Improving order-picking operations with precedence constraints through efficient storage location assignment: Evidence from a retail company

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2021

Authors

Trindade, MAM (Author) Other; Sousa, PSA (Author) FEP; Moreira, MRA (Author) FEP

Journal

Title: U.Porto Journal of Engineering

Vol. 7

Pages: 34-52

Publisher: Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia

Indexing

Scopus - 8 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00T-TZ1

DOI: 10.24840/2183-6493_007.003_0004

Abstract (EN): This paper is inspired by a manual picking retail company where shape and weight constraints affect the order-picking process. We proposed an alternative clustering similarity index that considers the similarity, the weight and the shape of products. This similarity index was further incorporated in a storage allocation heuristic procedure to set the location of the products. We test the procedure in a retail company that supplies over 191 stores, in Northern Portugal. When comparing the strategy currently used in the company with this procedure, we found out that our approach enabled a reduction of up to 40% on the picking distance; a percentage of improvement that is 32% higher than the one achieved by applying the Jaccard index, a similarity index commonly used in the literature. This allows warehouses to save time and work faster.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific