A simulation-based experimental design for SBS/RS warehouse design by considering energy related performance metrics

Abstract

This paper deals with an experimental study for shuttle-based storage and retrieval system (SBS/RS) design to identify significant factors affecting the performance metrics in the system. SBS/RS is an automated warehouse technology developed to overcome recent order profile resulting from increased e-commerce. Recent order profile has been shaped towards more product variety with less volume and short response time. In SBS/RS technology, each tier of an aisle typically has a dedicated shuttle processing orders hence, it has a very high transaction rate compared to its opponents. Neverthless, there can be several design options that can improve the performance of these systems. In this study first, the significant design factors affecting the pre-defined SBS/RS performance measures (e.g., average cycle time and energy consumption for a transaction; amount of energy regeneration for a transaction, etc.) are identified. Secondly, the best levels of these critical design factors improving the performance measures are identified. For this purpose, a statistical test, namely Tukey's test, is utilized. For the modelling purpose, simulation modelling using ARENA 14.0, is utilized. The statistical analyses from the simulation results are performed using Minitab 17 statistical software.