Economical design of material flow paths

In this paper, we suggest a branch-and-bound procedure for designing flow paths of fixed-path material handling systems. The method may be applied to automated monorail systems (AMS), automated guided vehicle systems (AGVS), flexible conveyor systems and other fixed-path material handling systems. We formulate an economic model which considers the construction cost of each path segment as well as the travel cost. A procedure is developed to determine the configuration of flow path and the direction of each flow path segment. A tight lower bound for the optimal objective function and an efficient search strategy are suggested. Computational performance of this procedure is compared with a procedure previously developed by Kaspi and Tanchoco for the special case of AGV systems.