Article ID: | iaor200794 |
Country: | Netherlands |
Volume: | 170 |
Issue: | 1 |
Start Page Number: | 144 |
End Page Number: | 155 |
Publication Date: | Apr 2006 |
Journal: | European Journal of Operational Research |
Authors: | Park Byung Chun, Foley Robert D., Frazelle Edward H. |
Keywords: | programming: probabilistic, storage |
To increase throughput, the higher turnover items are often stored near the input/output point of a miniload system. We analyze the performance of such a miniload with a square-in-time rack containing two storage zones: high turnover and low turnover. First, we derive the distribution of the dual command travel time. System performance measures such as the throughput depend upon the distribution of the dual command travel time and the distribution of pick times. We work out the details and obtain closed-form expressions for throughput for two important families of pick time distributions: deterministic and exponential. Finally, we investigate how the size of the high turnover region affects throughput.