Authors:
Thomas Lienert
;
Tobias Staab
;
Christopher Ludwig
and
Johannes Fottner
Affiliation:
Chair for Materials Handling, Material Flow, Logistics, Technichal University of Munich, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748 Garching and Germany
Keyword(s):
Automated Guided Vehicles, Robotic Mobile Fulfilment System, Throughput Analysis, Discrete-event Simulation.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Case Studies
;
e-Business
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Health Engineering and Technology Applications
;
Logistics
;
Neural Rehabilitation
;
Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics
;
Plant Simulation
;
Simulation and Modeling
;
Simulation Tools and Platforms
Abstract:
A robotic mobile fulfilment system for automated storage and retrieval of goods is investigated to determine reachable throughput as a function of the number of vehicles. The simulation model considers connected zones for manual order picking and replenishment of empty storage units. The results show a strong increase of blocking effects between vehicles if the number of vehicles within the system increases. This leads to a maximal throughput, which further vehicles cannot increase. We will show that changing the storage layout increases throughput. The results also show a linear correlation between the number of vehicles and the throughput for small numbers of vehicles. Here, analytical calculations are admissible since minor blocking effects do occur. However, the end of the linear correlation can only be found by simulation.