Planning a parts-to-picker order picking system with consideration of the impact of perceived workload

Suryakant Kumar, Jiuh-Biing Sheu and Tanmoy Kundu

Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, 2023, vol. 173, issue C

Abstract: In the digital age, coordinating robots and humans is critical in e-commerce warehousing. Motivated by observed industrial practices, this study presents a queueing theory based analytical model to investigate the planning issue of robot-human coordination in a parts-to-picker warehousing system. The critical planning decisions involve finding the optimal number of robots in the warehouse, the expected number of robots at essential locations of the warehouse, and performance analysis of the order picking system. A distinctive feature of this study is the conceptualization of a human factor called perceived workload (which depends on the number of robots) in the order picking planning model for efficient order fulfillment. Our analyses interestingly suggest that deploying more robots in warehouses with a parts-to-picker system does not necessarily increase the warehousing system’s performance; instead, a trade-off exists. Additionally, the workload-dependent service rate significantly influences the robots queueing in front of the order picking station (internal queue) and the synchronization station (external queue) in the warehouse. More importantly, this work contributes to the design of a human-centric work environment for parts-to-picker order fulfillment system.

Keywords: Smart warehouses; Order picking system; Parts-to-picker; Robot-human coordination; Queueing theory; E-commerce (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1366554523000765
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transe:v:173:y:2023:i:c:s1366554523000765

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600244/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600244/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.tre.2023.103088

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review is currently edited by W. Talley

More articles in Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().