Simulation based performance comparison of AVS/RS and AS/RS

Abstract

In this study, we compare performance of two material handling systems (MHSs) - autonomous vehicle storage and retrieval system (AVS/RS) and traditional, crane-based, automated storage and retrieval system (CBAS/RS) - based on their pre-defined performance measures. AVS/RS is a new technology for unit-load (UL) automated storage system. This new technology is implemented at scores of facilities in Europe. The alternative of this technology is CBAS/RS. First, the two MHSs are simulated using a commercial software - ARENA 12.0. Then, 28 types of experiments are completed on the two MHSs based on rack configurations of the warehouses and number of storage and retrieval (S/R) devices. Three performance measures are considered for comparison purposes which are average flow time, S/R device average utilization, and cost. An examination of the results, specifically the cost and utilization of the S/R devices, suggests that the AVS/RS performs better than the AS/RS. The data that is used in the study comes from a company utilizes that CBAVS/RS in France.