Analysis of semi-open queueing networks using lost customers approximation with an application to robotic mobile fulfilment systems

DOI10.1007/S00291-021-00662-9zbMATH Open1493.90047arXiv1912.01782OpenAlexW4200305108MaRDI QIDQ2152014FDOQ2152014

Authors: Sonja Otten, Ruslan Krenzler, Lin Xie, Hans Daduna, Karsten Kruse 

Publication date: 6 July 2022

Published in: OR Spectrum (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We consider a semi-open queueing network (SOQN), where a customer requires exactly one resource from the resource pool for service. If there is a resource available, the customer is immediately served and the resource enters an inner network. If there is no resource available, the new customer has to wait in an external queue until one becomes available ("backordering"). When a resource exits the inner network, it is returned to the resource pool and waits for another customer. In this paper, we present a new solution approach. To approximate the inner network with the resource pool of the SOQN, we consider a modification, where newly arriving customers will decide not to join the external queue and are lost if the resource pool is empty "lost customers". We prove that we can adjust the arrival rate of the modified system so that the throughputs in each node are pairwise identical to those in the original network. We also prove that the probabilities that the nodes with constant service rates are idling are pairwise identical too. Moreover, we provide a closed-form expression for these throughputs and probabilities of idle nodes. To approximate the external queue of the SOQN with backordering, we construct a reduced SOQN with backordering, where the inner network consists only of one node, by using Norton's theorem and results from the lost-customers modification. In a final step, we use the closed-form solution of this reduced SOQN, to estimate the performance of the original SOQN. We apply our results to robotic mobile fulfilment systems (RMFSs). Instead of sending pickers to the storage area to search for the ordered items and pick them, robots carry shelves with ordered items from the storage area to picking stations. We model the RMFS as an SOQN, analyse its stability and determine the minimal number of robots for such systems using the results from the first part.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.01782

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zbMATH Keywords

backorderingwarehousingproduct form approximationlost customersrobotic mobile fulfilment systemsemi-open queueing network

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Deterministic network models in operations research (90B10) Queues and service in operations research (90B22) Queueing theory (aspects of probability theory) (60K25) Performance evaluation, queueing, and scheduling in the context of computer systems (68M20) Inventory, storage, reservoirs (90B05) Transportation, logistics and supply chain management (90B06)

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Cited In (4)

• Stronger mixed-integer programming-formulations for order- and rack-sequencing in robotic mobile fulfillment systems
• Product form solutions of some queueing inventory problems in random environment
• Analysis of semi-open queueing network with correlated arrival process and multi-server nodes
• Solving semi-open queuing networks

Uses Software

• queueing

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