A Simulation-Based Experimental Design for Analyzing Energy Consumption and Order Tardiness in Warehousing Systems

Hyun-woo Jeon (), Ahmad Ebrahimi and Ga-hyun Lee
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Hyun-woo Jeon: Department of Industrial & Management Systems Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si 17104, Republic of Korea
Ahmad Ebrahimi: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
Ga-hyun Lee: Department of Industrial & Management Systems Engineering, Kyung Hee University, Yongin-si 17104, Republic of Korea

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 20, 1-25

Abstract: For warehouses to be more sustainable and cost-effective, it is essential to consider energy consumption (EC) and order tardiness (OT) together in evaluating warehouse activities since improving both EC and OT at the same time is very demanding. While existing studies try to improve EC and OT, the current studies consider only either a reserve area or a forward area between the two major warehouse areas. Thus, this study proposes a simulation-based approach to assessing EC and OT when reserve and forward areas are considered together in one framework for different configurations of five important warehousing parameters: (i) number of forklifts, (ii) number of storage/retrieval (S/R) machines, (iii) number of automated storage/retrieval systems (AS/RS) input/output (I/O) points, (iv) order size, and (v) proportions of order flows through a reserve or forward area. In particular, we use real forklift movement and energy data for our simulation models to provide a more realistic analysis. By building the simulation model with the 2 5 full factorial experimental design, we analyze the results with analysis of variance (ANOVA). The resulting Pareto-optimal solutions show that less traffic flows through a reserve area can help improve both EC and OT while other factors have smaller or limited effects on the two responses. Also, the order flow factor has the largest effect on EC while order size has the largest effect on OT. The results from this study can help warehouse operators make informed decisions in considering and finding a trade-off between sustainability and customer satisfaction.

Keywords: energy consumption; order tardiness; simulation-based experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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