Research On Configuration And Optimization Of Automated Sorting System Of Cigarette Distribution Center

Automated sorting system can increase sorting speed and improve sorting quality greatly in cigarette distribution center. However, when designing and fixing automated sorting system of cigarette, planners usually select sorting equipments and arrange sorting workers according to their experience. This method is subjective, because it is failed to balance cost and efficiency effectively. Therefore, that how to develop a quantitative method which can be used to select sorting equipment units and configure sorting workers scientifically is of great importance for designing and optimizing automated sorting system of cigarette.This thesis has studied sorting equipment unit and replenishment workers configuration in automated sorting system of cigarette and aims to provide a feasible solution for sorting system design to reduce operating cost and improve efficiency.Firstly, system methods and theory are used to analyze and study the component elements of cigarette sorting system. Then sorting equipment units are configured according to the characteristics of cigarette sorting, which consist compound automated sorting system. This kind of system combines different sorting equipments and can maximize the whole efficiency.Secondly, through deeply analyzing the operating cost of automated sorting system of cigarette, this thesis finds out the relationship between each cost item and cigarette volume. Then an equipment unit configuration method based on the critical point of cost is proposed. This method is able to reduce system cost to the lowest level while guaranteeing system sorting efficiency.Based on equipment unit configuration, the optimization configuration of replenishment workers is carried out. Three evaluation indices for replenishment workers configuration, those are the fewest workers, replenishment volume equilibrium and replenishment brands equilibrium, are put forward. After that, this thesis establishes a multi-objective programming model for workers configuration based on replenishment equilibrium. This model is then transformed into single-objective optimization when introducing coefficient of variation. The solving method is implemented by improved genetic algorithm.Finally, this thesis takes one cigarette distribution center for an example, to verify the feasibility and validity of the proposed optimization methods. On the aspect of equipment unit configuration, the critical point of cost method overcomes the uncertainty of EIQ-ABC, and provide a simple but quantitative standard with lower system operating cost. On the aspect of replenishment workers configuration, the solution to multi-objective equilibrium problem can not only minimize replenishment workers but also has better equilibrium property than traditional methods especially in replenishment volume and brands.