Authors : Narumon Chatchawan and Oran Kittithreerapronchai
Abstract: The growth in real estate sector and the raise of minimum wage in Thailand have transformed construction material business and posted labor challenge. To address the challenge, many retailers have adopted automated material handling equipment, called miniload Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS) a set of industrial automated cranes operating within high-density storage racks and narrow aisles for totes. Equipped with guided conveyors for transfer totes an AS/RS eliminates traveling of pickers by automatically transporting selected products inside totes to workstations. As a result, the efficiency of system depends on operating policy as well as the business nature of a retailer. In this study such policy of a construction material retailer that has recently implemented a miniload AS/RS was analyzed. The primary analysis showed that the inefficient utilization of totes causing by storage and retrieval policies. As a result, a simulation is selected to experiment with the effects of various configuration settings such as order batching, storage assignment and retrieval sequencing. By comparing average travel time and throughput the results of experiment suggest the most suitable settings of the system.
Narumon Chatchawan and Oran Kittithreerapronchai, 2017. Improving of an Automated Storage and Retrieval System in a Construction Material Retailer. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 12: 4338-4343.