CLASS-BASED STORAGE ASSIGNMENT POLICY IN CAROUSEL SYSTEM

The carousel storage system is an automated warehousing system which h as been widely used in a broad range of applications. This paper exami nes the effects of storage assignment policy on the throughput perform ance of the carousel system in which a storage/retrieval machine perfo rms pickup/discharge operations. For 2-class-based storage assignment policy, the expected cycle time models are developed for single and du al command cycles. It is shown that with 2-class-based storage assignm ent policy significant reductions in cycle time are obtainable over ra ndomized storage assignment policy. The effects of the system paramete rs such as the skewness of the inventory distribution, the shape facto r and the pickup/discharge time are studied on the optimal boundary.