 The effect of order batching on a unidirectional cyclical picking line's completion timeFlora M. Hofmann and Stephan E. Visagie International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 2022, vol. 43, issue 2, 153-176 Abstract: An investigation into the effect of order batching in an order picking system that uses a unidirectional cyclical picking line forms the main focus of this paper. The three main actions of pickers are to walk, pick and prepare cartons. The total amount of work for the last two actions remains constant, rendering the minimisation of walking distance as the only objective when minimising the total picking effort. Batches are formed to minimise walking distance. The question thus arises, what is the total time saving before and after batching? This picking system is modelled with a discrete event simulation. Historical data were compared to the output of the simulation for validation of the simulation. It showed that the simulation represents the real world picking system satisfactorily. The simulation runs also show that the order batching heuristics that aim at minimising walking distance reduce the overall picking time by up to 21%. Keywords: discrete event simulation; DES; distribution centre; picker number; order batching; order picking system; pick density; picking location metrics; retail industry; route overlap metrics; unidirectional cyclical picking line. (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijlsma:v:43:y:2022:i:2:p:153-176 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd |
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