IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/eujine/v10y2016i1p51-80.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A simulation framework for studying blocking effects in warehouse systems with autonomous vehicles

Author

Listed:
  • Debjit Roy
  • Ananth Krishnamurthy
  • Sunderesh S. Heragu
  • Charles J. Malmborg

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles-based storage and retrieval systems (AVS/RS) have been shown to offer greater flexibility to improve cycle time and throughput capacity in the transfer of unit loads in high-density storage areas of warehouses. In these systems, loads are transferred by autonomous vehicles that move horizontally along aisles and cross-aisles within a tier, while lifts support vertical movement of loads between tiers. For analytical tractability, prior studies on performance evaluation of AVS/RS have ignored the blocking effects of vehicles and lifts while estimating throughput capacity and cycle times. To evaluate the effects of blocking on system performance, this paper first develops protocols to address vehicle blocking that are subsequently incorporated in a detailed simulation model. The blocking effects are studied for a variety of tier configurations that differ in depth/width ratio, number of locations, number of available vehicles, and transaction arrival rates. Results suggest that blocking delays could account for 2%-20% of the transaction cycle times. [Received 17 October 2013; Revised 28 August 2014; Revised 23 December 2014; Accepted 2 April 2015]

Suggested Citation

  • Debjit Roy & Ananth Krishnamurthy & Sunderesh S. Heragu & Charles J. Malmborg, 2016. "A simulation framework for studying blocking effects in warehouse systems with autonomous vehicles," European Journal of Industrial Engineering, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(1), pages 51-80.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:eujine:v:10:y:2016:i:1:p:51-80
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=75100
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Azadeh, K. & de Koster, M.B.M. & Roy, D., 2017. "Robotized Warehouse Systems: Developments and Research Opportunities," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2017-009-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    2. Kaveh Azadeh & Debjit Roy & René De Koster, 2019. "Design, Modeling, and Analysis of Vertical Robotic Storage and Retrieval Systems," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(5), pages 1213-1234, September.
    3. Lamballais, T. & Roy, D. & de Koster, M.B.M., 2017. "Inventory Allocation in Robotic Mobile Fulfillment Systems," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2017-001-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    4. Lamballais, T. & Roy, D. & De Koster, M.B.M., 2017. "Estimating performance in a Robotic Mobile Fulfillment System," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(3), pages 976-990.
    5. Azadeh, K. & Roy, D. & de Koster, M.B.M., 2016. "Vertical or Horizontal Transport? - Comparison of robotic storage and retrieval systems," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2016-009-LIS, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    6. Kaveh Azadeh & René De Koster & Debjit Roy, 2019. "Robotized and Automated Warehouse Systems: Review and Recent Developments," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(4), pages 917-945, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:eujine:v:10:y:2016:i:1:p:51-80. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=210 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.