Planning and dimensioning of a milk-run transportation system considering the actual line consumption

the appeal of a forklift-free shop floor is pushing enterprises towards lean logistic systems and tugger trains are becoming popular means of supply in intensive material handling production systems. Planning a tugger train system is a complex task influenced by a large set of interrelated parameters. The only standard available to help the planner in designing the tugger train logistic system is the draft norm VDI 5586 (April 2016). However this norm is only applicable under a set of restricting assumptions. In this paper a methodology to complement the approach proposed by the VDI is introduced and then applied to a numerical example. The results are briefly presented and discussed before suggesting forthcoming research. (C) 2018, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.