HEAVY-LARGE RAW MATERIALS FEEDING IN LAYOUT- CONSTRAINED CONTINUOUS PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

This paper discusses several alternatives for automating the handling process of heavy-large loads from a raw material warehouse to a manufacturing department housing parallel continuous production lines in layout constrained facilities. For each alternative some criteria are given for preliminary sizing of the handling systems in order to allow a technical and economical comparison in an early decision stage. Additionally, the relative advantages and drawbacks of each alternative are discussed so that logistic managers and facility planners can make informed decision about the preferable choice in a given context.

[1]  Henry C. W. Lau,et al.  Integration of expert system with analytic hierarchy process for the design of material handling equipment selection system , 2001 .

[2]  Mikell P. Groover,et al.  Automation, Production Systems, and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing , 1987 .

[3]  Mitsuo Gen,et al.  An integrated model for the design of end-of-aisle order picking system and the determination of unit load sizes of AGVs , 2002 .

[4]  John S. Usher,et al.  A decision support system for economic justification of material handling investments , 2001 .

[5]  Yang-Byung Park.  ICMESE: Intelligent consultant system for material handling equipment selection and evaluation , 1996 .

[6]  J. E. Rooda,et al.  Modeling and Analysis of Manufacturing Systems , 2007, Handbook of Dynamic System Modeling.

[7]  Benita M. Beamon.  System reliability and congestion in a material handling system , 1999 .

[8]  Edward H. Frazelle,et al.  World-Class Warehousing and Material Handling , 2001 .

[9]  Osman Kulak,et al.  A decision support system for fuzzy multi-attribute selection of material handling equipments , 2005, Expert Syst. Appl..

[10]  Timothy J. Greene,et al.  A knowledge-based system for conveyor equipment selection , 2004, Expert Syst. Appl..

[11]  Dileep R. Sule,et al.  Manufacturing facilities : location, planning, and design , 1988 .

[12]  Sev V. Nagalingam,et al.  Quantity of material handling equipment-A queuing theory based approach , 2009 .

[13]  David E. Mulcahy,et al.  Materials handling handbook , 1998 .

[14]  P. S. Welgama,et al.  A hybrid knowledge based/optimization system for automated selection of materials handling system , 1995 .