Adaptive Intra-Logistics

Many Intra-Logistics systems are designed over the course of several years in order to ensure the logistical supply of an assembly or production area for a fixed number of years. In the past this approach was economically successful. However, today's globalized markets require different procedures. Adaptive Intra-Logistics systems will be required in the near future in order to ensure adaptability to changes in assembly or production (e.g. volume fluctuations, additional products, changed geometry of products) without requiring costly new investments. The adaptability of these systems could be achieved through modular design and dynamic planning. In this paper a new planning methodology for Intra-Logistics systems is described. This planning methodology is based on features of Multi-Agent Systems such as self-organization. These characteristics of our planning methodology make it particularly suited for autonomous logisticsmodules and contribute to the adaptive Intra-Logistics systems. Furthermore, the current literature on the technical alternatives for reach adaptive Intra-Logistics is explored. Especially modular design is key to coping with rapidly changing production environments. Therefore, four different new logistics concepts, which have been selected using a rating matrix and questions catalogs, are presented. These concepts were verified and validated in simulations.