An estimation distribution algorithm for wave-picking warehouse management

Jingran Liang, Zhengning Wu, Chenye Zhu and Zhi-Hai Zhang ()
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Jingran Liang: Tsinghua University
Zhengning Wu: University of Sydney
Chenye Zhu: University of Sydney
Zhi-Hai Zhang: Tsinghua University

Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, 2022, vol. 33, issue 4, No 2, 929-942

Abstract: Abstract Recently, market has witnessed a tremendous growth in E-commerce sales, which bring tons of opportunities as well as challenges. Warehouses have to handle unique characteristics of customer orders in the era of E-commerce which consists of small order scales, large items count, unexpected irregular order arrival patterns, seasonality demand peeks, and high service level expectations. Warehouses are adopting wave-picking as an effective policy composed of item-batching, load-assignment and picker-routing problems. In this research, principle combination of load-assignment and picker-routing problems is studied. A mixed integer mathematical model is established based on features of a wave-picking warehouse. In order to conquer the complexity caused by routing decision of the proposed problem, a set of effective modified Estimation Distribution Algorithms is developed. The set of proposed algorithms is proved to have stable gaps (1% on average and maximum less than 2%) compared with Cplex 12.8, while can be solved in much larger scale within quite short time (100 pickers and 350 items in each wave within less than 2 min).

Keywords: Wave picking; Warehouse management; Load assignment problem; Picker routing problem; Estimation distribution algorithm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10845-020-01688-6

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