E-commerce warehouse layout optimization: systematic layout planning using a genetic algorithm

Xiulian Hu () and Yi-Fei Chuang ()
Additional contact information
Xiulian Hu: Fuzhou University of International Studies and Trade
Yi-Fei Chuang: Ming Chuan University

Electronic Commerce Research, 2023, vol. 23, issue 1, No 5, 97-114

Abstract: Abstract China has witnessed a rapid growth in e-commerce in recent years, particularly after the introduction of mobile Internet. The growth of logistics applications has led to the need for effective logistics operations. To facilitate this, the sorting efficiency of goods in a warehouse has to be high. As an important node connecting the central warehouse and the distribution website in the e-commerce supply chain, the warehouse belonging to an e-commerce business is crucial as the sorting efficiency of goods depends on the layout of the warehouse. The purpose of this article is to optimize the layout of e-commerce warehouses and improve sorting efficiency. First, the comprehensive interrelationship of functional areas is obtained employing a systematic layout planning method. Then, a nonlinear programming model is established. The objective function is constructed with the minimum total handling cost and the maximum comprehensive relationship. Finally, a genetic algorithm is used to solve the nonlinear programming model to obtain a scientific and reasonable e-commerce warehouse layout plan. The genetic algorithm is shown to have better convergence than particle swarm optimization and simulated annealing. After re-layout, the handling cost can be considerably reduced after optimization and the fitness function optimization rate is 39.25%. Our findings shed light on the facility layout decision of e-commerce warehouse, and reduce the material handling cost of the company and improve the picking efficiency.

Keywords: Genetic algorithm; Systematic layout planning; E-commerce warehouse layout; Layout optimization; Layout design; Intelligent optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10660-021-09521-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:elcore:v:23:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s10660-021-09521-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/10660

DOI: 10.1007/s10660-021-09521-9

Access Statistics for this article

Electronic Commerce Research is currently edited by James Westland

More articles in Electronic Commerce Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().