Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal ( IF 2.7 ) Pub Date : 2021-07-16 , DOI: 10.1007/s10696-021-09427-6 Emilio Moretti 1 , Elena Tappia 1 , Marco Melacini 1 , Martina Mauri 2
In a context where companies are striving to produce highly customised goods in small batches and within short lead times, increasing attention is being put on the design and management of part feeding systems. This research is the first to model automated part feeding to supermarkets in a factory environment, considering an innovative technology called vertical robotic storage and retrieval systems. This technology allows automating the storage, picking, and internal transportation activities in an integrated process, thanks to rack-climbing robots roaming in both the shop floor and the storage racks. We develop an analytical model based on the queuing network approach to analyse the system performance, and we use it to perform numerical experiments and to evaluate the design trade-offs with reference to a real case in the automotive industry. Results show that an increase in the number of robots leads to better performance since the positive impact on the response time is stronger than the negative impact on the waiting times of robots at the supermarkets due to congestion. Furthermore, a configuration with multiple small supermarkets improves the efficiency of the replenishment process, compared to a setting with few big supermarkets.
中文翻译:
基于移动机器人的超市零件供料系统的性能模型
在公司努力在短时间内小批量生产高度定制化产品的背景下,零件进料系统的设计和管理受到越来越多的关注。考虑到一种称为垂直机器人存储和检索系统的创新技术,这项研究首次对工厂环境中超市的自动化零件进给进行建模。由于货架爬行机器人在车间和存储货架上漫游,该技术允许在一个集成过程中自动化存储、拣选和内部运输活动。我们基于排队网络方法开发了一个分析模型来分析系统性能,并使用它来执行数值实验并参考汽车行业的真实案例来评估设计权衡。结果表明,机器人数量的增加导致更好的性能,因为对响应时间的积极影响强于由于拥堵而对超市机器人等待时间的负面影响。此外,与几个大超市的设置相比,多个小超市的配置提高了补货过程的效率。