Performance Evaluation of Material Flow Systems in Discrete Time

Abstract

The purpose of this contribution is to introduce a framework of model elements and associated computation methods in order to evaluate information flow and physical processes in material flow systems. We extend available discrete time queueing models by new models for batch processes, which are very common in material flow systems. The proposed models for the analysis of batch processes are: Batch building under the capacity rule, batch building under the timeout rule, batch building under the minimum batch size rule, G/G/1-queue with batch arrivals, G/G[K,K]/1-queue, G/G[L,K]/1-queue, and batch split. In the context of our research we provide a Software-Solution called the “Logistic Analyzer” which is well-suited for the application to practical problems. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed solution compared to simulation are discussed. The paper concludes with a numerical case.