RECENT ADVANCES IN THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEMS

We present art overview of recent research in the design and control o f material handling systems. Research in both shopfloor transportation systems and storage systems is covered. The issues studied range from the integrated design of manufacturing facilities and material handli ng systems to the performance analysis of operating policies in these systems. in general, the design and control problems in material handl ing systems are very hard but analytical results can be obtained for s pecific configurations and relaxations of the problem.