Economic (s, q) inventory policy in an asynchronous assembly production system

Abstract

Although shop floor inventory control and material handling decisions are closely interrelated, they are rarely considered together in the design stage of material handling systems. The purpose of this paper is to develop a design methodology for automated material handling systems in an assembly production system with an emphasis on shop floor inventory control policies. The problem considered is to determine the reorder point and quantity for an automated guided vehicle which delivers assembly parts to each workstation from an automated storage/retrieval system. At each workstation, a continuous review policy is assumed for the control of the parts. We develop the model of the asynchronous assembly production system based on a recursive optimization and simulation procedure. With the recursive procedure, the dynamic nature of the asynchronous assembly production system can be integrated into the optimization model. The optimal value of optimization model is found that minimizes the total cost while complying with the desired service level of the system.