Heuristic dispatching models for multi-vehicle materials handling systems

Abstract

This paper describes fleet-size-dependent models for predicting dispatching effects in multi-vehicle materials-handling systems. The models are a direct extension of recently published analytical bounds on empty-vehicle travel, which are based exclusively on vehicle travel times and material flow rates in a system. As with these earlier models, the models presented in this paper are intended to support the design of materials-handling systems. By directly accounting for the number of vehicles used in a system, the proposed models attempt to provide more refined insights into the effectiveness of using vehicle dispatching to deal with temporary peaks in system workload, as an alternative to designing a system with sufficient capacity to handle worst case operating scenarios. Simulation experiments are used to test the effectiveness of the proposed models and provide a comparison with earlier models reported in the literature.