Ekol Logistics Automation Systems Utilization Improvement
About our Senior Project
In this Senior Project, we come up with three models to increase the utilization of Ekol Logistics. This facility does not face with a capacity problem at present. But according to their observation of the increase of incoming produced pallets by customers, they expect that their current capacity will not be adequate with the current usage algorithm.
What is the Problem?
Problem of the current system is the expected future capacity problems when the pace of the goods movements is increased. The main problem Ekol faces with is the inefficient use of capacity. Although they do not currently have such an important capacity problem, this does not mean that they will never face it in the future.
Our System
Objective & Scope
The scope of our project is going to be in the main area; in other words, we are planning to focus on the possible problems that might be caused by the current implementations for the storage area, conveyor and the cranes. This project aims to increase the utilization of the current capacity of the warehouse. This is especially for the time periods when the input and output frequencies increase. In order to achieve this goal, we need to use the resources in an efficient way. In other words, the existing input and the output capacities of the warehouse should be maximized.
This system also offers to use of racks by the products (we called them as "Conjugated Products") which have close demand rates and demanded by the same customers almost everyday. By applying this, number of slack racks (racks which are not completely filled) are diminished.
Our System
In our system we changed the number of pallets that can be stored in a rack instead of assigning 10 pallets for each rack. So we relaxed the entrance of the pallets.
The new storing will be look like below example:
Tools
Since Arena Simulation Program does not meet our need, we had to code a simulation for our system by using Java language. It aid us at validation of the system and comparison of current and offered system.
GAMS software also used to validify our model and understand its working principles.
MS Excel is also used for working on Conjugated Products Approach.
