A U-Shaped Layout for a Manual Order Picking System

Sebastian Henn (), Sören Koch (), Harald Gerking () and Gerhard Wäscher ()
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Sebastian Henn: Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg
Sören Koch: Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg
Harald Gerking: Management Consulting
Gerhard Wäscher: Faculty of Economics and Management, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg

No 110004, FEMM Working Papers from Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management

Abstract: In manual order picking systems, order pickers walk or ride through a warehouse in order to collect items requested by customers. The performance of such a system is significantly dependent on its layout which determines the lengths of the order pickers' tours and the corresponding picking times. Whereas for classic warehouse layouts all picking aisles are arranged in parallel to each other, in the warehouse layout presented here the picking aisles are arranged around a U-shaped central aisle. This layout has been developed for order picking systems in which slow-moving items are prevalent. A new routing strategy for such a warehouse is presented and an analytical expression for the expected tour length per picking order is derived. By comparing this estimation with those of routing schemes in classic warehouse layouts, it is demonstrated in which situations such U-shaped layouts allow for operating warehouses more efficiently.

Keywords: Logistics; Warehouse Management; Order Picking; Layout; Picker Routing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2011-03
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mag:wpaper:110004

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