An improved largest gap routing heuristic for order picking

The largest-gap policy is a routing heuristic for order picking systems. In this paper we develop an improved largest gap routing method. A simulation approach is used to demonstrate the superior performance of the improved largest gap routing over traditional largest gap. Moreover, this paper tests the performance impact of storage assignment rules on largest gap routings. Several scenarios with various order sizes and different item popularity proportions are tested. Monte-Carlo simulation is used to carry out the experiments. The numerical results from the computational analysis show that our improved largest gap routing always outperforms the traditional largest gap routing, i.e. for all order sizes. The effect is the most distinct when the order size is smaller. Finally the study demonstrates that the optimal storage assignment rule to be combined with largest gap routing is within-aisle storage

Using simulation to analyze picker blocking in manual order picking systems

The rise of the e-commerce practice makes the warehouses be confronted with ever smaller orders that must be met ever faster, often within a 24-h period. This pressures the order picking process as the orders pickers' workload becomes higher and higher, leading subsequently to congestion in the warehouse and impacting its productivity. It is therefore crucial to determine which order batching and picking policies enhance the performance of order picking activities. This paper carries out an intensive simulation study to examine the performance of different order picking policies with batching in a wide-aisle warehouse with a low-level picker-to-parts system. The performance of the system is measured in terms of total travelled distance, number of collisions between operators (congestion) and order lead times. A full factorial design is set up and the simulation output is statistically analyzed. The results are reported and thoroughly discussed

Toolkit for Simulation Modeling of Logistics Warehouse in Distributed Computing Environment

We address an important problem of an automation of logistics warehouses simulation modeling in distributed service-oriented computing environments. To this end, we propose new approach for adjusting management system parameters of real warehouse in production use. It is based on the integration of the conceptual, wireframe and service-oriented programming used to develop parameter sweep applications and data analysis in the simulation modeling process. We develop a toolkit for supporting modeling of warehouse logistics. The practical experiments are focused upon the refrigerated warehouse. The developed application demonstrates high efficiency and scalability for optimizing nine criteria to cope with different production demands.The study was supported by the Russian Foundation of Basic Research, projects no. 15-29-07955 and no. 16-07-00931, and Program 1.33P of fundamental research of Presidium RAS, project “Development of new approaches to creation and study of complex models of information-computational and dynamic systems with applications”

Simulation modeling of tool delivery system in a machining line

This paper describes an industrial project aiming to enhance the existing simulation modeling suites used at a car engine factory in the UK. The company continues to enhance its simulation modeling capabilities towards so called the `total plant modeling' which not only covers the production facilities but also key ancillary facilities. Tool delivery is one such ancillary process. The existing modeling practices at the company are limited to modeling tool changes and assume that tools meet their expected life and the replacement is always available. In reality, the tools are not always reaching the expected life, the facilities in the tool crib are a limiting resource and the tool inventory has to be minimized. The tool delivery system developed in this project has specific features that model how the tool crib operates, how tools are supplied to the machining lines and various operating strategie

On two-echelon inventory systems with Poisson demand and lost sales

We derive approximations for the service levels of two-echelon inventory systems with lost sales and Poisson demand. Our method is simple and accurate for a very broad range of problem instances, including cases with both high and low service levels. In contrast, existing methods only perform well for limited problem settings, or under restrictive assumptions.\u