(A) study on the performance evaluation of mini-load carousel systems

Abstract

This thesis deals with a mini-load carousel system, where throughput performance of the system can be measured in the number of orders processed per time unit. Assuming the randomized rack assignment policy, analytic models are developed for the throughput performance as a function of the system parameters such as the dimension of the carousels, the rotation velocity of the carousels, the velocity of S/R robot, the container handling time, and the order picking time. For the last parameter, two cases are considered ; deterministic and exponentially distributed. The validity of the models are tested through Monte Carlo simulation. It is confirmed that the results of the analytic models are fairly consistent with those by the simulation.