Workstation layout strategies in Robotic Mobile Fulfillment Systems considering carbon emissions

Abstract

A Robotic Mobile Fulfillment System (RMFS) in the e-commerce industry is an automated order picking system for reducing workers’ moving time, aiming to improve the efficiency of the warehouse. Robots are able to carry movable shelves, known as pods, traveling swiftly between the storage area and workstations, including pick and replenishment stations. This paper designs bidirectional robots driving rules and studies warehouse layout planning decision and evaluates system operational performance by modeling a Semi-Open Queueing Network (SOQN). Furthermore, we analyze the impact of different warehouse layout on system throughput time and carbon emission.