Split-case sorting systems are used in many retail supply chains where items must be distributed in less-than-case quantities, such as orders shipped directly to customers by catalogers and e-tailers or shipments made in less-than-case quantities from a distribution center to a retail store....

This paper studies the performance of static and real-time scheduling approaches in vehicle-based internal transport (VBIT) systems, which can be found in manufacturing and warehouse facilities. We propose three heuristic approaches for static VBIT problems (insertion, combined and column...

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...