IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transe/v125y2019icp47-73.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Designing efficient order picking systems: The effect of real-life features on the relationship among planning problems

Author

Listed:
  • van Gils, Teun
  • Caris, An
  • Ramaekers, Katrien
  • Braekers, Kris
  • de Koster, René B.M.

Abstract

This study illustrates the relevance and importance of incorporating safety constraints, picker blocking, and vertical travel due to high level storage locations when developing order picking systems (i.e., deciding on zoning, storage, batching, and routing). Results show that safety constraints induce wait times, and cause additional traveling, picker blocking and consequent wait time can be minimized at the expense of additional setup time, and slow vertical travel results in additional travel and wait times. Consequently, ignoring these real-life features causes substantial performance inefficiencies. Robust policies for organizing operations efficiently are provided, even if the system is subject to real-life features.

Suggested Citation

  • van Gils, Teun & Caris, An & Ramaekers, Katrien & Braekers, Kris & de Koster, René B.M., 2019. "Designing efficient order picking systems: The effect of real-life features on the relationship among planning problems," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 47-73.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transe:v:125:y:2019:i:c:p:47-73
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2019.02.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1366554518308524
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tre.2019.02.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chien-Ming Chen & Yeming Gong & René de Koster & Jo A.E.E. Van Nunen, 2010. "A Flexible Evaluative Framework for Order Picking Systems," Post-Print hal-02312453, HAL.
    2. Pratik Parikh & Russell Meller, 2009. "Estimating picker blocking in wide-aisle order picking systems," IISE Transactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 232-246.
    3. Parikh, Pratik J. & Meller, Russell D., 2008. "Selecting between batch and zone order picking strategies in a distribution center," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 696-719, September.
    4. Hong, Soondo & Johnson, Andrew L. & Peters, Brett A., 2012. "Batch picking in narrow-aisle order picking systems with consideration for picker blocking," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 221(3), pages 557-570.
    5. van Gils, Teun & Ramaekers, Katrien & Braekers, Kris & Depaire, Benoît & Caris, An, 2018. "Increasing order picking efficiency by integrating storage, batching, zone picking, and routing policy decisions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 243-261.
    6. M. Çelik & H. Süral, 2016. "Order picking in a parallel-aisle warehouse with turn penalties," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(14), pages 4340-4355, July.
    7. Petersen, Charles G. & Aase, Gerald, 2004. "A comparison of picking, storage, and routing policies in manual order picking," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 11-19, November.
    8. Pan, Jason Chao-Hsien & Wu, Ming-Hung & Chang, Wen-Liang, 2014. "A travel time estimation model for a high-level picker-to-part system with class-based storage policies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(3), pages 1054-1066.
    9. Gue, Kevin R. & Ivanović, Goran & Meller, Russell D., 2012. "A unit-load warehouse with multiple pickup and deposit points and non-traditional aisles," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 795-806.
    10. Theys, Christophe & Bräysy, Olli & Dullaert, Wout & Raa, Birger, 2010. "Using a TSP heuristic for routing order pickers in warehouses," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(3), pages 755-763, February.
    11. Thomas, Lisa M. & Meller, Russell D., 2015. "Developing design guidelines for a case-picking warehouse," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PC), pages 741-762.
    12. Franzke, T. & Grosse, E. H. & Glock, C. H. & Elbert, R., 2017. "An investigation of the effects of storage assignment and picker routing on the occurrence of picker blocking in manual picker-to-parts warehouses," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 82572, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    13. Kirby Clark & Russell Meller, 2013. "Incorporating vertical travel into non-traditional cross aisles for unit-load warehouse designs," IISE Transactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(12), pages 1322-1331.
    14. Christoph H. Glock & Eric H. Grosse & Ralf M. Elbert & Torsten Franzke, 2017. "Maverick picking: the impact of modifications in work schedules on manual order picking processes," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(21), pages 6344-6360, November.
    15. Thomas Chabot & Leandro C. Coelho & Jacques Renaud & Jean-François Côté, 2018. "Mathematical model, heuristics and exact method for order picking in narrow aisles," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(8), pages 1242-1253, August.
    16. Dijkstra, Arjan S. & Roodbergen, Kees Jan, 2017. "Exact route-length formulas and a storage location assignment heuristic for picker-to-parts warehouses," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 38-59.
    17. Kees Jan Roodbergen & Iris F.A. Vis & G. Don Taylor, 2015. "Simultaneous determination of warehouse layout and control policies," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(11), pages 3306-3326, June.
    18. Giannikas, Vaggelis & Lu, Wenrong & Robertson, Brian & McFarlane, Duncan, 2017. "An interventionist strategy for warehouse order picking: Evidence from two case studies," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 63-76.
    19. de Koster, Rene & Le-Duc, Tho & Roodbergen, Kees Jan, 2007. "Design and control of warehouse order picking: A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 182(2), pages 481-501, October.
    20. R. Dekker & M. B. M. de Koster & K. J. Roodbergen & H. van Kalleveen, 2004. "Improving Order-Picking Response Time at Ankor's Warehouse," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 303-313, August.
    21. Helsgaun, Keld, 2000. "An effective implementation of the Lin-Kernighan traveling salesman heuristic," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 106-130, October.
    22. Lamballais, T. & Roy, D. & De Koster, M.B.M., 2017. "Estimating performance in a Robotic Mobile Fulfillment System," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(3), pages 976-990.
    23. Yu, Mengfei & de Koster, René B.M., 2009. "The impact of order batching and picking area zoning on order picking system performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 198(2), pages 480-490, October.
    24. Mowrey, Corinne H. & Parikh, Pratik J., 2014. "Mixed-width aisle configurations for order picking in distribution centers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 232(1), pages 87-97.
    25. Teun van Gils & Katrien Ramaekers & An Caris & Mario Cools, 2017. "The use of time series forecasting in zone order picking systems to predict order pickers’ workload," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(21), pages 6380-6393, November.
    26. van Gils, Teun & Ramaekers, Katrien & Caris, An & de Koster, René B.M., 2018. "Designing efficient order picking systems by combining planning problems: State-of-the-art classification and review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(1), pages 1-15.
    27. Safwan A. Altarazi & Maysa M. Ammouri, 2018. "Concurrent manual-order-picking warehouse design: a simulation-based design of experiments approach," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(23), pages 7103-7121, December.
    28. Schleyer, Marc & Gue, Kevin, 2012. "Throughput time distribution analysis for a one-block warehouse," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 652-666.
    29. Glock, C. H. & Grosse, E. H. & Elbert, R. & Franzke, T., 2017. "Maverick picking: The impact of modifications in work schedules on manual order picking processes," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 83962, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    30. Pohl, Letitia M. & Meller, Russell D. & Gue, Kevin R., 2009. "An analysis of dual-command operations in common warehouse designs," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 367-379, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Gang & Feng, Haolin & Luo, Kaiyi & Tang, Yanli, 2021. "Retrieval-oriented storage relocation optimization of an automated storage and retrieval system," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    2. Lam, H.Y. & Ho, G.T.S. & Mo, Daniel Y. & Tang, Valerie, 2023. "Responsive pick face replenishment strategy for stock allocation to fulfil e-commerce order," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    3. Tutam, Mahmut & De Koster, René, 2024. "To walk or not to walk? Designing intelligent order picking warehouses with collaborative robots," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Zhong, Shuya & Giannikas, Vaggelis & Merino, Jorge & McFarlane, Duncan & Cheng, Jun & Shao, Wei, 2022. "Evaluating the benefits of picking and packing planning integration in e-commerce warehouses," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(1), pages 67-81.
    5. Jiang, Min & Leung, K.H. & Lyu, Zhongyuan & Huang, George Q., 2020. "Picking-replenishment synchronization for robotic forward-reserve warehouses," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    6. Boysen, Nils & de Koster, René & Füßler, David, 2021. "The forgotten sons: Warehousing systems for brick-and-mortar retail chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(2), pages 361-381.
    7. Jiang, Min & Huang, George Q., 2022. "Intralogistics synchronization in robotic forward-reserve warehouses for e-commerce last-mile delivery," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    8. Masae, Makusee & Glock, Christoph H. & Vichitkunakorn, Panupong, 2021. "A method for efficiently routing order pickers in the leaf warehouse," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    9. Silva, Allyson & Coelho, Leandro C. & Darvish, Maryam & Renaud, Jacques, 2020. "Integrating storage location and order picking problems in warehouse planning," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. van Gils, Teun & Ramaekers, Katrien & Caris, An & de Koster, René B.M., 2018. "Designing efficient order picking systems by combining planning problems: State-of-the-art classification and review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(1), pages 1-15.
    2. Glock, Christoph H. & Grosse, Eric H. & Abedinnia, Hamid & Emde, Simon, 2019. "An integrated model to improve ergonomic and economic performance in order picking by rotating pallets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 273(2), pages 516-534.
    3. Silva, Allyson & Coelho, Leandro C. & Darvish, Maryam & Renaud, Jacques, 2020. "Integrating storage location and order picking problems in warehouse planning," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. van Gils, Teun & Ramaekers, Katrien & Braekers, Kris & Depaire, Benoît & Caris, An, 2018. "Increasing order picking efficiency by integrating storage, batching, zone picking, and routing policy decisions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 243-261.
    5. Çağla Cergibozan & A. Serdar Tasan, 2019. "Order batching operations: an overview of classification, solution techniques, and future research," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 335-349, January.
    6. Masae, Makusee & Glock, Christoph H. & Vichitkunakorn, Panupong, 2021. "A method for efficiently routing order pickers in the leaf warehouse," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    7. Boysen, Nils & de Koster, René & Füßler, David, 2021. "The forgotten sons: Warehousing systems for brick-and-mortar retail chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(2), pages 361-381.
    8. Boysen, Nils & de Koster, René & Weidinger, Felix, 2019. "Warehousing in the e-commerce era: A survey," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(2), pages 396-411.
    9. Boysen, Nils & de Koster, René, 2025. "50 years of warehousing research—An operations research perspective," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 320(3), pages 449-464.
    10. van Gils, Teun & Caris, An & Ramaekers, Katrien & Braekers, Kris, 2019. "Formulating and solving the integrated batching, routing, and picker scheduling problem in a real-life spare parts warehouse," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 277(3), pages 814-830.
    11. Giannikas, Vaggelis & Lu, Wenrong & Robertson, Brian & McFarlane, Duncan, 2017. "An interventionist strategy for warehouse order picking: Evidence from two case studies," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 63-76.
    12. Heiko Diefenbach & Simon Emde & Christoph H. Glock & Eric H. Grosse, 2022. "New solution procedures for the order picker routing problem in U-shaped pick areas with a movable depot," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 44(2), pages 535-573, June.
    13. Derhami, Shahab & Smith, Jeffrey S. & Gue, Kevin R., 2020. "A simulation-based optimization approach to design optimal layouts for block stacking warehouses," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    14. Li Zhou & Huwei Liu & Junhui Zhao & Fan Wang & Jianglong Yang, 2022. "Performance Analysis of Picking Routing Strategies in the Leaf Layout Warehouse," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(17), pages 1-28, September.
    15. Arbex Valle, Cristiano & Beasley, John E, 2020. "Order batching using an approximation for the distance travelled by pickers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(2), pages 460-484.
    16. Silva, Allyson & Roodbergen, Kees Jan & Coelho, Leandro C. & Darvish, Maryam, 2022. "Estimating optimal ABC zone sizes in manual warehouses," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    17. De Santis, Roberta & Montanari, Roberto & Vignali, Giuseppe & Bottani, Eleonora, 2018. "An adapted ant colony optimization algorithm for the minimization of the travel distance of pickers in manual warehouses," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(1), pages 120-137.
    18. Çelik, Melih & Archetti, Claudia & Süral, Haldun, 2022. "Inventory routing in a warehouse: The storage replenishment routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(3), pages 1117-1132.
    19. Pardo, Eduardo G. & Gil-Borrás, Sergio & Alonso-Ayuso, Antonio & Duarte, Abraham, 2024. "Order batching problems: Taxonomy and literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 313(1), pages 1-24.
    20. Dragan Djurdjević & Nenad Bjelić & Dražen Popović & Milan Andrejić, 2022. "A Combined Dynamic Programming and Simulation Approach to the Sizing of the Low-Level Order-Picking Area," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(20), pages 1-23, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transe:v:125:y:2019:i:c:p:47-73. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600244/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.