OPTIMAL COMPUTING BUDGET ALLOCATION FOR OPERATIONS OF A ZONE-PICKING SYSTEM

Abstract

This paper discusses a case study of a zone-picking system in a distribution centre. In particular, we designed a basic simulation model for analysing the system using Simio and connected the model to the MySQL database using the existing and new steps in Simio. A ranking and selection problem was subsequently formulated to determine the capacity of the system that maximises the expected throughput while satisfying the constraints on: (1) the expected maximum utilisation, (2) expected time-averaged number of boxes in the main conveyor, and (3) expected flow time. To solve the problem under a limited simulation budget, we implemented an optimal computing budget allocation procedure, which may work in the presence of stochastic constraints. The experimental results demonstrate that our approach can more efficiently and effectively determine the capacity of the system than the equal allocation scheme.