Using a TSP heuristic for routing order pickers in warehouses

Christophe Theys, Olli Bräysy, Wout Dullaert and Birger Raa

European Journal of Operational Research, 2010, vol. 200, issue 3, 755-763

Abstract: In this paper, we deal with the sequencing and routing problem of order pickers in conventional multi-parallel-aisle warehouse systems. For this NP-hard Steiner travelling salesman problem (TSP), exact algorithms only exist for warehouses with at most three cross aisles, while for other warehouse types literature provides a selection of dedicated construction heuristics. We evaluate to what extent reformulating and solving the problem as a classical TSP leads to performance improvements compared to existing dedicated heuristics. We report average savings in route distance of up to 47% when using the LKH (Lin-Kernighan-Helsgaun) TSP heuristic. Additionally, we examine if combining problem-specific solution concepts from dedicated heuristics with high-quality local search features could be useful. Lastly, we verify whether the sophistication of 'state-of-the-art' local search heuristics is necessary for routing order pickers in warehouses, or whether a subset of features suffices to generate high-quality solutions.

Keywords: Routing; Order; picking; Warehousing; Logistics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:200:y:2010:i:3:p:755-763

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