Estimating the cycle time of three-stage material handling systems

Because of high investment costs, the productivity of material handling systems must be accurately estimated before various logistical, industrial, or transportation systems can be implemented. This paper proposes analytical models for three-stage material handling systems. Two possible approaches to the estimation of the productivity of three-stage material handling systems are considered: one, the continuous Markov chain model, and two, approximated mathematical models. The approximated models are based on the probability theory and permit very accurate calculations of the compound cycle time in cases when the probability distribution of the ‘technical’ cycle times of each stage is known. Finally, some numerical results obtained by the proposed models are compared with those results obtained by a simulation study.