Multi-Method Modeling and Simulation of a Vertical Lift Module With an Integrated Buffer System Using Anylogic

As industry trend continues to accelerate sellers to begin transitioning the sale of their products exclusively through e-commerce platforms, companies must remain vigilant and recognize the requirement for their products to be safely stored and quickly retrieved. This research presents a comprehensive model and simulation study of a Vertical Lift Module (VLM) with an integrated shuttle-based storage and retrieval system (SBS/RS) or buffer system. This work evaluates a proposed solution to the ever-increasing emergent storage and retrieval challenges faced by warehouses worldwide. The VLM system was modeled using AnyLogic software to evaluate system capacity, travel distance, velocity profiles, and other user-defined operational constraints. The VLM performance is modeled under various conditions and compared to the performance of a traditional stand-alone VLM in terms of throughput and cycle-time to identify potential VLM-Buffer system integration drawbacks or limitations.