Forklift scheduling

Abstract

Forklift is one of the most expensive and important assets in every big size warehouse or distribution center. Hence, it is crucial to consider a deal of remedies to utilize the operation of forklift trucks. This thesis research represents a scheme of forklift scheduling, which is disseminated into two sub-frameworks. The first model is built for forklift assigning that applies mixed-integer non-linear programming to appoint the list of jobs that one individual forklift would be handled, which is built by using CPLEX programming language. The second model is assembled for forklift routing model that applies Dijkstra’s algorithm as a foundation and is built using Python programming language. The scheme, if being applied to reality, is promised to make a great improvement of work performance to be on faster rate with better level of accuracy compared with having these done manually. It would also greatly support in discarding the wastes occurring during the operation, namely waiting time of external vehicles to be served by jitneys, work disbalance among forklifts in different time period that may lead to increase idle time in low service hours and congestion during peak shifts. Key words: forklift scheduling, forklift assignment, mixed-integer non-linear programming, forklift routing, Dijkstra’s algorithm.