A First Approach on Modelling Staff Proactiveness in Retail Simulation Models

There has been a noticeable shift in the relative composition of the industry in the developed countries in recent years; manufacturing is decreasing while the service sector is becoming more important. However, currently most simulation models for investigating service systems are still built in the same way as manufacturing simulation models, using a process-oriented world view, i.e. they model the flow of passive entities through a system. These kinds of models allow studying aspects of operational management but are not well suited for studying the dynamics that appear in service systems due to human behaviour. For these kinds of studies we require tools that allow modelling the system and entities using an object-oriented world view, where intelligent objects serve as abstract \'actors\' that are goal directed and can behave proactively. In our work we combine process-oriented discrete event simulation modelling and object-oriented agent based simulation modelling to investigate the impact of people management practices on retail productivity. In this paper, we reveal in a series of experiments what impact considering proactivity can have on the output accuracy of simulation models of human centric systems. The model and data we use for this investigation are based on a case study in a UK department store. We show that considering proactivity positively influences the validity of these kinds of models and therefore allows analysts to make better recommendations regarding strategies to apply people management practices.Retail Performance, Management Practices, Proactive Behaviour, Service Experience, Agent-Based Modelling, Simulation

Towards a more retail-friendly airport design: a two-step approach

In recent years, the source of airport revenue has significantly changed. Accordingly, many airports have adjusted their strategies and focused on increasing retail revenue to improve financial sustainability. However, the literature review in this thesis identified two knowledge gaps: (1) empirical analyses on the effects of airport terminal design on retail revenue, and (2) application of general consumer shopping behaviour models to airport retail development. A two-step approach was developed. First, passenger shopping behaviour models were constructed based on two datasets collected at a case study airport: (1) eye-tracking data identified four types of passenger shopping behaviour—completely planned shoppers, partially planned shoppers, unplanned shoppers, and non-shoppers; (2) passenger questionnaire/interview data provided demographic and travel-related data to construct behaviour models. Second, the validity of the behaviour models was tested through an agent-based simulation model (ABSM) against the collected data. Next, the ABSM was used to examine the combined effects of passenger-related factors and terminal-related factors on retail revenue using five scenario studies. The results of the two-step approach revealed several significant findings. First, the passenger mix significantly affects retail revenue. Second, retail revenue could increase by 30% if passengers’ ‘visual distance’ was increased. Although passengers have limitations in their physical visual distance, it could be increased by providing information on retail offerings to passengers (e.g. interactive floor maps, mobile apps to provide retail information). Third, a 1% increase in dwell time could result in a 1.06% increase in retail revenue. Fourth, a sub-optimal terminal layout design could lead to a USD 57 million loss in potential annual retail revenue. Finally, adopting a centralised terminal layout could lead to a 7% increase in retail revenue. This thesis highlights the potential economic benefits of a well-designed terminal with a retail focus. In addition, this thesis demonstrates the feasibility and the potential of the proposed two-step approach in improving the existing retail configuration within airport terminals while maintaining the aeronautical functions. In conclusion, future terminal design guideline could be improved by adopting the two-step approach in designing a more retail-friendly terminal, which will contribute to the financial sustainability of the airport business

A first approach on modelling staff proactiveness in retail simulation models

There has been a noticeable shift in the relative composition of the industry in the developed countries in recent years; manufacturing is decreasing while the service sector is becoming more important. However, currently most simulation models for investigating service systems are still built in the same way as manufacturing simulation models, using a process-oriented world view, i.e. they model the flow of passive entities through a system. These kinds of models allow studying aspects of operational management but are not well suited for studying the dynamics that appear in service systems due to human behaviour. For these kinds of studies we require tools that allow modelling the system and entities using an object-oriented world view, where intelligent objects serve as abstract “actors” that are goal directed and can behave proactively. In our work we combine process-oriented discrete event simulation modelling and object-oriented agent based simulation modelling to investigate the impact of people management practices on retail productivity. In this paper, we reveal in a series of experiments what impact considering proactivity can have on the output accuracy of simulation models of human centric systems. The model and data we use for this investigation are based on a case study in a UK department store. We show that considering proactivity positively influences the validity of these kinds of models and therefore allows analysts to make better recommendations regarding strategies to apply people management practises

Walking with virtual humans : understanding human response to virtual humanoids' appearance and behaviour while navigating in immersive VR

In this thesis, we present a set of studies whose results have allowed us to analyze how to improve the realism, navigation, and behaviour of the avatars in an immersive virtual reality environment. In our simulations, participants must perform a series of tasks and we have analyzed perceptual and behavioural data. The results of the studies have allowed us to deduce what improvements are needed to be incorporated to the original simulations, in order to enhance the perception of realism, the navigation technique, the rendering of the avatars, their behaviour or their animations. The most reliable technique for simulating avatars’ behaviour in a virtual reality environment should be based on the study of how humans behave within the environment. For this purpose, it is necessary to build virtual environments where participants can navigate safely and comfortably with a proper metaphor and, if the environment is populated with avatars, simulate their behaviour accurately. All these aspects together will make the participants behave in a way that is closer to how they would behave in the real world. Besides, the integration of these concepts could provide an ideal platform to develop different types of applications with and without collaborative virtual reality such as emergency simulations, teaching, architecture, or designing. In the first contribution of this thesis, we carried out an experiment to study human decision making during an evacuation. We were interested to evaluate to what extent the behaviour of a virtual crowd can affect individuals' decisions. From the second contribution, in which we studied the perception of realism with bots and humans performing just locomotion or varied animations, we can conclude that the combination of having human-like avatars with animation variety can increase the overall realism of a crowd simulation, trajectories and animation. The preliminary study presented in the third contribution of this thesis showed that realistic rendering of the environment and the avatars do not appear to increase the perception of realism in the participants, which is consistent with works presented previously. The preliminary results in our walk-in-place contribution showed a seamless and natural transition between walk-in-place and normal walk. Our system provided a velocity mapping function that closely resembles natural walk. We observed through a pilot study that the system successfully reduces motion sickness and enhances immersion. Finally, the results of the contribution related to locomotion in collaborative virtual reality showed that animation synchronism and footstep sound of the avatars representing the participants do not seem to have a strong impact in terms of presence and feeling of avatar control. However, in our experiment, incorporating natural animations and footstep sound resulted in smaller clearance values in VR than previous work in the literature. The main objective of this thesis was to improve different factors related to virtual reality experiences to make the participants feel more comfortable in the virtual environment. These factors include the behaviour and appearance of the virtual avatars and the navigation through the simulated space in the experience. By increasing the realism of the avatars and facilitating navigation, high scores in presence are achieved during the simulations. This provides an ideal framework for developing collaborative virtual reality applications or emergency simulations that require participants to feel as if they were in real life.En aquesta tesi, es presenta un conjunt d'estudis els resultats dels quals ens han permès analitzar com millorar el realisme, la navegació i el comportament dels avatars en un entorn de realitat virtual immersiu. En les nostres simulacions, els participants han de realitzar una sèrie de tasques i hem analitzat dades perceptives i de comportament mentre les feien. Els resultats dels estudis ens han permès deduir quines millores són necessàries per a ser incorporades a les simulacions originals, amb la finalitat de millorar la percepció del realisme, la tècnica de navegació, la representació dels avatars, el seu comportament o les seves animacions. La tècnica més fiable per simular el comportament dels avatars en un entorn de realitat virtual hauria de basar-se en l'estudi de com es comporten els humans dins de l¿entorn virtual. Per a aquest propòsit, és necessari construir entorns virtuals on els participants poden navegar amb seguretat i comoditat amb una metàfora adequada i, si l¿entorn està poblat amb avatars, simular el seu comportament amb precisió. Tots aquests aspectes junts fan que els participants es comportin d'una manera més pròxima a com es comportarien en el món real. A més, la integració d'aquests conceptes podria proporcionar una plataforma ideal per desenvolupar diferents tipus d'aplicacions amb i sense realitat virtual col·laborativa com simulacions d'emergència, ensenyament, arquitectura o disseny. En la primera contribució d'aquesta tesi, vam realitzar un experiment per estudiar la presa de decisions durant una evacuació. Estàvem interessats a avaluar en quina mesura el comportament d'una multitud virtual pot afectar les decisions dels participants. A partir de la segona contribució, en la qual estudiem la percepció del realisme amb robots i humans que realitzen només una animació de caminar o bé realitzen diverses animacions, vam arribar a la conclusió que la combinació de tenir avatars semblants als humans amb animacions variades pot augmentar la percepció del realisme general de la simulació de la multitud, les seves trajectòries i animacions. L'estudi preliminar presentat en la tercera contribució d'aquesta tesi va demostrar que la representació realista de l¿entorn i dels avatars no semblen augmentar la percepció del realisme en els participants, que és coherent amb treballs presentats anteriorment. Els resultats preliminars de la nostra contribució de walk-in-place van mostrar una transició suau i natural entre les metàfores de walk-in-place i caminar normal. El nostre sistema va proporcionar una funció de mapatge de velocitat que s'assembla molt al caminar natural. Hem observat a través d'un estudi pilot que el sistema redueix amb èxit el motion sickness i millora la immersió. Finalment, els resultats de la contribució relacionada amb locomoció en realitat virtual col·laborativa van mostrar que el sincronisme de l'animació i el so dels avatars que representen els participants no semblen tenir un fort impacte en termes de presència i sensació de control de l'avatar. No obstant això, en el nostre experiment, la incorporació d'animacions naturals i el so de passos va donar lloc a valors de clearance més petits en RV que treballs anteriors ja publicats. L'objectiu principal d'aquesta tesi ha estat millorar els diferents factors relacionats amb experiències de realitat virtual immersiva per fer que els participants se sentin més còmodes en l'entorn virtual. Aquests factors inclouen el comportament i l'aparença dels avatars i la navegació a través de l'entorn virtual. En augmentar el realisme dels avatars i facilitar la navegació, s'aconsegueixen altes puntuacions en presència durant les simulacions. Això proporciona un marc ideal per desenvolupar aplicacions col·laboratives de realitat virtual o simulacions d'emergència que requereixen que els participants se sentin com si estiguessin en la vida realPostprint (published version

Designs of Digital Filters and Neural Networks using Firefly Algorithm

Firefly algorithm is an evolutionary algorithm that can be used to solve complex multi-parameter problems in less time. The algorithm was applied to design digital filters of different orders as well as to determine the parameters of complex neural network designs. Digital filters have several applications in the fields of control systems, aerospace, telecommunication, medical equipment and applications, digital appliances, audio recognition processes etc. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is an information processing paradigm that is inspired by the way biological nervous systems, such as the brain, processes information and can be simulated using a computer to perform certain specific tasks like clustering, classification, and pattern recognition etc. The results of the designs using Firefly algorithm was compared to the state of the art algorithms and found that the digital filter designs produce results close to the Parks McClellan method which shows the algorithm’s capability of handling complex problems. Also, for the neural network designs, Firefly algorithm was able to efficiently optimize a number of parameter values. The performance of the algorithm was tested by introducing various input noise levels to the training inputs of the neural network designs and it produced the desired output with negligible error in a time-efficient manner. Overall, Firefly algorithm was found to be competitive in solving the complex design optimization problems like other popular optimization algorithms such as Differential Evolution, Particle Swarm Optimization and Genetic Algorithm. It provides a number of adjustable parameters which can be tuned according to the specified problem so that it can be applied to a number of optimization problems and is capable of producing quality results in a reasonable amount of time

Applications of biased-randomized algorithms and simheuristics in integrated logistics

Transportation and logistics (T&L) activities play a vital role in the development of many businesses from different industries. With the increasing number of people living in urban areas, the expansion of on-demand economy and e-commerce activities, the number of services from transportation and delivery has considerably increased. Consequently, several urban problems have been potentialized, such as traffic congestion and pollution. Several related problems can be formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem (COP). Since most of them are NP-Hard, the finding of optimal solutions through exact solution methods is often impractical in a reasonable amount of time. In realistic settings, the increasing need for 'instant' decision-making further refutes their use in real life. Under these circumstances, this thesis aims at: (i) identifying realistic COPs from different industries; (ii) developing different classes of approximate solution approaches to solve the identified T&L problems; (iii) conducting a series of computational experiments to validate and measure the performance of the developed approaches. The novel concept of 'agile optimization' is introduced, which refers to the combination of biased-randomized heuristics with parallel computing to deal with real-time decision-making.Las actividades de transporte y logística (T&L) juegan un papel vital en el desarrollo de muchas empresas de diferentes industrias. Con el creciente número de personas que viven en áreas urbanas, la expansión de la economía a lacarta y las actividades de comercio electrónico, el número de servicios de transporte y entrega ha aumentado considerablemente. En consecuencia, se han potencializado varios problemas urbanos, como la congestión del tráfico y la contaminación. Varios problemas relacionados pueden formularse como un problema de optimización combinatoria (COP). Dado que la mayoría de ellos son NP-Hard, la búsqueda de soluciones óptimas a través de métodos de solución exactos a menudo no es práctico en un período de tiempo razonable. En entornos realistas, la creciente necesidad de una toma de decisiones "instantánea" refuta aún más su uso en la vida real. En estas circunstancias, esta tesis tiene como objetivo: (i) identificar COP realistas de diferentes industrias; (ii) desarrollar diferentes clases de enfoques de solución aproximada para resolver los problemas de T&L identificados; (iii) realizar una serie de experimentos computacionales para validar y medir el desempeño de los enfoques desarrollados. Se introduce el nuevo concepto de optimización ágil, que se refiere a la combinación de heurísticas aleatorias sesgadas con computación paralela para hacer frente a la toma de decisiones en tiempo real.Les activitats de transport i logística (T&L) tenen un paper vital en el desenvolupament de moltes empreses de diferents indústries. Amb l'augment del nombre de persones que viuen a les zones urbanes, l'expansió de l'economia a la carta i les activitats de comerç electrònic, el nombre de serveis del transport i el lliurament ha augmentat considerablement. En conseqüència, s'han potencialitzat diversos problemes urbans, com ara la congestió del trànsit i la contaminació. Es poden formular diversos problemes relacionats com a problema d'optimització combinatòria (COP). Com que la majoria són NP-Hard, la recerca de solucions òptimes mitjançant mètodes de solució exactes sovint no és pràctica en un temps raonable. En entorns realistes, la creixent necessitat de prendre decisions "instantànies" refuta encara més el seu ús a la vida real. En aquestes circumstàncies, aquesta tesi té com a objectiu: (i) identificar COP realistes de diferents indústries; (ii) desenvolupar diferents classes d'aproximacions aproximades a la solució per resoldre els problemes identificats de T&L; (iii) la realització d'una sèrie d'experiments computacionals per validar i mesurar el rendiment dels enfocaments desenvolupats. S'introdueix el nou concepte d'optimització àgil, que fa referència a la combinació d'heurístiques esbiaixades i aleatòries amb informàtica paral·lela per fer front a la presa de decisions en temps real.Tecnologies de la informació i de xarxe

Designing a location model for face to face and on-line retailing for the UK grocery market

The vast and rapid expansion of internet usage has generated widespread online sales, making the UK one of the leading countries for e-commerce. Until now there has been no clear understanding or analysis of the spatial variations of online activities. Many studies have,however, examined the variance in online buying among different demographic groups usually based on limited survey information. These variations have often been explained by reference to two theories – efficiency theory and diffusion of innovations theory (Rogers, 1995). This lack of research to date is also manifest in the lack of consideration of online sales in traditional store location methodologies. The aim of this research is to establish a new model for site location which includes e-grocery shopping on the UK retail sector. Having explored the literature around the geography of e-commerce and the surveys of geodemographic usage, the thesis explores data unique to the academic sector- namely Sainsbury’s store revenue (for both physical and online channels) and customer data based on their loyalty card (interaction data). The analysis of these data sets establishedfour major trends in the relationship between online share and store provision with insights into the substitution of online and physical channels in areas with limited accessibility to physical grocery stores. Using this information, a new, revised SIM is built and calibrated to include estimates of revenue for both face to face and online stores. It is hoped this will provide an important addition to the existing kitbag of techniques available to retail store location planners

Designing a location model for face to face and on-line retailing for the UK grocery market

The vast and rapid expansion of internet usage has generated widespread online sales, making the UK one of the leading countries for e-commerce. Until now there has been no clear understanding or analysis of the spatial variations of online activities. Many studies have,however, examined the variance in online buying among different demographic groups usually based on limited survey information. These variations have often been explained by reference to two theories – efficiency theory and diffusion of innovations theory (Rogers, 1995). This lack of research to date is also manifest in the lack of consideration of online sales in traditional store location methodologies. The aim of this research is to establish a new model for site location which includes e-grocery shopping on the UK retail sector. Having explored the literature around the geography of e-commerce and the surveys of geodemographic usage, the thesis explores data unique to the academic sector- namely Sainsbury’s store revenue (for both physical and online channels) and customer data based on their loyalty card (interaction data). The analysis of these data sets establishedfour major trends in the relationship between online share and store provision with insights into the substitution of online and physical channels in areas with limited accessibility to physical grocery stores. Using this information, a new, revised SIM is built and calibrated to include estimates of revenue for both face to face and online stores. It is hoped this will provide an important addition to the existing kitbag of techniques available to retail store location planners