A new design approach for milkrun-based in-plant supply in manufacturing systems

In manufacturing technologies milkrun and water-spider-based material handling represents up-to-date solutions, especially in the case of just-in-time and just-in-sequence in-plant supply. The objective of this research work is to show how to support the design of milkrun-based in-plant supply with heuristic optimisation in manufacturing processes. This paper proposes a new optimisation approach that can determine the optimal parameters of material handling operations of manufacturing technologies focusing on milkrun-based in-plant supply of manufacturing and assembly cells and lines. After a careful systematic literature review, this paper introduces a structural model to formulate the problem of routing of milkrun trolleys in manufacturing and assembly processes. Next, a potential mathematical model is described. Numerical results demonstrate how the proposed approach supports the decision making process in milkrun design focusing on the optimisation of the required number of milkrun trolleys and the routing of them.