The design process for Material Handling Systems (MHS) can be divided into two major phases: concepting and detailed design. Concepting (or conceptualization) is the process of developing an initial system profile from which a complex real-world material handling design solution can be derived. Such an initial solution is preliminary in nature and reflects the interaction between the problem environment (e.g., throughput needs, cost) and the material handling system environment (e.g., equipment, operating system practices).; Concepting results directly support decisions on the selection of MHS suppliers by client organizations. Given the time pressure on suppliers to develop cost competitive design specifications in response to requests for proposals, accurate conceptualization is critical for minimizing the business risks associated with misspecification of MHS performance attributes. Thus, the availability of rapid and accurate analytical modeling tools to predict system performance as a function of the design variables that drive the majority of system costs is essential to developing competitive system proposals.; Current conceptualizing practice relies heavily on the intuition of the material handling system design engineer and on simulation models to assess the initial design concepts. These approaches are limited to the experience of the designer and sequential in nature. Subsequently, the designer must use iterative adjustments within a simulation model to modify one design parameter with incremental changes in other design parameters. In this research, analytical (as distinguished from simulation-based) expressions are examined for conceptualizing MHS's.; MHS's are complex in that their operation depends upon interactions across sub-system controllers and hardware. They are also complex in that their performance depends upon an interaction between their design in terms of configuration, sizing, and speeds, as well as their operating procedures in terms such as dispatching approaches and service policies. This research groups the decision parameters of MHS's in two categories, configuration options and operational strategies. The available concepting tools that help to determine these parameters are evaluated in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency. In the areas where analytical models are absent or inefficient, new models are developed and compared with corresponding simulation results.
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