Concurrent package and warehouse design in the case of random storage policy

Strategic reasons have led companies to keeping warehouses, such as providing inventories for rapidly satisfying changeable customers demand, along with protecting against unexpected delays in the manufacturing process. However, warehouses involve costs, due to both their construction and their management. Hence, the optimal saturation of the available storage space is an important issue to be pursued. Since packages dimensions and features strictly influence pallet loading configuration, which affects warehouses capacity, in this paper an algorithm for concurrent package and warehouse design in accordance with the design for logistics principles is presented. Particularly, the case of random storage policy is considered, as a common method to manage warehouses. Finally, an application in an Italian pasta manufacturing company is presented.