A MODEL AND AN ANALYTICAL METHOD FOR CONVEYOR SYSTEMS IN DISTRIBUTION CENTERS

作     者：Ying WANG Chen ZHOU 

作者机构：Manheim Consulting USA Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology USA 

出 版 物：《Journal of Systems Science and Systems Engineering》 (系统科学与系统工程学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2010年第19卷第4期

页      面：408-429页

核心收录：

学科分类：080706[工学-化工过程机械] 08[工学] 0807[工学-动力工程及工程热物理] 0802[工学-机械工程] 

主　　题：Conveyor system sortation system network accumulation sample path analysis dynamic network flow 

摘      要：The design and operation of high volume conveyor systems in distribution centers are important due to its high cost, large footprint and critical role in the system. However, there is no analytical model available. In this paper, we study the characteristics of the conveyor sortation system, develop a generic model of a complex conveyor network. We then use the Delay and Stock abstraction to develop an approximate analytical method using sample path analysis and dynamic network flow model. The decision variables include length of accumulation segments and the speeds of conveyor components aforementioned decision variables. This analytical solution provides faster analysis, insights and useful subgradient with respect to the decision variables.