Consider an end-of-aisle order picking system based on the miniload AS/RS. The P/D station is located at the lower lefthand corner of the rack, and each trip originates and terminates at the P/D station. One aisle is assigned to each picker. Furthermore, the S/R machine travels at 400 fpm and 100 fpm in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. It takes 0.10 minute to pick up or deposit a container. The user would like to store approximately 7,000 loads in the system, where each load requires 18 ft2 of rack surface (including the necessary clearances). Last, the system must be capable of performing at least 215 picks per hour. The pick time is constant at 1.5 minutes per pick.

a. For b  0.90, determine the near-minimum number of pickers required to meet the throughput and storage space requirements.

b. Assuming that the vertical dimension of the rack yields the value of Q, determine the resulting rack length and height in feet.

c. Determine the effective values of the expected picker and S/R machine utilizations for the resulting system.