Integrated scheduler and material control system

An apparatus for scheduling a plurality of move requests, the apparatus comprising:

• an traffic management system having an input and a first output of a plurality of outstanding move requests, a second output of a plurality of completed move requests, and a third output of a vehicle utilization parameter;
• a prioritizing module configured and arranged to receive the plurality of move requests, the plurality of outstanding move requests, and a feedback parameter, the prioritizing module being operative to determine the number of move requests to be executed in a particular time period and to prioritize the plurality of move requests and the plurality of outstanding move requests according to a critical pick-up time associated with each of the plurality of move requests, the prioritizing module operative to provide a plurality of prioritized move requests equal to the number of move requests to be executed to the input of the automated material handling system;
• a feedback module receiving the vehicle utilization parameter from the automated material handling system, determining the number of move requests to be deferred, and providing the number of move requests to be deferred as the feedback parameter to the prioritizing module.