IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i8p3111-d344846.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable Scheduling of Material Handling Activities in Labor-Intensive Warehouses: A Decision and Control Model

Author

Listed:
  • Raffaele Carli

    (Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Polytechnic of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Mariagrazia Dotoli

    (Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Polytechnic of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Salvatore Digiesi

    (Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Francesco Facchini

    (Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, Italy)

  • Giorgio Mossa

    (Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic of Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125 Bari, Italy)

Abstract

In recent years, the continuous increase of greenhouse gas emissions has led many companies to investigate the activities that have the greatest impact on the environment. Recent studies estimate that around 10% of worldwide CO 2 emissions derive from logistical supply chains. The considerable amount of energy required for heating, cooling, and lighting as well as material handling equipment (MHE) in warehouses represents about 20% of the overall logistical costs. The reduction of warehouses’ energy consumption would thus lead to a significant benefit from an environmental point of view. In this context, sustainable strategies allowing the minimization of the cost of energy consumption due to MHE represent a new challenge in warehouse management. Consistent with this purpose, a two-step optimization model based on integer programming is developed in this paper to automatically identify an optimal schedule of the material handling activities of electric mobile MHEs (MMHEs) (i.e., forklifts) in labor-intensive warehouses from profit and sustainability perspectives. The resulting scheduling aims at minimizing the total cost, which is the sum of the penalty cost related to the makespan of the material handling activities and the total electricity cost of charging batteries. The approach ensures that jobs are executed in accordance with priority queuing and that the completion time of battery recharging is minimized. Realistic numerical experiments are conducted to evaluate the effects of integrating the scheduling of electric loads into the scheduling of material handling operations. The obtained results show the effectiveness of the model in identifying the optimal battery-charging schedule for a fleet of electric MMHEs from economic and environmental perspectives simultaneously.

Suggested Citation

  • Raffaele Carli & Mariagrazia Dotoli & Salvatore Digiesi & Francesco Facchini & Giorgio Mossa, 2020. "Sustainable Scheduling of Material Handling Activities in Labor-Intensive Warehouses: A Decision and Control Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-25, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3111-:d:344846
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3111/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3111/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boysen, Nils & Briskorn, Dirk & Emde, Simon, 2017. "Parts-to-picker based order processing in a rack-moving mobile robots environment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 262(2), pages 550-562.
    2. Ene, Seval & Küçükoğlu, İlker & Aksoy, Aslı & Öztürk, Nursel, 2016. "A genetic algorithm for minimizing energy consumption in warehouses," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 973-980.
    3. Elbert, R. & Franzke, T. & Glock, C. H. & Grosse, E. H., 2017. "The effects of human behavior on the efficiency of routing policies in order picking: the case of route deviations," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 84508, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    4. Gokhan Akandere, 2016. "The Effect Of Logistic Businesses? Green Warehouse Management Practices On Business Performance," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 4106594, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    5. Fekete, Patrick & Lim, Sirirat & Martin, Steve & Kuhn, Katja & Wright, Nick, 2016. "Improved energy supply for non-road electric vehicles by occasional charging station location modelling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1033-1040.
    6. Michael Schneider & Andreas Stenger & Dominik Goeke, 2014. "The Electric Vehicle-Routing Problem with Time Windows and Recharging Stations," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(4), pages 500-520, November.
    7. Fichtinger, J. & Ries, J. M. & Grosse, E. H. & Baker, P., 2015. "Assessing the environmental impact of integrated inventory and warehouse management," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 74211, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    8. Maximilian Schiffer & Michael Schneider & Grit Walther & Gilbert Laporte, 2019. "Vehicle Routing and Location Routing with Intermediate Stops: A Review," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(2), pages 319-343, March.
    9. Zulj, I. & Glock, C. H. & Grosse, E. H. & Schneider, Michael, 2018. "Picker routing and storage-assignment strategies for precedence-constrained order picking," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 105391, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    10. Schneider, M. & Stenger, A. & Goeke, D., 2014. "The Electric Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows and Recharging Stations," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 62382, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    11. Finn, Paddy & Fitzpatrick, Colin, 2014. "Demand side management of industrial electricity consumption: Promoting the use of renewable energy through real-time pricing," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 11-21.
    12. Antonella Meneghetti & Eleonora Dal Borgo & Luca Monti, 2015. "Rack shape and energy efficient operations in automated storage and retrieval systems," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(23), pages 7090-7103, December.
    13. Fred Glover, 1975. "Improved Linear Integer Programming Formulations of Nonlinear Integer Problems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 455-460, December.
    14. Fichtinger, Johannes & Ries, Jörg M. & Grosse, Eric H. & Baker, Peter, 2015. "Assessing the environmental impact of integrated inventory and warehouse management," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(PC), pages 717-729.
    15. Ries, J. M. & Grosse, E. H. & Fichtinger, J., 2017. "Environmental impact of warehousing: A scenario analysis for the United States," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 82128, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    16. Strbac, Goran, 2008. "Demand side management: Benefits and challenges," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 4419-4426, December.
    17. Bartolini, M. & Bottani, E. & Grosse, E. H., 2019. "Green warehousing: systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 112369, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    18. Jörg M. Ries & Eric H. Grosse & Johannes Fichtinger, 2017. "Environmental impact of warehousing: a scenario analysis for the United States," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(21), pages 6485-6499, November.
    19. Boysen, Nils & Briskorn, Dirk & Emde, Simon, 2017. "Parts-to-picker based order processing in a rack-moving mobile robots environment," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 85774, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    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. Tiziana Modica & Sara Perotti & Marco Melacini, 2021. "Green Warehousing: Exploration of Organisational Variables Fostering the Adoption of Energy-Efficient Material Handling Equipment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-15, November.
    2. Hyun-woo Jeon & Ahmad Ebrahimi & Ga-hyun Lee, 2023. "A Simulation-Based Experimental Design for Analyzing Energy Consumption and Order Tardiness in Warehousing Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-25, October.
    3. Vlado Popović & Milorad Kilibarda & Milan Andrejić & Borut Jereb & Dejan Dragan, 2021. "A New Sustainable Warehouse Management Approach for Workforce and Activities Scheduling," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.
    4. Kateryna Czerniachowska & Radosław Wichniarek & Krzysztof Żywicki, 2023. "A Model for an Order-Picking Problem with a One-Directional Conveyor and Buffer," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    5. Ahmad Ebrahimi & Hyun-woo Jeon & Sang-yeop Jung, 2023. "Improving Energy Consumption and Order Tardiness in Picker-to-Part Warehouses with Electric Forklifts: A Comparison of Four Evolutionary Algorithms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-28, July.
    6. Izabela Kudelska & Rafal Niedbal, 2021. "The Impact of Organizational Change on the Improvement of the Picking Process in a Logistics Center – A Case Study," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2B), pages 882-892.

    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. Sara Perotti & Lorenzo Bruno Prataviera & Marco Melacini, 2022. "Assessing the environmental impact of logistics sites through CO2eq footprint computation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1679-1694, May.
    2. Atashi Khoei, Arsham & Süral, Haldun & Tural, Mustafa Kemal, 2023. "Energy minimizing order picker forklift routing problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 307(2), pages 604-626.
    3. Li, Xiaowei & Hua, Guowei & Huang, Anqiang & Sheu, Jiuh-Biing & Cheng, T.C.E. & Huang, Fengquan, 2020. "Storage assignment policy with awareness of energy consumption in the Kiva mobile fulfilment system," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    4. Hyun-woo Jeon & Ahmad Ebrahimi & Ga-hyun Lee, 2023. "A Simulation-Based Experimental Design for Analyzing Energy Consumption and Order Tardiness in Warehousing Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-25, October.
    5. Miljenko Mustapić & Maja Trstenjak & Petar Gregurić & Tihomir Opetuk, 2023. "Implementation and Use of Digital, Green and Sustainable Technologies in Internal and External Transport of Manufacturing Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-25, June.
    6. Tiziana Modica & Sara Perotti & Marco Melacini, 2021. "Green Warehousing: Exploration of Organisational Variables Fostering the Adoption of Energy-Efficient Material Handling Equipment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-15, November.
    7. Anders F. Jensen & Thomas K. Rasmussen & Carlo G. Prato, 2020. "A Route Choice Model for Capturing Driver Preferences When Driving Electric and Conventional Vehicles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, February.
    8. Malladi, Satya S. & Christensen, Jonas M. & Ramírez, David & Larsen, Allan & Pacino, Dario, 2022. "Stochastic fleet mix optimization: Evaluating electromobility in urban logistics," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    9. Maximiliano Cubillos & Mauro Dell’Amico & Ola Jabali & Federico Malucelli & Emanuele Tresoldi, 2023. "An Enhanced Path Planner for Electric Vehicles Considering User-Defined Time Windows and Preferences," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-19, May.
    10. Wang, Mengtong & Miao, Lixin & Zhang, Canrong, 2021. "A branch-and-price algorithm for a green location routing problem with multi-type charging infrastructure," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    11. Jianming Cai & Xiaokang Li & Yue Liang & Shan Ouyang, 2021. "Collaborative Optimization of Storage Location Assignment and Path Planning in Robotic Mobile Fulfillment Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-26, May.
    12. Erfan Ghorbani & Mahdi Alinaghian & Gevork. B. Gharehpetian & Sajad Mohammadi & Guido Perboli, 2020. "A Survey on Environmentally Friendly Vehicle Routing Problem and a Proposal of Its Classification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-71, October.
    13. Lera-Romero, Gonzalo & Miranda Bront, Juan José & Soulignac, Francisco J., 2024. "A branch-cut-and-price algorithm for the time-dependent electric vehicle routing problem with time windows," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(3), pages 978-995.
    14. Goeke, Dominik, 2019. "Granular tabu search for the pickup and delivery problem with time windows and electric vehicles," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(3), pages 821-836.
    15. Pottel, Steffen & Goel, Asvin, 2022. "Scheduling activities with time-dependent durations and resource consumptions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(2), pages 445-457.
    16. Seyfi, Majid & Alinaghian, Mahdi & Ghorbani, Erfan & Çatay, Bülent & Saeid Sabbagh, Mohammad, 2022. "Multi-mode hybrid electric vehicle routing problem," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    17. Zhou, Yu & Meng, Qiang & Ong, Ghim Ping, 2022. "Electric Bus Charging Scheduling for a Single Public Transport Route Considering Nonlinear Charging Profile and Battery Degradation Effect," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 49-75.
    18. Mohammed Alnahhal & Bashir Salah & Mohammed Ruzayqat, 2022. "An Efficient Approach to Investigate the Tradeoff between Double Handling and Needed Capacity in Automated Distribution Centers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-25, June.
    19. Battini, Daria & Glock, Christoph H. & Grosse, Eric H. & Persona, Alessandro & Sgarbossa, Fabio, 2017. "Reprint of “Ergo-lot-sizing: An approach to integrate ergonomic and economic objectives in manual materials handling”," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 32-42.
    20. Roy, Debjit & Nigam, Shobhit & de Koster, René & Adan, Ivo & Resing, Jacques, 2019. "Robot-storage zone assignment strategies in mobile fulfillment systems," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 119-142.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:8:p:3111-:d:344846. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.