A model for warehouse layout Roodbergen（仓库布局的模型Roodbergen）.pdfVIP

A model for warehouse layout KEES JAN ROODBERGEN1,∗ and IRIS F.A. VIS2 1 RSM Erasmus University, P.O. box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, De Boele- laan 1105, Room 3A-31, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands Please refer to this article as: Roodbergen, K.J. and Vis, I.F.A. (2006), A model for warehouse layout. IIE Transactions 38(10), 799-811. Abstract This paper describes an approach to determine a layout for the order picking area in warehouses, such that the average travel distance for the order pickers is minimized. We give analytical formulas by which the average length of an order picking route can be calculated for two different routing policies. The optimal layout can be determined by using such formula as an objective function in a non-linear programming model. The optimal number of aisles in an order picking area appears to depend strongly on the required storage space and the pick list size. 1 Introduction Order picking is the process by which products are retrieved from storage to satisfy customer demand. In its simplest form, an order arrives at the warehouse and an order picker is sent into the picking area with the customer’s list to retrieve the requested items from storage. Much research has been done to find methods to retrieve products from storage as efficiently as possible. The high efforts in this area are partly caused by the fact that order picking is an extremely expensive activity. Typically, the order picking contributes most to the operational costs of a warehouse (Tompkins et al., 2003). For the time required to pick an order, we can roughly distinguish three components: traveling between items, picking of items and remaining activiti