Simulation study of an automated storage/retrieval system

In this paper we present a simulation study of an automated storage/retriev al system and examine a wide variety of control policies. We compare severa l storage location assignment policies. For the class-based storage policy, we apply a recent algorithm that enables us to evaluate the trade-off betw een storage space requirements and travel times. We also study a new storag e location policy which combines low storage space requirements with short mean travel times. Furthermore, we study the sequencing of storage and retr ieval requests whereby we focus on the trade-off between efficient travel o f the S/R machines and response time performance.