Design of a class-based order picking system with stochastic demands and priority consideration

Jingming Liu, Haitao Liao () and John A. White
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Jingming Liu: Hebei University of Technology
Haitao Liao: University of Arkansas
John A. White: University of Arkansas

Annals of Operations Research, 2023, vol. 331, issue 2, No 13, 923-962

Abstract: Abstract An MIAPP-NALT system is an order picking system in which cases are picked at multiple in-the-aisle pick positions (MIAPP) and storage and retrieval operations are performed by a narrow aisle lift truck (NALT). In this paper, the operation of such a system involving three classes of stock keeping units with random demands for storage and retrieval operations is modeled as an M/G/1 queue, where “customers” are storage and retrieval requests, the “server” is the NALT, and retrieval requests have non-preemptive priority over storage requests. Our goal is to explore a methodology and solution method to obtain the optimal layout design of a class-based MIAPP-NALT system with stochastic demands and priority service. To this end, an operation time model of the system is developed and the first two moments for the operation time are derived. To overcome the challenge in finding the desired optimal layout, a near-optimal layout obtained via a heuristic approach is obtained at first and is improved afterwards. Based on the optimal layout, some valuable queueing results demonstrate the benefit of using a priority-based discipline. Moreover, some useful insights regarding the selection of dedicated versus random storage policies are obtained.

Keywords: Facilities planning and design; MIAPP order picking; Priority queue; General service time queue; Rectilinear travel; Class-based layout; Storage policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s10479-022-05107-2

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