Design procedures and implementation of the segmented flow topology for discrete material flow systems

In this paper, both the single pick-up and delivery station and the multiple pick-up and delivery station cases of the segmented flow topology (SFT) system configuration are presented. These system's configurations serve as the backbone of a heuristic design procedure for SFT. This design procedure consists of an upper and lower bound calculation and a search procedure that minimizes the total cost (transportation, setting up pick-up and/or delivery stations, and material handling devices). Two examples of the implementation of the procedure are given.