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Fleet sizing of laser guided vehicles and pallet shuttles in automated warehouses

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  • Ferrara, Andrea
  • Gebennini, Elisa
  • Grassi, Andrea

Abstract

The paper deals with emerging automation technologies for pallet handling in warehouses characterized by multiple-depth rack storage systems. In particular, this study addresses the adoption of Pallet Shuttles (PSs) for material handling within the rack structure, i.e., for put-away and retrieval operations from the rack face to the specific pallet location and vice versa. PSs are used in combination with Laser Guided Vehicles (LGVs) so as to obtain a fully automated warehousing system. The study develops an analytical model for the joint LGV–PS fleet sizing problem, also taking into consideration stochastic phenomena and queueing implications. This enables the analyst to compute the utilization of LGVs and PSs as a function of sizes of the two fleets. Then, a queueing model can be applied to estimate the cycle time of the orders in the warehousing system. An example to clarify the application of the method is also provided.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferrara, Andrea & Gebennini, Elisa & Grassi, Andrea, 2014. "Fleet sizing of laser guided vehicles and pallet shuttles in automated warehouses," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 7-14.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:157:y:2014:i:c:p:7-14
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.06.008
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    Cited by:

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    2. Emde, Simon & Tahirov, Nail & Gendreau, Michel & Glock, Christoph H., 2021. "Routing automated lane-guided transport vehicles in a warehouse handling returns," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 292(3), pages 1085-1098.
    3. Emil Jatib Khatib & Raquel Barco, 2021. "Optimization of 5G Networks for Smart Logistics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Ilias Vlachos & Rodrigo Martinez Pascazzi & Miltiadis Ntotis & Konstantina Spanaki & Stella Despoudi & Panagiotis Repoussis, 2022. "Smart and flexible manufacturing systems using Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and the Internet of Things (IoT)," Post-Print hal-03825237, HAL.
    5. Vanga, Ratnaji & Venkateswaran, Jayendran, 2020. "Fleet sizing of reusable articles under uncertain demand and turnaround times," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 285(2), pages 566-582.

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