CORRELATED STORAGE ASSIGNMENT IN AN ORDER PICKING SYSTEM

In recent years the increase in time-based competition, the growth of e-commerce and the need for flexibility have put pressure on managers to reduce the costs of warehouse design, management, and control activities. This is particularly true for Order Picking Systems (OPS) which process a far higher volume of smaller orders capable of increasing operating costs considerably. A set of different innovative storage assignment rules based on a strategy of correlation between products is presented. Significance: Placing products intelligently within the system means great reductions in order picking time and costs can be made. The effectiveness of correlated assignment of products in OPSs is demonstrated by applying the proposed algorithms to an industrial case study. The obtained performance is compared to that of a randomized storage. A minimum average saving of more than 25% in traveling distances and operating logistic costs was obtained: the best performance is about 60%, based on an intelligent arrangement of items in the picking list. The results obtained and the simplicity of the proposed methods suggest they can be implemented in new industrial applications.