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

• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.06.008
• Publication Date: 2014-06-18T16:17:21Z
• Authors: Andrea Ferrara; Elisa Gebennini; Andrea Grassi
• Keywords: Economics and Econometrics; 0209 industrial biotechnology; AGV; Pallet shuttle; Management and Accounting (all); 0211 other engineering and technologies; Warehouse automation; 02 engineering and technology; Management Science and Operations Research; Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering; AGV; Laser Guided Vehicle (LGV); Multiple-depth rack; Pallet shuttle; Queueing theory; Warehouse automation; Business, Management and Accounting (all); Economics and Econometrics; Management Science and Operations Research; Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering; Queueing theory; Multiple-depth rack; Business; warehouse automation; multiple-depth rack; Laser Guided Vehicle (LGV); AGV; pallet shuttle; queueing theory; Laser Guided Vehicle (LGV)

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.