Design Problem of Automated Warehouse Systems Subject to Minimum Cost and Maximum Throughput

This study is concerned with a design algorithm to minimize the investment as well as maximize the throughput in automated warehouse system. A simulation model is designed and a solution methodology is proposed. The experiment, are conducted for the cases with 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50 and 0 % dual command policies in terms of the important factors such as the crane velocity, the height of system and the rack utilization. The results indicate that the throughput is slightly decreased when the ratio of dual command is decreased and the other characteristics however are not affected. The result also shows that the optimal rack should be designed for a crane to take the same amount of travel time for horizontal and vertical movement.