need help understanding an issue with composer

We use composer for our deployments. We are having an issue where running the composer install/update commands generates no errors on localhost or on the server. Both systems report "Nothing to install or update". However on the server we've noticed that the vendor folder has a bower-asset folder and the localhost vendor has instead a bower folder. The localhost runs fine and so too did the server until recently. The server errors because it is not able to find the vendor/bower folder but the [login to view URL] files are identical on both the server and localhost so we dont understand how there can be a difference. We need a resource who can explain what is going wrong and how to prevent it as well as solve the issue. Communication is critical so please begin your proposal with the phrase "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" this lets us know you have carefully read and fully understand the project. Any proposal not starting with this phrase will be ignored. All work will be done via team viewer. *CRITICAL* must be fluent in English and have 1 hour of availability from 5pm cst through 9pm cst.