A Knowledge-Based Approach for Selection of Material Handling Equipment and Material Handling System Pre-design

For material handling system design, material handling equipment selection is the first stage. Also the material handling system and facility layout design problems are coupled. Solving these problems needs consideration of these three different problems. Right material handling equipment selection and good design of the material handling system and facility layout can increase productivity and reduce investments and operations' costs. In this study, after describing the material handling equipment selection and pre-design of material handling systems problems and explaining their complexity and solution approaches, it is shown that material handling equipment selection and pre-design of a material handling system can be combined by using a knowledge-based approach.