New Research Article in Business & Information Systems Engineering

A new research article by our Chair of Enterprise Computing has been published in collaboration with Fraunhofer IML in the journal Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE). The article examines how suitable planning approaches can be selected for fleets of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) in intralogistics.

The planning of AGV fleets is a complex task in which vehicles and transport orders have to be coordinated in terms of space and time. There are numerous solution approaches in research - from classic optimization methods to modern machine learning methods such as deep reinforcement learning. Until now, however, there has been a lack of systematic guidance as to which approach is best suited to a specific situation.

Our article uses a design science approach to develop design knowledge for a benchmark that makes different scheduling approaches comparable. Specifically, five design requirements, three design principles and seven design features are derived and demonstrated in a case study.

The results provide a structured basis for the selection of suitable approaches and can also be transferred to similar decision problems.

The paper is available Open Access at doi:10.1007/s12599-026-01003-2. BISE has an impact factor of 10.4 (2024), an acceptance rate of 3% and is one of the top-tier journals in the field of information systems.