IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orinte/v45y2015i4p341-357.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carton-Mix Optimization for Walmart.com Distribution Centers

Author

Listed:
  • Sanjay L. Ahire

    (Department of Management Science, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208)

  • Manoj K. Malhotra

    (Department of Management Science, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208)

  • John B. Jensen

    (Department of Management Science, Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208)

Abstract

Walmart’s Internet shopping business has grown considerably since 2006. To effectively and efficiently serve this business model, Walmart launched distribution centers (DCs) in the United States; these DCs focus on fulfilling orders placed online at the Walmart.com website. The Carrollton, Georgia distribution center (CDC) handles a significant portion of the volume of products shipped directly to customers and stores for customer pickup. In spring 2011, the CDC executed a focused cost-improvement project to optimize its carton mix, defined as the sizes of the shipping cartons that can be erected using automation or built manually. The goals of this project were to develop a process to create an optimal mix of carton sizes to reduce shipping, material, and labor costs of conveyable orders, and improve customer satisfaction. Working in close coordination with CDC managers and Walmart’s corporate supply chain team, we developed an Excel-based solution algorithm to determine the optimal carton sizes for four automated and six manual carton sizes. Walmart has fully implemented this solution algorithm into a decision support system for reconfiguring the carton mix at the CDC. The company has certified order-fulfillment cost savings of $600,000 per year and has projected annual cost savings of $2 million across the entire Walmart.com network.

Suggested Citation

  • Sanjay L. Ahire & Manoj K. Malhotra & John B. Jensen, 2015. "Carton-Mix Optimization for Walmart.com Distribution Centers," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 45(4), pages 341-357, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:45:y:2015:i:4:p:341-357
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.2015.0797
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/inte.2015.0797
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/inte.2015.0797?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fraser, Hamish J. & George, John A., 1994. "Integrated container loading software for pulp and paper industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 466-474, September.
    2. Bortfeldt, Andreas & Wäscher, Gerhard, 2013. "Constraints in container loading – A state-of-the-art review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(1), pages 1-20.
    3. M. Eric Johnson & Russell D. Meller, 2002. "Performance Analysis of Split-Case Sorting Systems," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 258-274, November.
    4. Lorenzo Brunetta & Philippe Grégoire, 2005. "A General Purpose Algorithm for Three-Dimensional Packing," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 328-338, August.
    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. Zhang, Yuankai & Lin, Wei-Hua & Huang, Minfang & Hu, Xiangpei, 2021. "Multi-warehouse package consolidation for split orders in online retailing," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 289(3), pages 1040-1055.

    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. Bortfeldt, Andreas & Wäscher, Gerhard, 2013. "Constraints in container loading – A state-of-the-art review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(1), pages 1-20.
    2. Vélez-Gallego, Mario C. & Teran-Somohano, Alejandro & Smith, Alice E., 2020. "Minimizing late deliveries in a truck loading problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 286(3), pages 919-928.
    3. Carlos A. Vega-Mejía & Jairo R. Montoya-Torres & Sardar M. N. Islam, 2019. "Consideration of triple bottom line objectives for sustainability in the optimization of vehicle routing and loading operations: a systematic literature review," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 273(1), pages 311-375, February.
    4. Jung, Seung Hwan & Yang, Yunsi, 2023. "On the value of operational flexibility in the trailer shipment and assignment problem: Data-driven approaches and reinforcement learning," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    5. Lehnfeld, Jana & Knust, Sigrid, 2014. "Loading, unloading and premarshalling of stacks in storage areas: Survey and classification," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 239(2), pages 297-312.
    6. Nils Boysen & Stefan Fedtke & Felix Weidinger, 2017. "Truck Scheduling in the Postal Service Industry," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(2), pages 723-736, May.
    7. Männel, Dirk & Bortfeldt, Andreas, 2018. "Solving the pickup and delivery problem with three-dimensional loading constraints and reloading ban," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 264(1), pages 119-137.
    8. Maud Bay & Yves Crama & Yves Langer & Philippe Rigo, 2010. "Space and time allocation in a shipyard assembly hall," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 57-76, September.
    9. Bonet Filella, Guillem & Trivella, Alessio & Corman, Francesco, 2023. "Modeling soft unloading constraints in the multi-drop container loading problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(1), pages 336-352.
    10. W Q Huang & Y Li & H Akeb & C M Li, 2005. "Greedy algorithms for packing unequal circles into a rectangular container," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(5), pages 539-548, May.
    11. Cherkesly, Marilène & Gschwind, Timo, 2022. "The pickup and delivery problem with time windows, multiple stacks, and handling operations," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 301(2), pages 647-666.
    12. Bortfeldt, Andreas & Yi, Junmin, 2020. "The Split Delivery Vehicle Routing Problem with three-dimensional loading constraints," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 282(2), pages 545-558.
    13. Manuel V. C. Vieira & Margarida Carvalho, 2023. "Lexicographic optimization for the multi-container loading problem with open dimensions for a shoe manufacturer," 4OR, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 491-512, September.
    14. Lurkin, Virginie & Schyns, Michaël, 2015. "The Airline Container Loading Problem with pickup and delivery," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 244(3), pages 955-965.
    15. Sheng, Liu & Hongxia, Zhao & Xisong, Dong & Changjian, Cheng, 2016. "A heuristic algorithm for container loading of pallets with infill boxes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 252(3), pages 728-736.
    16. T. Kubach & A. Bortfeldt & H. Gehring, 2009. "Parallel greedy algorithms for packing unequal circles into a strip or a rectangle," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 17(4), pages 461-477, December.
    17. Novas, Juan M. & Ramello, Juan Ignacio & Rodríguez, María Analía, 2020. "Generalized disjunctive programming models for the truck loading problem: A case study from the non-alcoholic beverages industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    18. Martin Grunewald & Thomas Volling & Christoph Müller & Thomas S. Spengler, 2018. "Multi-item single-source ordering with detailed consideration of transportation capacities," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(7), pages 971-1007, September.
    19. Fu, Zhanghua & Huang, Wenqi & Lü, Zhipeng, 2013. "Iterated tabu search for the circular open dimension problem," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 236-243.
    20. Brandt, Felix & Nickel, Stefan, 2019. "The air cargo load planning problem - a consolidated problem definition and literature review on related problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 275(2), pages 399-410.

    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:inm:orinte:v:45:y:2015:i:4:p:341-357. 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: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    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.