Survey and classification of operational control problems in discrete event logistics systems (DELS)

Abstract

This paper reviews and classifies literature on operational control of discrete event logistics systems (DELS). Operational control manipulates the flow of items through a DELS. Each control problem addressed in the surveyed literature is classified based on the control decision that the analysis model is formulated to support. These control decisions are defined by abstract functional definitions focussing on analysis model inputs, outputs, and variables. This classification of control problems shows that five kinds of atomic control decisions are needed to cover the literature, either by themselves or in combination. Standard functional definitions of operational control decisions enable discovery and interoperability of decision-support analysis models.

Keywords:

• operational control
• discrete event logistics systems (DELS)
• system modeling

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Michael Brundage, George Thiers, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.

Commercial equipment and materials might be identified to adequately specify certain procedures. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the materials or equipment identified are necessarily the best available for the purpose.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Timothy Sprock http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7276-7636

Notes

1 Equivalent representations of AND/OR graphs include representing the junctions with AND/OR branch nodes (Cho, Son, and Jones 2006) or representing the graph as a kind of hypergraph (dos Santos Souza, Protti, and da Silva 2013).