Determine planning method in the storage area

ABSTRACT Ji Yuan Hai Wan Shi Ye AB started in the December of 2011, is co-funded by the Xiamen Hai Wan AB and Luo Yang Shi Hua. It has integrated business such as scientific research, production and trade together. The company locates in the industrial manufactory area at Ji Yuan, Henan Province. The main products are verity of unsaturated polyester resin. Their products are widely used in the fields like industry, agricultural, transportation and construction. This shows its wide coverage status quo and broad future (Company´s website). Inventory is the network-node among goods flow, information flow and cash flow, and is of great importance to economic development nowadays. The rational management in transportation, packaging, loading/unloading, processing, delivery, can efficiently alleviate working strength, damage ratio, Inventory turnover and distribution costs. The storage area is not only the most important but also the most difficult part to plan. According to the statistics, unloading, picking, sorting and loading take 40% time of the whole process, and the rest are consumed by staff’s patrolling. As a result, a cost effective design in storage area can effectively lower down internal transportation cost, and highly improve the performance of the whole inventory. In order to increase the efficiency inside storage area, and create a best possible environment for material handlers in the inventory; this article intended to generate a directive description by studying the design inside storage area of the inventory. Based on the case study, author has raised a recommendation to the inventory´s equipment and slot planning. MATLAB is the main programming tool in the slot planning and it contains aspects below: 1, A brief introduction to company and their main activities. 2, Storage area planning and design theories: The definition, types, functions of storage area were introduced in the beginning. Then storage area and several ways of storage were briefly described. At last, author described the classical EIQ analysis and its applications in the logistics system. Page IV 3, Selection of equipment in storage area Author elaborated basic principles of the equipment choice; and introduced types, choice methods in storing and material handling equipment. Finally the EIQ analysis was applied and its influence in equipment choice was proved. 4, Planning and design of slots in the storage area This part mainly included following contents A. Coding The article began with methodology introduction for the coding of both location and goods, and the principles of choice methodology for different goods. B. Spacing plan and corresponding information Principles and concepts of location planning as well as corresponding benefits were introduced, which are the reasons of location planning. C. Modeling The author has presented the aim of the location planning; and according to that, a model has been introduced. There are two things has to be concerned, one is the total transporting distance for the goods and the other one is the stability of the racking. The aim of the location planning is to increase picking efficiency by storing the fastest-moving goods in the most convenient positions which is gate in this case. To increase racking ´s stability, lighter goods have to put in higher than heavier things. D. The algorithm Location planning is a multi-objective optimization problem. Author has analyzed and compared several algorithms; finally genetic algorithm was chosen to solve the problem. Author introduced the principles of the methodology about using genetic algorithm to solve a multi-objective optimization problem. After that, according to the model introduced in the previously step, author has decided to use parallel selection method, multi-Gender evolutionary method and constraint method. To get an optimal solution of location planning, MATLAB has been used as the tool. Page V 5, Applied and analyzed the methods and programs, mentioned in the article, to the design of inventory´s storage area. 6, Summary and prospect Author has summarized the article’s result and raised future research topics. This article has given some new points in the following aspect： 1．By thinking of velocity of goods circulation and goods weigh, a multi-objective optimization model for location planning has been made. Model has been solved, via using Genetic Algorithm’s paratactic selection, multi-gender evolution and constraint methods. 2．By using MATLAB, author programmed the location plan which generates solutions to optimization problems using techniques inspired by natural evolution. Programming has been used crossover, mutation methods and the algorithm terminated when the 500 generations has been produced, then a satisfactory fitness solution has been reached for the location

Order batching and picking optimization in terms of supply chain management (SCM)

In distribution center (DC), at the time of forming a batch, by considering the order holding time and picking time in the system, an algorithm based on the first-come, first served based (FCFS) rule is presented. In the proposed algorithm, both order picking factor and order holding factor are used in order to reflect the throughput of the system and response of orders.;Furthermore, some simple batching policies for considering the order holding time in the system are presented. They may result in meeting its customers\u27 requirements for larger numbers of smaller orders and rapid turnaround. They reflect the well-known supply chain management (SCM) concept by taking the customer\u27s need into consideration. Their performance measure of order response time that consists of order picking time and order holding time is evaluated and compared.;Finally, this thesis also develops a new optimization-based joint order batching and picking framework for warehousing and distribution systems. The nested partitions (NP) method that integrates global sampling of the feasible region and local search heuristic is applied to this problem. To speed up the computation, the improved NP-algorithm is developed. Also, by taking the special structure of the problem in account, an improved NP method in terms of small computational time is developed

Warehouse design and control: framework and literature review

In this paper we present a reference framework and a classification of warehouse design and control problems. Based on this framework, we review the existing literature on warehousing systems and indicate important gaps. In particular, we emphasize the need for design oriented studies, as opposed to the strong analysis oriented research on isolated subproblems that seems to be dominant in the current literature

Data mining framework for batching orders in real-time warehouse operations

Warehouse activities play a key role in the final customer service level. From the warehouse processes, order picking is the major contributor to this category overall expenses. Order batching is commonly employed to improve the resources efficiency. Several heuristics have been proposed for the order batching problem, most of them developed for static batching, although scarce research has been focused on dynamic batching via stochastic modeling. We present an a novel approach to the problem developing a framework based on machine learning application directly to historical order batches data; gaining valuable knowledge regarding how are the batches formed and what attributes are the most meaningful in this process. This knowledge is then translated into simple batching decision rules capable of batch orders in a real-time scenario (dynamically). The framework was compared to FCFS heuristics and single picking; the results indicate higher performance

Evaluating dedicated and shared storage policies in robot-based compact storage and retrieval systems

Robot-based compact storage and retrieval systems (RCSRS) have seen many implementations over the last few years. In such a system, the inventory items are stored in bins, organized in a grid. In each cell of the grid, a certain number of bins are stored on top of each other. Robots with transport and lifting capabilities move on the grid roof to transport bins between manual workstations and storage stacks. We estimate performance and evaluate storage policies of RCSRS, considering both dedicated and shared storage policies coupled with random and zoned storage stacks. Semi-open queueing networks (SOQNs) are built to estimate the system performance, which can handle both immediate and delayed reshuffling processes. We approximate the models by reduced SOQNs with two load-dependent service nodes and use the Matrix-Geometric Method (MGM) to solve them. Both simulations and a real case are used to validate the analytical models. Assuming a given number of stored products, our models can be used to optimize not only the length to width ratio of the system, but also the stack height, depending on the storage strategy used. For a given inventory and optimal system configuration, we demonstrate that the dedicated storage policy outperforms the shared storage policy in terms of dual command throughput time. However, from a cost perspective, wit

Optimizing the Performance of Robotic Mobile Fulfillment Systems

A robotic mobile fulfillment system is a novel type of automated part-to-picker material handling system. In this type of system, robots transport mobile shelves, called pods, containing items between the storage area and the workstations. It is well suited to e-commerce, due to its modularity and it's ability to adapt to changing orders patterns. Robots can nearly instantaneously switch between inbound and outbound tasks, pods can be continually repositioned to allow for automatic sorting of the inventory, pods can contain many different types of items, and unloaded robots can drive underneath pods, allowing them to use completely different routes than loaded robots. This thesis studies the performance of robotic mobile fulfillment systems by solving decision problems related to warehouse design, inventory and resource allocation, and real-time operations. For warehouse design, a new queueing network is developed that incorporates realistic robot movement, storage zones, and multi-line orders. For inventory allocation, we develop a new type of queueing network, the cross-class matching multi-class semi-open queueing network, which can be applied to other systems as well. Resource (re)allocation is modeled by combining queueing networks with Markov decision processes while including time-varying demand. This model compares benchmark policies from practice wit

Traceability in a Sanitary Ware Production System – A Case Study at Ifö Sanitär

Research questions: How to implement a traceability system in an automated sanitary ware production system Deliverables: This thesis establishes whether it is cost beneficial to implement a traceability system for an automated sanitary ware production system where there are no legislative requirements. Methodology: The research method that is used in this thesis is a combination of action research and experimental methods. A literature review, observations and interviews were performed in order to identify existing traceability theories and applications as well as fully understand the production characteristics of sanitary ware manufacturing. In addition, experiments were performed in order to evaluate the most suitable traceability application for the use in an automated sanitary ware production system. Delimitations: This thesis covers the use of traceability and its applications in the automated production lines at Ifö’s factory in Bromölla and it only includes the internal flow of goods at Ifö. Conclusions: The solution includes a direct part marking on each and every product that is produced in Bromölla, with an individual serial number. All product movements will be stored, allowing for the ability to conduct follow-ups on defects and performance of different parts of the production system. It can be concluded that the use of an automated traceability system is cost-beneficial in the automated production lines at Ifö Sanitär

A simulation model of an air cargo import terminal

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN