Title: Comparison of discrete and continuous travel time models for a multi-aisle AS/RS under different operating conditions

Authors: Vishwesh Singbal; Gajendra Kumar Adil

Addresses: Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India ' Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India

Abstract: Travel time is a predominant performance measure of AS/RS in literature. Two basic approaches are available for modelling travel time: discrete and continuous. Continuous models involve approximation of travel time. This paper considers a single crane unit load multi-aisle AS/RS operating under a single command and one of the three storage policies. The performance of continuous model is compared with discrete model under different operating conditions characterised by different combinations of input parameters: number of aisles, storage rack shape factor, number of products and demand skewness. Through the comparison of percentage error of continuous model different configurations where continuous models perform well are identified.

Keywords: multi-aisle AS/RS; storage policies; discrete models; continuous models; travel time models.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2021.117658

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2021 Vol.40 No.1, pp.87 - 108

Received: 08 Apr 2019
Accepted: 07 Jul 2019
Published online: 20 Sep 2021 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article