material flow

Routing flexibility enables a robust, resilient design of production. However, in highly available, decentralized controlled production systems with cyclic material flow, it can reduce efficiency due to undesired deterministic-chaotic behavior. An automated method for measuring such behavior is presented. It is tested with a double conveyor belt laboratory system. An embedded system simplifies data acquisition. Results indicate that the method is usable for manual and automatic production systems. It has the potential to recognize modeling deficiencies in Industry 4.0 control with IEC 61499. (Only in German)

Companies often do not have a clear view of all steps along the value chain. Many different factors are involved from receipt of the goods through to the finished product and actual delivery. Accordingly, the companies themselves only have a limited influence on the supply chain, resulting for example from dependence on suppliers at various points. However, in this context there is a wide range of possibilities for improving different processes in the warehouse. It is only the material flow in production, which accounts for a large share of the daily processes in a factory, that a company ideally manages down to the last detail. To this end, companies often use software solutions to keep an overview and implement successful control of the large number of operations. Graphic interfaces give a precise depiction of the workflows within a warehouse, thus revealing possible starting points for the companies to take action.

The relevance of wind energy for the German energy supply increases steadily. This development is driven by the German withdrawal from nuclear energy as well as the ambitious climate policy goals. Furthermore, the fossil energy resources are limited. The logistic network which is needed to create an offshore-wind park is affected by dynamic disturbances like weather conditions as well as other influences. They have an impact on the material-pull which is initiated by the offshore construction site. Already scheduled processes cannot be proceeded which necessitates rescheduling of material flow process-plans. Sometimes material is also pushed back into the network.

Airports as trans-shipment centres, within the transport networks of the world-wide air transport, represent complex knots of huge logistic networks. Cargo handling at airports is significantly determined by the location, the design and dimensioning of the cargo terminal, as well as by the internal and external handling relations. The examination and implementation of the modelling and simulation of relevant processes within a realistic part of an air cargo network is the focal point of this article. Its aim is to evaluate and design air cargo processes between two air cargo hubs and their respective origin and destination airports as a whole. It is shown that individual approaches to reduce costs of the parties involved are not as efficient as considering the whole transport network including all external handling relations.