Resource-Performance Trade-offs in Intra-Aisle Robotic Picking: A Discrete-Event Simulation Comparison of Shuttle Configurations With and Without an Onboard Tote Lift

Overview & Synopsis

This study compares two implemented intra-aisle robotic-picking configurations through discrete-event simulation. Without an onboard tote lift, two level-captive shuttles serve the two tested levels; with the lift, one shuttle remains on its horizontal level and its onboard mechanism moves the order tote to allow picks from the adjacent upper level. Thirty configuration-task-size experiments (n = 1-15 locations; ten replications each) yield 300 replication-level cycle-time observations. Two-sided Welch tests are applied to the replication means, with Holm adjustment across the 15 comparisons. The onboard-tote-lift configuration has longer mean cycle time at all tested task sizes. At n = 15, the means are 299.477 and 333.231 s/cycle, respectively: a 33.753 s increase (11.27%). The corresponding cycle-time-derived item rates are 180.314 and 162.050 items/h (-10.13%). These rates are calculated as 3600n divided by the scenario-mean cycle time; they are not measurements of the combined concurrent capacity of two level-captive shuttles. Importantly, task locations are sampled from different eligible-level sets in the two configurations, so the result concerns the implemented configuration-and-task-generation packages, not the isolated effect of a five-second tote-lift operation under identical picked locations. The study quantifies a cycle-performance difference alongside a reduction from two dedicated shuttles to one within the tested two-level block; it does not quantify system-level maximum throughput, investment cost, or reliability.