Reducing manufacturing lead times and minimizing work-in-process (WIP) inventories are the cornerstones of popular manufacturing strategies such as Lean, Quick Response, and Just-in-Time Manufacturing. In this paper, we present a model that captures the relationshipbetween facility layout and...

The design of end-of-aisle order picking systems is addressed by focusing on a miniload automated storage/retrieval system. Performance models are developed for the miniload and a design algorithm is presented. The design algorithm has as its objective the minimization of the number of storage...

Purpose – Selection of material handling systems (MHS) is an important decision to be taken during the design of flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) as it affects the layout of FMS. Many researchers have addressed this issue of MHS selection in the domain of operations management, while a few...

Purpose – This paper aims to introduce a compact and low-cost robotized system and corresponding processing method for automatically identifying and de-stacking circulation boxes under natural stacking status. Design/methodology/approach – The whole system is composed of an industrial robot,...

This paper proposes to use Muther’s systematic layout planning procedure as the infrastructure to solve a fab layout design problem. A multiple objective decision making tool, analytic hierarchy process, is then proposed to evaluate the design alternatives. The proposed procedure is...

Purpose – Since developing efficient product-location strategies represents a critical issue in operations management, due to its impact on warehouses performance in terms of both service level and operation costs, this paper aims to focus on possible improvements in the allocation of SKUs,...