people who think that robots will take their jobs. The study used the case of logistic companies in South Korea. The study recommended that the deployment of AI could improve their performance and save the lives of drivers.
TopIntroduction
Logistics is all the steps that lead to supervision, execution, control, and planning of goods and their transformation. In logistics, the following activities are able to implement a good logistics chain: demand forecast, warehouses, transport, customer service, industrial packaging, and production planning (Pohl (1998). A planned execution of these steps leads to an efficient and effective process that starts with manufacturing and ends with consuming. Logistics is the physical flow of goods that manages both the flow of goods and the flow of information (Szymonik, 2012).
There are four stages that can be distinguished: The first stage starts in the 1950s, when the producer’s market is dominant. The logistics sector is just starting out and is not well integrated with forecasting, transport, managing, warehousing, distribution, and customer service. These activities had their own departments and did not integrate with each other. The second stage began after the 1950s to 1970s, when the customers became more demanding, so the supply had to be adjusted to their needs. Here, logistics began to play a more complex role, with the physical distribution of products at the right time and managing materials. However, these two functions were still treated as separate. The third stage started in the 1980s and 1990s. This period is where the coordination of logistics becomes more coherent. This system is well equipped to deal with challenges, and its main goal is to maximise profit and become flexible. IT technology is becoming well used here, such as Activity Based Counting, Just in Time management, and automatic identification of bar codes. The fourth stage starts in the 1990s, when logistics becomes more than just a company and is concerned with the flow of goods and services with information accompanying them. Logistics is divided into several departments, including macro-and micro-logistics, as well as global and meta-logistics. This is accomplished through the use of information systems such as LANs, the Internet, and intranets. Machines and robots become more integrated into the process and begin to replace human labor. The logistics job is to collect information and create a database specifically tailored to new needs (Szymonik, 2012; Swasdee & Anshari, 2020). The aim of this chapter is to investigate what problems delivery drivers face and how implementing an AI system would help them in their work, specifically to find the causes of delivery driver problems, investigate the effect of AI on the delivery system, and examine how the delivery system and its players would change if the AI system was implemented (Razzaq et al., 2018).
This chapter analyzed companies that were operating and responding to the influx of delivery demands during the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyzed the problems through root cause analysis and provided recommendations. The study indicates how important it is to implement AI technology into the company to make the processes faster and to not overburden workers or put them in danger.