Reassigning storage locations in a warehouse to optimize the order picking process

Monika Kofler, Andreas Beham, Stefan Wagner, Michael Affenzeller, Clemens Reitinger

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingsConference contributionpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Warehouses are an essential component of the supply chain, used for buffering the material flow, stock consolidation and value-added-processing. Operation managers typically do a good job of filling their warehouse but initially assigned storage locations might become sub-optimal over time, due to seasonal fluctuations in demand, short product life cycles or high inventory levels. Fragmented storage is a particular issue in order picking environments, where the optimal storage location of a product is not only dependent on its turn-over rate but also on the storage locations of items that frequently occur in the same picking job. In practice, operations managers are forced to periodically reorganize the warehouse to keep it operating efficiently. This process is generally done manually without any decision-support tool. In this paper we introduce an optimization approach that automatically reorganized item locations. Results are evaluated using a simulation model that simulates the picking and transport processes in the warehouse.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication22th European Modeling and Simulation Symposium, EMSS 2010
Pages77-82
Number of pages6
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Event22th European Modeling and Simulation Symposium, EMSS 2010 - Fes, Morocco
Duration: 13 Oct 201015 Oct 2010

Publication series

Name22th European Modeling and Simulation Symposium, EMSS 2010

Conference

Conference22th European Modeling and Simulation Symposium, EMSS 2010
Country/TerritoryMorocco
CityFes
Period13.10.201015.10.2010

Keywords

  • Re-warehousing
  • Storage location problem
  • Warehouse simulation

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