Simulation-based optimization for material handling systems in manufacturing and distribution industries
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Simulation-based optimization for material handling systems in manufacturing and distribution industries Chris S. K. Leung1
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Henry Y. K. Lau1
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Faced with rising customer expectations, shortening product life cycle and increasing number of competitors, many companies are paying increasing attention to streamline their operations with a view to improving the timeliness in response to changes and demands in their supply chains. Material handling is a vital element of the supply chains, which involves a variety of operations including the movement, storage, protection and control of materials and products throughout the processes of manufacturing and distribution. Having efficient material handling systems is of great importance to these industries for maintaining and facilitating a continuous flow of materials through the workplace and guaranteeing that required materials are available when needed. In this paper, we apply a simulation-based optimization framework for solving several real-life single objective and multi-objective optimization problems. The results reveal that the simulation-based optimization framework could become an effective decision making tool for solving both single and multi-objective optimization problems in manufacturing and distribution industries and help management to find nearoptimal system parameters to fulfill important objectives. Keywords Artificial immune system Artificial intelligence Material handling system Optimization Simulation
1 Introduction In recent years, customers have been ever more demanding with higher expectations from suppliers. Under this highly competitive economy, customers require products to arrive in a shorter time with higher quality standard. This factor together with other competitive market factors, such as more stringent government regulations, increasing number of competitors and shorter product life cycle, have created great pressure on supply chains, especially in manufacturers and distributors, to improve the efficiency of their manufacturing and distribution systems. Material handling is of extreme importance to logistics and manufacturing industries as it accounts for a large & Chris S. K. Leung [email protected] Henry Y. K. Lau [email protected] 1
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong, China
percentage of the operation. In the manufacturing sector, the time spent on product handling and transportation can be as much as the time used on the value-added processes. Banks et al. [1] claimed that the time of material handling is about 85% of total manufacturing time. For this reason, the ability to analyze and evaluate material handling systems is essential for decision makers to improve material flow management and optimize manufacturing and distribution operations. Very often, these systems with complex interactions among system components and
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