An Integrated Model of the Material Handling System and Unit Load Design Problem

Abstract

Material flow system design problems (i.e. facility layout, material handling equipment selection and specification, flow path design, unit load sizing, cell design, warehousing, routing, etc.) have been predominately modelled independently in the past. Independent consideration of each design problem has reduced the solution complexity, but in the process has caused a loss in problem reality. This paper reviews recent developments in integrated approaches to material flow design and presents a model which integrates material handling equipment selection and specification (including material handling interface equipment) and path/load dependent unit load size. The formulation is solved using the meta-heuristic procedure of tabu search to find good solutions to the more realistic (and more complex) model formulation.